I've been out of the blogging business for much too long.  I had issues with the accuracy of my prints and my monitor's calibration.  Since I only want to add high quality prints to my site, I had to wait until I got the issues resolved.  Then came a long vacation to Maine and New Hampshire followed by a great fall season in the Smokys, western North Carolina and north Georgia.  

But I have my calibration issues resolved so I can try to get back on top of adding posts on a regular basis.

In this post I want to briefly talk about how vital it is to have your monitor properly color calibrated.  Have you ever sent one of your beautiful photos to print being so anxious to proudly display it only to get it back and be so disappointed with the result?  Was it too dark and lifeless?  It's not the photo or the printing facility, it's your monitor.  Generally, any reputable external printing business, e.g., AdoramaPix or Black River Imaging, use a standard color calibration.  I won't begin to discuss all the science behind it as it's over my head.  But let's just say you have to match your monitor's color scheme to the printer you're going to use.

I was very fortunate in that a member of our camera club had a photo printing business and knew a lot about the issue.  With his help we were able to successfully calibrate my monitor again.  Generally, monitor calibration is very easy and straightforward but my prints were still not coming back the way I like them.  So in the end, I still have to raise the exposure about .8 stops and add a touch for vibrance and saturation.

I use the Spyder 4 Elite colorimeter from Datacolor.  This isn't the latest version but it still works for me.  This model is no longer available and has been replaced with the Spyder5PRO.  Search for it on Amazon.  Price is $148.  It will be the smartest $148 you'll spend.  Before buying, look at videos on YouTube to learn more about it.