spyder4pro macbook pro retina

[midouban]

Hello!

Is there anyone who has calibrated their macbook pro retina with the spyder4pro? If so, i have got a few questions. (just bought the spyder4pro and this is my first calibration ever)

1)Is the app really not retina optimised or have i done something wrong? (using the latest 4.5.6 from their website on mavericks)

2)All the videos I have seen on youtube, under calibration you choose ReCal, CheckCal or FullCal. Then there is the "Ambient Light" reading and then "Place the device". However I do not have this "Ambient Light step". Again, something wrong with me or has this step been somewhat removed from the latest software?

3) How to accurately setup the brightness on the laptop? From all the videos I have seen people choose the cd/m2 (90, 120 etc), yet for the macbook pro it only asked me to "adjust comfortable brightness for me".... I dont think this is quite accurate. So how do I accurately adjust the brightness on the rmbp?

4)I think the colours after calibration look fine, less blacks, slightly less contrast. However i feel like everything is slightly pink. My eyes have of course already adjusted and when i switch to the normal apple profile it looks too greenish. Is this normal?

Any help will be greatly appreciated!

 

[Pakaku]

4)I think the colours after calibration look fine, less blacks, slightly less contrast. However i feel like everything is slightly pink. My eyes have of course already adjusted and when i switch to the normal apple profile it looks too greenish. Is this normal?

You could try printing a colour sheet and compare that to your screen...

 

[Apple fanboy]

I have used the Spyder4 products, but not for over a year. I'll try and remember what I can.

First of all don't use the ambient light control. For colour accuracy you want to control the light in the room, not have a sensor adjust the lighting as it thinks best. Think of it like your camera. Do you choose the settings or do you leave it in auto and have the sensor decide?

Are you using it in advance operation or easy? Also with Mavericks only just out, it might not be fully compatible yet. In the UK Datacolor have a free phone number. Might be worth giving them a call.

Lastly our eyes get used to seeing things a certain way that's why the colour cast you are seeing as you flick between profiles is so noticeable. The important thing is the colours are accurate and then your eyes can get used to it. Have you looked at a Spyder checker? Might give you confidence in your screen profiles.

 

[thekev]

Part of the problem is that color management documentation often provides only a fraction of the information. I'm not going into a full lesson on reference colorspaces or anything like that, but I would like to mention a few details.

First off these recommendations were meant to be sustainable brightness levels that could be hit by lcd displays. I don't want to go into reference settings for broadcast or print or whatever. It's too big of a topic. If you want minimal interference, work in the dark, literally. At that point there isn't any interference. Appropriate brightness settings for photography are generally relative to what allows you to match a print viewed under a viewing table with a color balanced light source to the same image as seen on your display. The 90 and 120 are basically ballpark ranges, and they make assumptions. If you are not going to be viewing prints alongside it, I suggest around 100cd/m**2. If you turn it up too high, you're likely to add too much contrast trying to make blacks look black on screen, and you're likely to make things too dark overall. The workflows for video are totally different. I'm not going into an explanation of rgb parades or anything of that sort.

As for settings, I suggest you do not keep it at max brightness. Displays lose brightness over time. If you have to set it to maximum today, it won't be maintainable. I would suggest you work under consistent lighting if possible to minimize changes in the influence of lighting. Working in the dark is ideal, but it isn't pleasant. I would suggest just using native white point on the display. It should be close enough to D65, and using a profile adjustment to tweak output is absolutely not an exact science. It's what you're doing though. No software has low level access to that lcd hardware. It just changes the message sent to the framebuffer, so all corrections are done in a very indirect manner.

I want to add, remember that displays aren't 100% uniform in color or luminance values. The spyder can't do anything about that.

First of all don't use the ambient light control. For colour accuracy you want to control the light in the room, not have a sensor adjust the lighting as it thinks best. Think of it like your camera. Do you choose the settings or do you leave it in auto and have the sensor decide?

The only way you can completely eliminate the influence is by working in the dark. There really is no other way. My print reference point remains valid though, because you're attempting to match the appearance of illuminated paper. It's not a perfect solution. Obviously on a glossy paper, a highlight with specular appearance will appear much brighter due to the collimated effect there. It's not exactly collimation, but I can't think of a better term or the correct one.

 

[midouban]

Thanks for the all the answers and explanations!


Turns out the "ambient light check" is off (not recommended for laptops), it appeared straight away when trying to calibrate my external monitor.

