Calibration issues

[Amanda C.]

I have the Spyder 5 Elite and have tried about 15 times to calibrate my Dell XPS15 4K laptop with no success no matter what settings (from 21-80 lumanence and 4000-9500k). I get that laptops aren't ideal so I also have one of the recommended Dell external monitors. I've tried switching between both as the main display but the program won't let me drag over to the external monitor once it gets to the image to place the calibrator. I've put in a ticket to get support from Datacolor but no response yet. Any suggestions for what I may be doing wrong or something else to try while I wait? Thanks!

[Damien Symonds]

54 minutes ago, Amanda C. said:

but the program won't let me drag over to the external monitor once it gets to the image to place the calibrator.

You need to do this as soon as you launch the software.  Don't wait until you get all the way to the placing-the-calibrator part.

[Amanda C.]

1 hour ago, Damien Symonds said:

You need to do this as soon as you launch the software.  Don't wait until you get all the way to the placing-the-calibrator part.

Thank you. Got it working and think it's finally getting closer to a match. I had to bring it down to 5000k and 25  lumanence and still feel it needs to be just a tad warmer. Adjusting the contrast helped with darkening the images more - hope it's fine to do that (from 75 to 65). There's really just 1 image that's throwing me off completely, where her hair is now too red but the background still too cool. The others don't seem to be that way and could probably be just a little bit warmer, so thinking maybe a reprint of this one is needed. 

[Damien Symonds]

Yeah, maybe that's so.  How many prints are you comparing in total?

Also, how's the light in your room?

[Amanda C.]

I have 5 prints to compare - 1 black and white and 4 colored. I really thought the light was correct and was double checking in natural light to be sure, and as of last night I thought I achieved a fairly close match, but today they looked completely too warm. I've read your guide on lighting and am going to work on more consistent lighting this week. Hoping that will fix the main problem. However, I notice that the prints show darker shadows which I can't seem to duplicate with changing brightness or contrast.