Datacolor Spyder Checkr Photo – Color Correction the easy way

Introduction

As photographers, especially the ones professionally working in the industry, we know all too well how important accurate color is. Whether you are a portrait, fashion or travel photographer, preserving the original color from your subject to the final image is key to creating consistent and professional results on a regular basis.

Most of us use display calibrators, like the Spyder X, to make sure our screens show accurate color. And while this is a very important step in the right direction, the initial problem with color accuracy starts right at the beginning of our creative process: When capturing the image with our cameras and lenses. Each camera-lens combination has different characteristics when it comes to capturing and processing color, leading to more or less inconsistent results.

Furthermore, most of us use a wide variety of systems and lenses across different manufactures. This adds even further to the difficulty of harmonising end results throughout a photographer’s workflow. And while editing software, like i.e. Adobe Lightroom, tries its best to come up with own color presets, it usually only does a mediocre job. This can lead to a lot of inconsistencies when shooting the same scene or subject on different systems and trying to adjust these imbalances in post can be a very frustrating and time consuming process. Even with trying your best, things never feel quite right.

In the past, photographers had to solve this by carrying large color charts with them, in order to take reference images followed by a cumbersome process to calibrate their systems in post production. Thankfully, Datacolor came up with a travel friendly and straight-forward all-in-one solution to finally solve this problem: The Datacolor Spyder Checkr Photo.

Datacolor Spyder Checkr Photo

The Spyder Checkr Photo packaging consists of a rugged casing, including different color and grey balance swatches, as well as a registration key for the Spyder Checkr software, which you have to download from their website. The software lets you create color presets for every camera-lens combination, to be used within your favourite choice of editing software, like Adobe Lightroom or Photoshop.

Datacolor Spyder Checkr packaging

The packaging is quite clean and contains straight-forward instructions

Here are some of the key specifications as well as requirements to run the software on your computer system:

• Four interchangeable target color cards
• Cards are made from 78% bamboo, a renewable resource for paper
• Ultra-matte finish on long-lasting, ink-printed, museum-quality paper cards
• Spyder Checkr Photo case
• Lanyard
• Software download link and software serial number provided
• Windows 7 32/64, Windows 8.0, 8.1 32/64, Windows 10 32/64
• Mac OS X 10.7 or higher
• Monitor Resolution 1280×768 or greater
• 16-bit video card (24 recommended)
• 1 GB of available RAM
• 500 MB of available hard disk space
• Internet access for product activation

First impressions – Build Quality & Ergonomics

The Datacolor Spyder Checkr Photo casing feels very rugged and well built. The first thing I noticed right away, is how tiny the overall product is. And by tiny I mean it can easily fit somewhere in your camera bag or pocket, without taking away any space at all. This is a huge plus for bringing the Spydder Checkr Photo along with you on every shoot. Being a travel photographer myself, small size and light weight of my gear are two very important key factors and I’m happy to see that Datacolor took care of it and designed the Spyder Checkr Photo really compact. Furthermore, there is a lanyard included as well, which can be attached to the casing. This way you’ll be able to wear the device around your neck for quick access on set whenever you like.

Let’s face it: Nothing is worse than buying a product for the purpose of improving your photography but you end up leaving it at home because of size or weight. Well, let me assure you, that Datacolor did a great job here to make sure this won’t happen. You’ll be happy to use the Spyder Checkr Photo whenever you need accurate color for your important client work of personal projects, no matter the situation.

Nice and clean design of the Spyder Checkr Photo

A robust button on the side keeps everything in place

Pressing the small button on the right side of the casing unfolds two different pages, one of them holding the color cards, the other one including both of the grey scaled cards, which can be used for setting up correct White Balance in your camera. Each of these cards can be replaced by new ones or other types, which might be introduced by Datacolor in the future, to make the Checkr Photo even more versatile.

Spyder Checkr Photo’s 48-swatch color grid

Spyder Checkr Photo’s grey cards for White Balance setup

The hinges on the outside of the casing just have the right amount of resistance, so that a user can decide to put the open casing flat on the ground or angle it as desired for a reference shot. I tried different angles and everything felt stable and nicely balanced at all times. Good job Datacolor!

