Spyder3 Elite calibration on Windows7/64

Calibration

When retouching, having a calibrated monitor is one of THE MOST important aspects of your workflow and setup and your monitor should go through the calibration process every so often. Every month for me but I wouldn't expect "every week" to be unreasonable. Calibration would also take place during any slack period that would allow an hour or so of computer time.

Calibration Woes

When you invest in a monitor calibration device such as the, Datacolor Spyder 3 Elite, you expect to get a few years use out of it. So, you will appreciate my dismay when, on an upgrade to Windows 7 64-bit, my Spyder just refused to work. A few days of technical "fiddling" came to no avail and so the Spyder was assigned to the "stuff" box and dust began to gather.

Calibration Revisit

During a boredom period this Christmas day (2015), the TV wasn't particularly good and nothing else was happening, I decided to have another go. Google presented two articles I hadn't seen before...

http://sabrent.com/support/knowledgebase.php?article=14

http://support.datacolor.com/index.php?/Knowledgebase/Article/View/619/0/windows7-does-not-install-spyder-driver

... that seemed to light a beacon of hope.

The Skinny

The main problem I had was Windows complaining that the Datacolor driver for the Spyder3 was not signed so, although you could install it fine, it would not load when you plugged in the Spyder3. I will now outline how I got past this and, although i cannot guarantee this will work for you, it worked fine for me.

As follows ....

AS ALWAYS, make sure you have installed the latest Spyder3 software from the Datacolor website. It is 4.0.2 at the time of the article.

Go to Start Menu and type "cmd.exe" in the Search Bar and press <Enter>. (Remember you must be logged on as Administrator)

OR you can go to "All Programs", then "Accessories", right-click on "Command Prompt" and choose "Run as administrator".

1. Now type the following and press <Enter> after each line:

bcdedit.exe -set loadoptions DDISABLE_INTEGRITY_CHECKS

bcdedit.exe -set TESTSIGNING ON

2. Restart your computer

3. This will disable your Windows 7 driver signing.

You now need to re-assign the driver to the Spyder3. This may seem convoluted but it worsk so just follow along ....

Plug the Spyder3 into a USB port attached to the main body of your computer (NOT a USB hub, keyboard or monitor)

The message "Device driver software was not successfully installed" may appear. Then the Program Compatibility Assistant may appear and say:
"A recently installed program tried to install an unsigned driver"

Close these messages.

* Open Device Manager control panel
* "Datacolor Spyder3" will be listed under "Universal Serial Bus Controllers" with yellow triangle badge
* Right-click and select "Uninstall"
* "Confirm Device Uninstall" dialog will appear
* Mark the checkbox "Delete the driver software for this device"
* OK

* Unplug the Spyder
* Plug the Spyder back in

* Driver Software Installation will run and fail
* "Datacolor Spyder3" will be listed under "Other devices" with yellow triangle badge

* Right-click and select "Update Driver Software"
* Click on "Browse my computer for driver software"
* Under "Search for driver software in this location" click "Browse"

* Navigate to
* Computer -> Local Disk (C:) -> Program Files (x86) -> Datacolor -> Spyder3 Driver
* Be sure that "Spyder3 Driver" is highlighted
* Do not highlight any folder inside "Spyder3 Driver"
* click OK
* click Next

* Driver software will install
* "Windows has successfully updated your driver software"



You should now be able to successfully start up the Datacolor calibration utility that will now find your Spyder3 calibration device. Hurrah!

One more thing, you probably noticed a "Test Mode" notice bottom left of your monitor, to get ris of this open up a command prompt, as you did at the beginning, as administrator and issue the following command ...

bcdedit.exe -set TESTSIGNING OFF

Now reboot your machine.

Happy calibrating.



(Note: if all of this still fails there is still another, less elegant but nonetheless workable technique to get your Spyder3 working with 3rd party Argyll drivers for the Spyder. I used this for a while. It is outlined here ....

http://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/50454217 )

Mastering the Exposure Triangle for Newbies

When I first got my digital camera, words like Aperture and ISO were foreign to me, and it took me a couple of weeks of reading and studying a lot before the lightbulb turned on in my head. You might be feeling a little confused, and you may even feel like you will never get your camera […]

Source: Mastering the Exposure Triangle for Newbies

TUTORIALS - FINE ART BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOGRAPHY - (en)VISIONOGRAPHY -Black and White Fine Art Photography | Julia Anna Gospodarou

You will find here a selection of my essential guides and tutorials - fine art black and white photography, (en)Visionography, architectural photography, long exposure photography, and my original black and white processing method Photography Drawing (PhtD) that introduces a new way of seeing and working with light and shapes, a new way of processing black and white photographs, based on techniques that are used in art and in classical artistic drawing. This space will be constantly updated and enriched, so keep an eye on it for new tutorials and useful tips and tricks for fine art photography.

Source: TUTORIALS - FINE ART BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOGRAPHY - (en)VISIONOGRAPHY - Black and White Fine Art Photography | Julia Anna Gospodarou

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Source: 5 Steps to Rock the Brenizer Method

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Source: Digital Asset Workflows for Low-to High-Volume Studios with Laurin Thienes - Behind the Shutter

Street Wanderings - urban photography

Curves

Winter is the right time for Street Photography

With the onset of wet wintry days I have become interested in a genre of photography I haven't really entered into before. Street.

I have seen many, many examples of cracking street imagery abounding on various social media streams and recently took the decision to "get into it" more seriously.

Inspiration

A lot of photographers will quote Henri Cartier-Bresson as an inspiration when entering into this arena of modern urban photography. I like his imagery, it seems to transcend the "street" label it was produced under and becomes, at a base level, high contrast "shapes" that just work.

To this end, Jill and I took a wander through Newcastle-upon-Tyne to see if we couldn't start to train our eye to look for street situations to photograph.

It was, indeed, raining but we managed to dodge in and out of the weather at various places (thank-you Starbucks, Costa etc). The good side is the weather had produced skies with character and sometimes wet pavements, things that add up to good mono shots.

A good day out was had and, by the end, we both felt we had picked up some sort of "eye" for an urban shot. It;s needs a lot of training and we missed many a shot where we found ourselves standing watching a situation instead of shooting it. For instance, two bar staff trying to fit a huge wicker reindeer into the back of a small van that really just WAS NOT going to fit.

We came back with a couple of hundred shots that we whittled down to 40-ish.

If you would like to browse the results check out our Flickr Album of Street Photography

The following images were a result...

The Prisoner

Cathedral

Ganesha Watches

Hops Religion

Steps

Sweep

Nests and Poo

Millennium Photo

Cheese