AZ JazzyJ
<font color=teal>The Talented One<br><font color=p
- Joined
- Dec 6, 2000
I just completed a review of the Gretag MacBeth Photo One device for color calibration of digital photography workflow. For those wondering what color calibration is, it is the ability to "profile" each device in the workflow to match the representation of color. Each step in creating a picture has some color impact. If these devices describe color differently, you end up with a picture that may or may not be what you expected. The Gretag MacBeth company makes several devices that manage colors for devices ranging from monitors to scanners to printers to cameras. The Eye One Photo is designed with photographers in mind and will manage all of the devices a photographer would use to create a picture. Below is my review that was submitted.
I had been eagerly awaiting the arrival of a Gretag MacBeth Eye One device. A lot has been written about the importance of color management and its impact on the output of digital photographs. I had been reading about how these color calibration devices helped give the photographer and printer peace of mind in knowing they would get consistent results. Frankly, I was somewhat skeptical but hopefully. I had been creating prints for as long as I have owned a digital camera and while I had to occasionally reprint a few pages due to the colors not looking quite right I had chalked that up to differences in paper or ink.
I received the Eye One Photo which not only allowed color calibration of the monitor but also input and output devices such as scanners, digital cameras and printers. As I opened the box I was amazed at all the pieces contained within the small package. It was like one of those Chinese puzzle boxes where pieces moved back and forth exposing further pieces buried within the packaging. When I finished, I had filled an entire table with parts. I immediately began to worry that I would never be able to put it away again as it would take some sort of technology origami to fit everything back where it belonged. My fears were unfounded though as within the front cover of the manual showed directions for putting the Eye One back into its container. If Gretag MacBeth had been this thorough in their documentation I was confident that I would have no problem using their device. I quickly learned though that what I thought would be a comprehensive manual instead turned out to be merely 11 pages of brief descriptions and introductions. The overall manual was 55 pages but that included 6 languages. The manual was so brief that it did not even describe how to attach the calibration unit to the computer. Instead, Gretag MacBeth took an alternative route in having their tutorials and instructions placed on the included CD. The first step of the process was to install the drivers and software onto the workstation. The CD includes an AUTORUN feature that provides you with a menu of 4 software items along with their tutorials. Neither the manual nor the CD explained what each of the applications did and I ended up installing all the software just in case it was needed. It turns out that the majority of the work is done through the Eye-One Match 3 software.
The tutorials that are included on the CD are very well done and step you through everything necessary to calibrate a device. If you are one of those people who like to read and follow along while you are doing, then you are going to be disappointed. Since the monitor calibration requires full screen duties it is impossible to run the tutorial while you are doing the calibration steps. Fortunately for me, I had a second computer where I could run the tutorial while executing the steps on the first. The process is fairly straight forward for monitor calibration. Once you have gone through it, you will not need the tutorial. The steps are quite logical and if you decided to bull through the process without the tutorial you could still successfully complete the necessary tasks.
My first calibration was on a computer with a Dell 2001 FP 20 inch LCD monitor. I used the Easy method which required little interaction and within a few minutes it was complete. I had always thought this monitor to be relatively color neutral and at the conclusion of the calibration the results validated my assessment. Still, I did notice that the monitor seemed more vibrant and the color definition appeared to be cleaner. Perhaps this instrument really did have merit. To test this theory, I took the Eye-One Photo to a second computer which I had struggled with in the past. This computer had a ViewSonic A90f+ CRT monitor and although I continually tweaked the colors, contrast and brightness levels I always seemed to have problems when I printed. The blues always turned purple during printing and I would constantly have to adjust the color saturation to get the desired output. I again used the Easy method and attached the Eye-One Photo unit to the adapter for CRT monitors. This device supports LCD, CRT and Laptop monitors and has adapters to attach it to the front of each type of screen. Within a few minutes I completed the CRT calibration and was shocked at the results. I had never seen colors quite as rich or life-like as I did on this monitor. Whats more, the color was spot on between the two computer screens which is something I could never achieve before using the Eye-One.
I began to get excited at the possibilities that this device could hold. I decided to see what kind of power lay under the hood by doing an all out calibration through the advanced mode. This is much more time consuming and I found myself having to repeat steps as I went back and forth between the tutorials and help screens then moving to the computer where I was calibrating the monitor. The level of adjustment was amazing. After 30 minutes of tweaking settings on the monitor and through software I found that the photo on the screen was the exact representation of what I had seen in the viewfinder of my camera.
