Spyder 3 Studio SR – One Stop Color Management
Posted by RustyHill - 06/02/10 at 11:02 pm
One Stop Shopping
With Spyder 3™ Studio SR, Datacolor® provides a complete color management solution with three powerful color management tools:
- SpyderCube™
- Spyder3Elite™ Colorimeter
- Spyder3Print SR™ Spectrocolorimeter
Three Steps to Perfect Color
Step 1- Camera
Proper color management starts with proper white balance and exposure. By using the 18% grey portion of one of the SpyderCube faces, a photographer establishes an accurate custom white balance ensuring an accurate image from the start of each new photo session. Highlights are checked with the shiny silver ball at the top of the SpyderCube. Exposure can be selected based on the white and portions. And the Black Trap for shadow detail control. The white and black reference values, and the Black Trap are also employed check and adjust RAW control settings in post processing.
Step 2- Monitor
When adjusting or color correcting an image on a computer monitor, it is critical that the monitor be calibrated. Without using a calibrated monitor, the photographer is just guessing when making color and exposure adjustments in post processing. The Spyder3Elite™ Colorimeter and monitor calibration software is an quick, accurate, and easy-to-use calibration tool. With just a little effort two monitors were calibrated. After calibration both monitors matched.
Step 3 – Printer
If you expect the print to look like the image on your screen, both the printer and the monitor must be calibrated. First, print the printer profiling targets with the software. Then read the targets into the software with the Spyder3Print SR™ Spectrocolorimeter. Presto, a custom printer profile specific to printer, ink and paper used is created. And soft proofing in most image editing applications is available after loading the new printer profile.
Pros:
- Powerful, yet easy to use
- Black Trap for shadow detail control
Cons:
- SpyderCube’s shape was awkward in my camera bag
System Requirements:
- Windows XP 32/64, Vista 32/64, Windows 7
- Mac OS X (10.4 or higher)
- USB Port
- Monitor Resolution 1024×768 or greater
- 16-bit video card (24-bit recommended)
- 128MB or available RAM
- 100MB of available hard disk space
Contact: Datacolor
Cost: $599.00