Ahoj! This is Zdenka. Oh hi! Yeah, this is the Zdenka. I had my photos printed
yesterday in your company and it seems like there is a little bit of a problem
with your printer. Well, the colors are not exactly the way it should be and
it's a little bit brighter. The photos should be a lot darker. The background
should be really black. Yeah. If I had my monitor calibrated? Hmm.....
Well, when I started as a photographer, I've made phone call exactly like this
and actually I got few phone calls for my clients back then which were not too
happy with their prints and I had to redo it again so I lost some money. Why?
Because my monitor was not properly calibrated and that can be a very big
problem. Lately I've been getting a lot of requests for product reviews and from
all of them I decided to accept this one because I know how important it can be
for photographers and videographers. Let's look at Datacolor Spider X elite
in great detail. Let me show you how to use it, what the positives are, what the
negatives are, if there are any, I'll find something.
For the new faces, welcome. My name is Zdenka Darula. I create photo and video
tutorials, tech reviews like this one and creative camera challenges, so if that's
something you really enjoy, then you might consider hitting the subscribe button, As
we are opening the packaging, let's explain why we should calibrate our
monitors. This device Spider X elite mounts on the monitor,
it adjusts colors, brightness and contrast, to make it consistent with
international standards. So if I send my retouched photos on my properly calibrated
monitor to few of you there, a few subscribers, for example Bene C, Violet,
Cindy, William, Jaynee and few others, then if you do have properly calibrated
monitors as well, you should be able to see the same red, the same blue, the same
colors, the same brightness, the same contrast like me. That's why we should
calibrate. Let's look at the actual product Spider X elite. When you turn it
around, you will see a cap. Remove it and you will see an optical sensor. This
sensor is placed on your monitor to read monitors colors, brightness and contrast.
There is another sensor. Ambient light sensor which measures how much light is
in your room and that is very important. My office has light which you can dim.
Sometimes during the day it is very bright. When it's sunny sometimes when
it's overcast and raining it's very dark so I have to turn the light a little bit
up or in the evening I'm turning even more light, so the light in the room is
not consistent and I noticed when I'm editing photos and videos that sometimes
during the day, the photos look different than in the evening and vice-versa.
And many times, I'm actually just wondering how the photos are really
looking like. So this ambient sensor tells the software to change the
brightness of the screen depending on the brightness of the room. There is also
quarter by twenty threat on the side so you can mount it on a small tripod to
keep it directly on your desk. Well let's grab the Spyder X elite, go to my monitor
and let's see the process. Let's calibrate it. First step you go to data
color website to download the software. They will tell you that the monitor
shall be turned on for at least 30 minutes before you begin the calibration
process. You have to make sure that no direct light is falling on your display
and reset the monitor controls to the factory default settings if possible. You
also need to deactivate any auto brightness features on your monitor. Once
you install Spyder utility software, it will stay in your system running always
active. Once you open the software you will activate your data color spider X
elite. At this point you will need to have your spider sensor plugged into
your USB port to continue. Once you finish activation, you will get two
choices. Either to calibrate the display or printer, soft proofing and mobile
tablet simulation, which will preview how images will look like on assorted
printers and mobile devices. Well, I'm going to select calibrate my display.
Here you will follow a wizard which will guide you through the calibration
process. Warm up. Have you allowed your display to warm up for half an hour,
yes. Lighting conditions. Have you checked that no intense light is falling
directly on your display screen yes. Display controls. Have you resets your
monitor settings yes. And lastly spider connection. Plug the
spider into a computer USB port not into a hub or keyboard yes. Next you will
select what type of display you are calibrating. If it is a desktop, laptop or
projector. In my case it is a desktop. Then you will identify the manufacturer
and model of your desktop display and next step identified controls and also
identify the technology used in this display. In the next step you will select
workflow. You can choose step by step assistant studio match in case you have
multiple monitors or expert console and at this point you place the spider on the
desk. Then follow steps and click Next to get through calibration process where
you need to place the spider on the monitor.
Number of steps will follow until it is finished. Then you can save this profile
and you are done. I have kept the option to have my monitor adjusted every month.
I will just leave the spider on my desk to measure the room ambient light. Super
easy and very fast. It took only 2 minutes and when it comes to negatives, I
really could not find and it to be honest maybe because there's another
item sitting on the desk, I don't know. But it does what it's supposed to do. The
link to this product is in the video description below, it is international
link so depending on the country you live in, you will see it in your currency.
Well, hit the thumbs up button if you enjoyed today's video, subscribe to all
future videos like these. If you have any questions, comments or simply want to say
hello, you can do so in a comment section below. I read it all and I always have
fun responding and I'll see all my friends in the next one. Cau.... Ahoj...