An interesting section of the advanced calibration utility is the ability to measure ambient light. My computers are in different rooms each with their own light challenges. One computer has task lighting to the side while another has a bright overhead light. The Eye-One unit comes with an adapter to measure not just light intensity but also light temperature. The results were shocking. I found my primary color station had lighting that was too dark and much too warm while the secondary system I found I had more than double the recommend level of light but it was more neutral in temperature than I had expected. As a result, I am now re-evaluating lighting and its impact on my ability to create consistent output without severely straining my eyes.
Once I completed calibrating every monitor in my house just to see the magnificent results it created, I set my sights on the other aspects of the package. Using the enclosed color card I proceeded to calibrate my Epson 4180 scanner. This is a relatively new device in my digital workflow and I assumed it was calibrated correctly from the factory. The Eye-One though showed differently. Using the same calibration head as is used for the monitor, the Eye-One Photo includes an adapter to scan each row of color patches on the card. After several attempts through trial and error I finally got the hang of moving the calibration head slowly from left to right while holding down the button on the side of the device. In a few minutes I had hand scanned the whole color card. I then took the card and laid it on the flatbed scanner and scanned it as a TIFF file like I would any photograph. The Color Match software then allowed me to load this TIFF file and compared it against the color patch scan I had done by hand. It then made adjustments between the two and provided me with a matched color profile to be used with the scanner. I now had two-thirds of the workflow defined.
I next turned to the most important piece, the output. Using the Color Match 3 software I began the calibration of my Epson Stylus printer. The Color Match 3 software includes several test print patterns to choose from. I selected the one suitable for RGB printing and printed the test page. Using the Eye-One calibration head with the same adapter as was used for the scanner calibration, I again hand scanned each row of color patches. When complete the Color Match 3 software created a custom color profile for the printer that matched the monitor and scanner. I printed a couple of prints going through the whole workflow and was amazed at how much easier and faster it was from start to finish to produce a print that matched what I wanted.
The Color Match 3 software will also calibrate digital cameras using a color match card but I did not attempt this. The instructions began with setting studio lights and white balance using custom cards which is not the type of photography I usually do. Most of my shots use existing lighting or are outdoor sports shots making me wonder whether this solution would fit with my style. Regardless of whether I utilized this portion or not, the Gretag MacBeth Eye-One Photo had more than exceeded my expectations. I would strongly recommend to anyone wanting true and consistent color throughout their workflow to invest in a product such as this. The results will amaze you as you spend less time adjusting colors on your prints and find the amount of scrap from reprints diminish substantially. While I would have preferred a more robust manual, the tutorials were well done to make up for the lack of printed information.
Jeff
I had been eagerly awaiting the arrival of a Gretag MacBeth Eye One device. A lot has been written about the importance of color management and its impact on the output of digital photographs. I had been reading about how these color calibration devices helped give the photographer and printer peace of mind in knowing they would get consistent results. Frankly, I was somewhat skeptical but hopefully. I had been creating prints for as long as I have owned a digital camera and while I had to occasionally reprint a few pages due to the colors not looking quite right I had chalked that up to differences in paper or ink.
I received the Eye One Photo which not only allowed color calibration of the monitor but also input and output devices such as scanners, digital cameras and printers. As I opened the box I was amazed at all the pieces contained within the small package. It was like one of those Chinese puzzle boxes where pieces moved back and forth exposing further pieces buried within the packaging. When I finished, I had filled an entire table with parts. I immediately began to worry that I would never be able to put it away again as it would take some sort of technology origami to fit everything back where it belonged. My fears were unfounded though as within the front cover of the manual showed directions for putting the Eye One back into its container. If Gretag MacBeth had been this thorough in their documentation I was confident that I would have no problem using their device. I quickly learned though that what I thought would be a comprehensive manual instead turned out to be merely 11 pages of brief descriptions and introductions. The overall manual was 55 pages but that included 6 languages. The manual was so brief that it did not even describe how to attach the calibration unit to the computer. Instead, Gretag MacBeth took an alternative route in having their tutorials and instructions placed on the included CD. The first step of the process was to install the drivers and software onto the workstation. The CD includes an AUTORUN feature that provides you with a menu of 4 software items along with their tutorials. Neither the manual nor the CD explained what each of the applications did and I ended up installing all the software just in case it was needed. It turns out that the majority of the work is done through the Eye-One Match 3 software.
