I can type Chinese but it's too slow for me. So allow me to type it in English here.
(1) Both the monitors and printers need to be calibrated. For this reason, you should isolate the problems by dealing with the monitor first. Calibrating a printer is a lot harder and not worthwhile as the printing cost is so cheap now (costco printing 17cents each 4x6). Most people would rather like to use a printer shop for this reason. In my case, I use the cheap Costco service (talk about that later).
(2) I have done some homework before. My understanding is that Spider II is good but weak in handling the highlight details (like details in a bride's white dress). Spider III is better but a little more expensive than Spider II.
Xrite's Eye1-Display2 monitor calibrator has very good review (the higher end models are used by the professionals) and is priced reasonably around $200 when I bought mine at "Norman Camera" at around $175 about 6 months ago. I just check it and it's now $199.
(3) If using Costco, you may find that the printouts may have a little red color cast/mood and darker than what you would see on the calibrated screen (calibrated to color temperature = 6500K and brightness/luminence = 120, Gamma=2.2). At least, Costco printing is calibrated to a high standard and therefore is CONSISTENT. So if you print you calibrated photos at Costco, you may want to increase the luminence and contrast a little bit (say 5 to 10%) beyond what you would like to see on the LCD screen.
(4) Even if you monitor has the RGB control buttons and preset color temperatures, there is a 98% chance that the preset temperature will not be accurate and you will not be able to calibrate your monitor properly by hand (with your best eyes and best color reference tools) because the software can compensate/adjust a lot more in software beyond the physical control knobs you have on the screen. If you ever try to manually calibrate the monitor using Eye1-Display2 (the first step in doing a detailed adjustment), you will see how hard it's to control the RGB to balance out these colors. Trying to adjust a Gamma=2.2? Impossible to achieve in most LCD monitors (I don't know anything about the expensive professional monitors but I have played with several consumer LCD screen and CRT monitors). The sw that comes with the calibrator will do that for you fairly accurately. Of course, the Spider should do it well too.
(5) To eliminate all uncontrollable/unknown factors, it's suggested that you eliminate the following factors in handling your photos first and then slowly test/play/evaluate each eliminated factor one at a time (after you can properly calibrated the monitor and confirmed the result).
(a) Use only sRGB format in shooting and post editing.
(b) Consider using Costco printing to get rid of printing variables. Be sure to specify on the order "NO Brightness/Color Adjustment" to ensure you get consistent result (I have printed the same photos at various Costco: Alhambra, Montebello, Hawthorn and they all came out consistently the same).
(c) Now play with your Spider. But please search online to understand why the standard (120 for luminence, 2.2 for gamma, 6400-6500K for color temperature) is used. After the calibration, be sure to confirm that the final number match closely the above values.
Info:
http://www.drycreekphoto.com/Learn/moni ... _tools.htmhttp://www.northlight-images.co.uk/revi ... lay_2.htmlhttp://www.pcworld.com/shopping/reviews ... views.htmlhttp://www.northlight-images.co.uk/arti ... r2pro.htmlNorman Camera (look for the one marked Xrite (later version) instead of Pantone (early version))
http://www.normancamera.com/product-exe ... t_SoftwareGood luck and hope this can help.
Paul Cao
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等有了好的再去专业店印。