The hinges keep the device in a perfectly aligned 90 degrees angle

Overall, the Datacolor Spyder Checkr Photo is very well designed and should last many years when taking care of it. The small form factor is absolutely amazing and should be very appealing to many photographers, who are looking for a professional yet mobile solution to manage color accuracy across their systems, no matter the location.

Ease of Use – Getting started

As mentioned above, the Datacolor Spyder Checkr Photo consists of two main parts, the the physical casing with the cards as well as the software part, which you need to download, based on the instructions included in the packaging. So let’s have a closer look at both and how to actually use the Spyder Checkr Photo solution to calibrate your camera systems.

Step 1 – During the photo shoot

The physical product is very easy to use. When on a shoot, just open the Checkr Photo casing to reveal the color cards. Place it on a surface, hold it in front of your lens or simply let your model hold it for you.

Holding the Checkr Photo for a reference shot

Putting the Checkr Photo on a surface for a reference shot

Take a so called reference shot with your specific camera lens combination under the light conditions you plan to fulfil the shooting. The reference image is nothing more than a photo, which includes the Spyder Checkr Photo’s 48-swatch color grid in it and you’re done. See the images above for an example.

Once you took the reference shots with your desired camera-lens combo, you can start with your actual photo shooting like you always do. Everything else to create the profiles will happen afterwards, when using the software side of things.

Pro tip: It makes sense to take the reference shots near the beginning of your shoot and any time you change to a new lens, camera, or light combination.

Step 2 – Before you start editing

Once you’re done with your shooting and start working on your images, there are a couple of things you need to do beforehand, in order to create a color corrected preset for a given camera-lens combination.

First, you need to crop down the reference image, that you took during the photo shoot (Step 1). Make sure to crop it until it is just showing the Spyder Checkr Photo color grid. You can do this in your usual photo editing software, like Adobe Lightroom. Kindly see the example below.

Open the reference shot in Adobe Lightroom

Crop the reference shot accordingly

After cropping, kindly adjust the white balance of either white, 20% grey and the black square. You adjust until white is roughly 90% on the histogram and black is approximately 4%. You can check the percentages below the histogram, while hovering over the squares. Kindly see the screenshot below for further details.

Adjust the white balance as well as white and black distribution levels

Finally, you need to export it as TIFF and load it into the Datacolor software. So let’s see how that works!

Export settings for the reference shots

Step 3 – Creating color profiles in Datacolor’s Checkr software

Like I said above, Datacolor’s Spyder Checkr software is where all the magic happens. First you need to download and install the Spyder Checkr software on your computer. Once installed, you’ll be asked to activate the software by entering the serial number, which is included in the packaging.

Download the software from Datacolor’s website

Activation of the software

Enter the serial number included in the packaging

Once done, you need to head over to the settings and change the mode to Spyder Checkr Photo, so that the software will show you the correct overlay. See below for further information.

Change the mode in settings to Spyder Checkr Photo

After you changed the mode, you can import one of the .tiff files that you exported from Lightroom in the prior step. The software will place calibrated target samples in each of the color squares on the photo. This usually works pretty reliable but you can always resize them to your needs, to align them perfectly in the center of each square. See the following screenshots for further details.

Import the tiff file

Re-align the target samples if needed

Choose your mode and location before saving

Once everything is aligned, you need to choose your mode, which can either be Saturation, Colorimetric or Portrait, based on the kind of photo shoot you did.

Here is what Datacolor states regarding these modes:

Colorimetric Mode:
provides the most literal results. Best when attempting to reproduce artwork and color critical work.

Saturation Mode:
provides a boost in Saturation. Offers results that are generally more pleasing for many types of images.

Portrait Mode:
selectively reduces the color saturation of skin tone components to make portrait processing easier.

The effects of these modes can be subtle, the amount of change to your image depends on the color accuracy of your camera’s sensor and color neutrality of a particular lens.

After choosing your mode, you have to specify where the profile should be saved at. For most photographers this will be Adobe Lightroom. Once chosen, you can click on Save Calibration and you’re done with creating a calibrated profile for a specific camera-lens combination. Repeat these steps for every further profile. The next time you launch your editing software, the color profiles will be available automatically. In case of Adobe Lightroom that’s within the develop module.