The tutorials that are included on the CD are very well done and step you through everything necessary to calibrate a device. If you are one of those people who like to read and follow along while you are doing, then you are going to be disappointed. Since the monitor calibration requires full screen duties it is impossible to run the tutorial while you are doing the calibration steps. Fortunately for me, I had a second computer where I could run the tutorial while executing the steps on the first. The process is fairly straight forward for monitor calibration. Once you have gone through it, you will not need the tutorial. The steps are quite logical and if you decided to bull through the process without the tutorial you could still successfully complete the necessary tasks.
My first calibration was on a computer with a Dell 2001 FP 20 inch LCD monitor. I used the Easy method which required little interaction and within a few minutes it was complete. I had always thought this monitor to be relatively color neutral and at the conclusion of the calibration the results validated my assessment. Still, I did notice that the monitor seemed more vibrant and the color definition appeared to be cleaner. Perhaps this instrument really did have merit. To test this theory, I took the Eye-One Photo to a second computer which I had struggled with in the past. This computer had a ViewSonic A90f+ CRT monitor and although I continually tweaked the colors, contrast and brightness levels I always seemed to have problems when I printed. The blues always turned purple during printing and I would constantly have to adjust the color saturation to get the desired output. I again used the Easy method and attached the Eye-One Photo unit to the adapter for CRT monitors. This device supports LCD, CRT and Laptop monitors and has adapters to attach it to the front of each type of screen. Within a few minutes I completed the CRT calibration and was shocked at the results. I had never seen colors quite as rich or life-like as I did on this monitor. Whats more, the color was spot on between the two computer screens which is something I could never achieve before using the Eye-One.
I began to get excited at the possibilities that this device could hold. I decided to see what kind of power lay under the hood by doing an all out calibration through the advanced mode. This is much more time consuming and I found myself having to repeat steps as I went back and forth between the tutorials and help screens then moving to the computer where I was calibrating the monitor. The level of adjustment was amazing. After 30 minutes of tweaking settings on the monitor and through software I found that the photo on the screen was the exact representation of what I had seen in the viewfinder of my camera.
An interesting section of the advanced calibration utility is the ability to measure ambient light. My computers are in different rooms each with their own light challenges. One computer has task lighting to the side while another has a bright overhead light. The Eye-One unit comes with an adapter to measure not just light intensity but also light temperature. The results were shocking. I found my primary color station had lighting that was too dark and much too warm while the secondary system I found I had more than double the recommend level of light but it was more neutral in temperature than I had expected. As a result, I am now re-evaluating lighting and its impact on my ability to create consistent output without severely straining my eyes.
Once I completed calibrating every monitor in my house just to see the magnificent results it created, I set my sights on the other aspects of the package. Using the enclosed color card I proceeded to calibrate my Epson 4180 scanner. This is a relatively new device in my digital workflow and I assumed it was calibrated correctly from the factory. The Eye-One though showed differently. Using the same calibration head as is used for the monitor, the Eye-One Photo includes an adapter to scan each row of color patches on the card. After several attempts through trial and error I finally got the hang of moving the calibration head slowly from left to right while holding down the button on the side of the device. In a few minutes I had hand scanned the whole color card. I then took the card and laid it on the flatbed scanner and scanned it as a TIFF file like I would any photograph. The Color Match software then allowed me to load this TIFF file and compared it against the color patch scan I had done by hand. It then made adjustments between the two and provided me with a matched color profile to be used with the scanner. I now had two-thirds of the workflow defined.
I next turned to the most important piece, the output. Using the Color Match 3 software I began the calibration of my Epson Stylus printer. The Color Match 3 software includes several test print patterns to choose from. I selected the one suitable for RGB printing and printed the test page. Using the Eye-One calibration head with the same adapter as was used for the scanner calibration, I again hand scanned each row of color patches. When complete the Color Match 3 software created a custom color profile for the printer that matched the monitor and scanner. I printed a couple of prints going through the whole workflow and was amazed at how much easier and faster it was from start to finish to produce a print that matched what I wanted.
The Color Match 3 software will also calibrate digital cameras using a color match card but I did not attempt this. The instructions began with setting studio lights and white balance using custom cards which is not the type of photography I usually do. Most of my shots use existing lighting or are outdoor sports shots making me wonder whether this solution would fit with my style. Regardless of whether I utilized this portion or not, the Gretag MacBeth Eye-One Photo had more than exceeded my expectations. I would strongly recommend to anyone wanting true and consistent color throughout their workflow to invest in a product such as this. The results will amaze you as you spend less time adjusting colors on your prints and find the amount of scrap from reprints diminish substantially. While I would have preferred a more robust manual, the tutorials were well done to make up for the lack of printed information.
Jeff
