Blog and Website Moved
Hey everyone, I have moved my blog and created a whole new website; so click on the link and bookmark it or add it to your favorites. Be sure to come by often to it also as I will be putting new photos out there from my portrait sessions as well as personal photos of my kids.
http://www.bradjollyphotography.com
I hope you like the design of my site!
(P.S. I will not be updating this site any longer; all updates will be only on my new website.)
April 3, 2010
Here is a cute photo I took of Gracie one day as she was holding her favorite friend in the whole wide world, Rummy, her stuffed elephant. Boy, how she loves Rummy!
April 1, 2010
It’s Spring finally, what a gorgeous day it was outside today!
Fix-It-Friday #48
This week’s Fix-It-Friday contest at I Heart Faces features a cute little girl all bundled up with her winter coat and hat. You can tell that underneath the underexposed capture are bright colors and a sparkle in the girl’s eyes. I’m sure she is having fun being outside and playing in the cold with her friends. The obvious issues with the original image below are that it is both underexposed and the white balance is incorrect, too. Both of these issues play havoc with the skin tones and the colors of her clothing.
In my edited version, I corrected both the white balance and underexposure problems, and I both brightened her eyes and added a bit of punch to the colors. I hope you like my version of the edit. Be sure to check out all the other entries at I Heart Faces.
March 20, 2010
The other day Gracie had an ugly accident while riding on her Disney Princess ride-on thing. Matthew was pushing her while she was riding (and you know, big brother does not really know the meanings of the words slow or careful); so Gracie took an ugly spill on the sidewalk. I wasn’t home when this incident occurred, but when I got home from work, I saw the unfortunate scrapes on her nose and cheek….poor little thing!
Longhorns Fan
Sorry for all you ‘Bama fans out there, but if the college football national championship game were being played again, I still don’t think Gracie would be rooting for them (as evidenced in these photos below).
Review: Spyder3Express Display Calibration
Lately as I have been ordering prints from labs like Mpix.com and ColorInc, my prints have looked off; a little too green or slightly blue-green. I know that Mpix and ColorInc have their printers calibrated; so I have to assume that my computer display is not adjusted properly. Everyone will tell you that calibrating your monitor/display is not an option; if you want your prints to have accurate color tones, then you have to use a display calibration unit. The problem is that there are several manufacturers of calibration units on the market; which one should I buy? I read several reviews for the Spyder3Express from DataColor, and pretty much across the board users were very high on it and how effective it has been for them. So, I decided to go with Spyder3Express, which I purchased from Amazon for $83.96; not pocket change, but certainly not an outrageous price for something that is considered “absolutely critical” to us photographers.
Setting up the unit was literally a breeze. The instructions were super easy, and yes, I actually did read the instructions before setting it up and using it. This time I didn’t wait for it to be all messed up before I read them. 
I have an Apple iMac computer, but whether you use a Mac or Windows PC, the process should be generally the same.
The first thing I did was make sure my display was clean from any dust or finger prints. The instructions say that your display should be fully warmed up for at least 30 minutes; so I disabled any energy-saving settings that would put my display to sleep. After the 30 minutes had gone by, I installed the calibration utility software from the CD that came with the Spyder3Express. This was a super-easy installation process that fully guides you through about 3 screens of instructions. Installation on my iMac took about 2 minutes initially. Afterwards, I proceeded to launch the Spyder3Express application, which asked me to register it after I typed in the serial number on the CD sleeve. Once it was launched, it asked me if I wanted to check to see if any updates were available. I told it yes, and there was indeed an update from January that was newer than the version I just installed. After downloading the update and installing it, I then re-launched the Spyder3Express application, which asked me to acknowledge a few basic things (like the display being set to default settings, being powered on for at least 30 minutes, etc.). It then asked me to plug in the calibration unit itself into an available USB port. The calibration unit is fairly small and looks like this:
I was then was prompted to put the calibration unit on my display where an outline was pictured on the screen. I matched it up where it rested against the front of my display, held by the long USB cable that has a counterweight built into the cable to keep the unit resting in place. I then followed the prompt on my screen to continue with the calibration process, which only took 4 or 5 minutes at most. The Spyder3Express application then creates a color profile for your display and sets your computer to use that now. How easy can you get.
So to check it out, I then opened a couple of photos that I had prints made from and looked at them now after my display had been calibrated. Sure enough, these prints looked rather cool with a bluish-green tint just like my prints showed. When I had been making color corrections to photos in the past, I was not able to do so accurately; thus my prints looked different than what I was seeing on my screen. After now having my display calibrated, my colors will now show accurately, and what I see will really be what I get.
I hope this review helps you realize that photographers absolutely need a good calibration tool, and I can definitely recommend the Spyder3Express. Now go buy yours and quit guessing whether your prints will come back correct or not
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