Pro tip: Make sure to name it a meaningful way, especially if you create several different profiles. This way you won’t get confused later on.

Give the preset a meaningful name

The profile got saved to Adobe Lightroom

Step 4 – Back to the editing software

Open up your editing software (in my case Adobe Lightroom) and the created profiles will be available within the Presets section, under sub category User Presets, as shown in the screenshot below. Again, it is important that you name each profile individually, based on your camera-lens combo in a way that makes sense to you. The more profiles you create the more important it is to keep everything well structured.

Datacolor’s color profiles are available in the User Presets section of Adobe Lightroom

Once you start editing in Lightroom, you can just hover over the desired profile to get a quick preview of it on the photo. If you like it, just click on the profile to apply it. The HSL panel sliders will get adjusted automatically by each profile and your image will reflect the most accurate color possible. The example below shows an image with and without the Spyder Checkr Photo profile applied. You will notice the very subtle but recognisable changes in color, especially in the warmer tonality.

Comparing a photo with and without a profile applied

Testing the Spyder Checkr Photo – A real life scenario

Going for a walk

Using a product in a very controlled environment for testing purposes can be fun for a very first impression, though it doesn’t mean much when it comes to daily business as a photographer. A lot of tools and gadgets sound nice on paper but once you start really using them and relying on their features, quite often you’ll get hit with a reality check, ending up in not liking the user experience at all.

Furthermore, as a travel photographer I’m usually not working in a studio, where one can make sure everything is set up correctly. So I really wanted to make sure that the Spyder Checkr Photo delivers what Datacolor promises with their marketing, even in an uncontrolled environment. Hence I decided to visit some of my favourite locations in my home city Berlin. As the fall season started recently, this should make up for some nice colors and golden light.

Please note: This is not a long-term review but it should provide you with some very useful first impressions of what to expect.

Canon EOS R and SIGMA fp L systems for comparing results

With me I had the Canon EOS R, together with the Canon RF 24-105 F/4L as well as the SIGMA fp L and a SIGMA 35mm F1.4 Art lens attached. I use both camera-lens combos frequently when it comes to professional and travel work and I know for a good reason, that their color rendering quite differs from each other. While the Canon R system tends to be on the warmer side of tonality, especially during golden hour, the SIGMA fp L captures the environment in a more neutral way. There is no right or wrong here and to each his own, but I definitely was excited to see how the results of both systems would look like, once I calibrated the photos with the Spyder Checkr software.

The first spot I visited this day was on a lovely little bridge, close to Berlin Mitte. Wrapped in the warm light of Golden Hour, I thought this would be a perfect scene with a great variety of tonality. This way I would be able to really see what the Spyder Checkr Photo is capable of.

Taking a reference shot with the Canon EOS R

Taking a reference shot with the Canon EOS R

Taking a reference shot with the SIGMA fp L

After I was done with taking my reference shots as well as capturing the actual scene with each camera system, I headed to one of the buildings close to the riverside. My plan was to get up to one of the higher floors and capture Berlin’s center and the unique TV tower for sunset. It’s one of my go-to spots here in Berlin and I was really excited to see how the final images would turn out.

The Spyder Checkr Photo’s lanyard makes carrying a breeze

The Spyder Checkr Photo’s color grid

Taking a reference shot on the SIGMA fp L

Another reference shot

Comparison of the sunset shot taken on each camera system

As you can see, the sunset light was quite beautiful that evening. This is what I really love about fall season here in the city!

So let’s have a closer look in the initial results of both camera systems.

Initial out of camera results

Below you can see some straight out of the camera results of both systems, without any editing or color correction done to them. It’s quite obvious, that both systems and their lenses rendered the scenes quite differently. Kindly click on the images to enlarge them.

Canon EOS R – Straight out of camera

SIGMA fp L – Straight out of camera

In some of the images above, the Canon R system rendered the overall scene in a much warmer way, while the SIGMA fp L captured it in a more neutral or cooler tonality. Both systems have been set to the exact same white balance of course. The differences aren’t always as big and sometimes it’s only a slight shift in some of the colors. You can see such a subtle color shift between the two systems in the blues of the boat’s rain cover in the second pair of photos above.

