I assisted Ed Pingol for a wedding over the weekend and we were talking about monitor calibration as he said the images from a recent post of mine were a little cold. He said that monitor calibration software is a must have because your images can vary significantly if it is not color calibrated especially when it gets printed. I have always looked into getting it but just never got around to doing it. I got the Colorvision Datacolor Spyder2 Express and after using it on my monitor, I definitely noticed a difference. Now I can see what Ed was talking about as the images did look a little cool to me now!

I never really had the issue before and even after calibrating my monitor, my older images all look fine and it was just my most recent images that I noticed the difference. The colors on monitors can change over time so it is recommended that the color get adjusted at least once a month.

I got the Spyder 2 Express because it was the cheapest and most basic one that Datacolor provides. Calibrating is super easy and only takes about 5-10 minutes. Spyder 3 Pro adn Elite are the other versions that have more advanced options but I think the Express version is perfectly fine for me. If you have dual screen, then you would need to get the other editions but I only use one Dell 30 inch LCD monitor. The Express version only allows you to use a fixed color temperature at 6500K with Gamma 2.2 but that is the default choice anyways and I dont think you really need to have the other choices. 

So for other wedding photographers who dont currently color calibrate their monitors, I highly recommend it and it is definitely a must have!