Calibrated my rmbp and used the spyder4pro to detect the cd/m2 - since there are 16 bars for brightness adjustment, it can either be 90 or 111, so im gonna go for the 90 when editing, better to make them slightly brighter than add too much contrast/blacks and hide details.

If there are other people out there doing the same thing, share your settings

 

[evilzardoz]

Hi,

I've had similar issues with a Spyder 3 - and am currently looking at other calibration options. I've tried two different LG and two different Samsung 15" Retina panels - one Samsung display had a more correct (warm) colour temperature and the rest were a very cold, magenta/pink tint.

I found that on my Spider 3, the warm display ended up pink as well - but it calibrated in a near identical fashion to the other Samsung panel, which suggests to me that the Spyder 3 is reading the backlight of the LCD whitepoint incorrectly.

I don't get an issue this severe with my Thunderbolt display - but it's still an issue there compared to my CCFL panels which calibrate almost identically with each other.

Where to from here? Looking at other calibration sensors. I haven't heard anything exceptional regarding the Spyder 4 vs the 3.

 

[Apple fanboy]

Hi,

I've had similar issues with a Spyder 3 - and am currently looking at other calibration options. I've tried two different LG and two different Samsung 15" Retina panels - one Samsung display had a more correct (warm) colour temperature and the rest were a very cold, magenta/pink tint.

I found that on my Spider 3, the warm display ended up pink as well - but it calibrated in a near identical fashion to the other Samsung panel, which suggests to me that the Spyder 3 is reading the backlight of the LCD whitepoint incorrectly.

I don't get an issue this severe with my Thunderbolt display - but it's still an issue there compared to my CCFL panels which calibrate almost identically with each other.

Where to from here? Looking at other calibration sensors. I haven't heard anything exceptional regarding the Spyder 4 vs the 3.

The Xrite i1 Display pro would be my recommendation. It does a better job than the Spyder because it measures more colours. I also find the software a little more user friendly.

 

[Andyhayball]

I use the Spyder 4 Pro with great success. Any questions and I can sure help.

 

[thekev]

The Xrite i1 Display pro would be my recommendation. It does a better job than the Spyder because it measures more colours. I also find the software a little more user friendly.

Spyder only really became popular because X-rite's products were all outdated when Datacolor was shipping their Spyder 3.

 

[John McInnes]

MBPR and Spyder4

I, and several others, have had issues with the Retina's calibration. I have written about it here
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4990358 and that post contains links to a couple of similar reports.

The problem seems to me to be with the MBPR display. By default it has very high contrast which clips highlights and blocks up shadows. This isn't a great photo but look at the 5th row from the top, and the whites 230 243 and 255.

Since I wrote in the above thread I reproduced the behaviour and identified what made my screen come good.
1. I plugged in my TV using HDMI.
2. In System Preferences I selected Displays and then the Colour LCD window [the other one that pops up pertains to the external display]/"Display" tab/"best for external display" radio button.
3. At this point the exaggerated contrast on the MBPR display ceased, and all squares on the colour checker became distinguishable from each other.
4. Even after unplugging the TV the macbook screen retained its newfound normal response.
5. After a restart it went back to its high-contrast chicanery.
6. Repeating 1 to 4 produced the same result as it had before.

 

[ChrisA]

You could try printing a colour sheet and compare that to your screen...

Then you have to wonder

1) Is the mismatch caused bu the screen or the printer? How to know?
2) How do you fix a problem?

Doing the compare might tell you something needs fixing but not what needs fixing or how to fix it.

Worse is that people do color correction so they can send their files to OTHER people and know the colts are OK. It does you no good to have messed up filed and a mess-up printer that just by luck happen to cancel.

Maybe you want to send the file to a printing service who has a color calibrated printer. You had better proof them on a color calibrated monitor.

 

[Pakaku]

Then you have to wonder

1) Is the mismatch caused bu the screen or the printer? How to know?
2) How do you fix a problem?

Doing the compare might tell you something needs fixing but not what needs fixing or how to fix it.

Worse is that people do color correction so they can send their files to OTHER people and know the colts are OK. It does you no good to have messed up filed and a mess-up printer that just by luck happen to cancel.

Maybe you want to send the file to a printing service who has a color calibrated printer. You had better proof them on a color calibrated monitor.

The reason you calibrate a screen is so that the printer matches what colours are on the screen. So you always calibrate the screen for the output.

Sending it to a place with a calibrated printer? You'll still need to calibrate your screen to match the printer.

If you're sending calibration info to someone else, chances are you've already done so on your own machine, but even that can be misleading since it still depends on their printer output in the end.