Remember: Using the Datacolor Spyder Checkr Photo isn’t about editing or enhancing the images, it’s about making sure the representation of colours in your images are as accurate as possible in relation to the real scene or subject, which was captured!

Again, both systems produce quite different results and using both of them during a client shoot or other color critical work, you would have a hard time in post to make them look identical. Trust me, I’ve done this many times and while I’m very experienced with it, there are still situations where I need to spent a lot of time to get it corrected.

Let’s create some color profiles

So now that we found out, that the two systems captured quite different results from the same scene, it’s time to create some color profiles within the Spyder Checkr software and compare the images again, with those presets applied.

Reference Photos taken on the Canon EOS R system

Reference Photos taken on the SIGMA fp L system

Reference images after white balance correction and crop, ready to import in Spyder Checkr software

Aligning the markers onto the reference shot before saving the color profile

Once we created all profiles within the Spyder Checkr software and saved them, we just have to switch back to Adobe Lightroom and apply them onto each of the images. Once applied, we use the comparison feature within Lightroom’s Develop module to see the before and after.

Kindly see the screenshot below for an example of one of the images taken on the SIGMA fp L, with and without the created profile.

Photo taken with SIGMA fp L, left side without and right side with Datacolor’s profile applied

results in a much warmer and more accurate photo. In fact, the result now seems to be very similar to the scene in real life, as the shot was taken during sunset. The overall image feels much more balanced and lively now, compared to the colder initial version.

Results with color profiles applied

I did apply the profiles to each of the images I captured on the Canon R as well as the SIGMA fp L system, so let’s have a closer look again on how they compare to each other now.

Below you will see all the shots, but this time color corrected. Kindly click on the images to enlarge them.

Canon EOS R – With profile applied

SIGMA fp L – With profile applied

As you can see in the color corrected results above, not only do the images look much cleaner and closer to real life, but both systems now look very similar if not completely identical in terms of overall tonality. I have to say I’m very impressed with how good the results compare to each other now. This will be a huge time saver for my future projects and I don’t need to worry spending hours to correcting color in post production anymore.

Alright guys, so that is basically all you have to do in order to come up with a calibrated profile for your own camera-lens combinations. Let me share some final words and a conclusion before wrapping this one up.

Spyder Checkr Photo – Final Conclusion

First of all I’d like to thank each of you who sticked with me until here.

Generally speaking, color management might not be the most interesting topic for us creatives. Nevertheless, it is one of the most important things to master when it comes to consistency and creating reliable results in the long term. As photographers, we have to be in control of our end-to-end workflow and in quite a lot of industries it is absolutely critical to provide accuracy to our clients. Furthermore, having the knowledge and technics at hand to calibrate your overall process, does not only save you hours of your time but also protects you against failure. In case something doesn’t turn out as expected, you know where to look and what to adjust, rather than getting lost in a variety of possible issues.

That being said, the Datacolor Spyder Checkr Photo is a very welcome addition to my very own Color Management process. Not only do I print a lot of my work on a regular basis, but I also work for many clients which are best in their class. So I definitely want to make sure I can provide the same high-quality results to them when it comes to photography or video work. The Spyder Checkr Photo definitely helps with this as it allows me to take care of accurate color right at the beginning of my creative process, instead of trying to fix things afterwards. Dealing with this uncertainty is a thing of the past now and the overall compact and lightweight design of the Checkr Photo makes sure I can take it everywhere, whether it is a studio or a location on the other side of the globe. Fact is, neither the physical device nor the software gets in the way of my creative workflow and Datacolor made a perfect job when it comes to build quality and the overall user experience of both.

Talking about the software for a second, things have never been easier. You import the reference photo, align the markers and click Save. Done, that’s it and you can start working in your favourite editing software right away, without questioning if what you see is really what you get.

I’m a big fan and long-term user of Datacolor’s product range, whether it is their Spyder X Elite to calibrate my screen or the Spider Print solution to create my own ICC profiles for fine art printing. Datacolor offeres the complete range of professional tools to get my job done on a daily basis and to focus on what’s really important, instead of dealing with inconsistent results. The Spyder Checkr Photo is a great addition to these products and gives photographers another very capable solution to gain control about their workflow. It definitely will have a permanent place in my backpack from now on and I can recommend it to anyone of you without a doubt.