Prints coming out too dark.

[Deepsingh]

i turned down my monitor half way down. i thinking about using mpix.com the website says they have their techs color correct each image. do not know if its true.

[Deepsingh]

do i need to turn down my monitor each time i edit photos. or just when editing to get prints done so they don't come out dark.

[thekev]

Originally Posted by Deepsingh

do i need to turn down my monitor each time i edit photos. or just when editing to get prints done so they don't come out dark.

As a rudimentary measure you could turn your display down while in average room lighting until it roughly matches the printed image side by side, but I'd do your actual editing in a darkened room if possible to minimize reflection. Also take note of how far you have to turn it down so that you can get back to that setting later.

Regarding editing which won't be printed, you're editing the thing to be too dark and contrasty. If lower display settings help correct those habits, then it's not a bad thing. The thing is that the unedited version looks better.

[snberk103]

Just to explore another option.... if you are going to be doing more of this - consider getting your own printer. A cheap-ish desktop printer is still going to give you pretty good results. With your own printer, you have now have the ability to control the entire workflow - instead of relying on someone else's ability to keep their equipment within tolerances.

With your own printer you can do a little trial and error editing until you get results you like (and then record those settings for further use) or you can get a calibration device. Regardless... controlling everything in-house allows for more consistency.

Getting good and consistent results is a big topic. Professionals spend a great deal of time learning about profiles and their printers and monitors. The goal is consistency as much as getting the best quality. So, if you are feeling a little overwhelmed - well, it is a big topic. But there are some good resources. One of which is the Adobe website, where they talk about a good colour workflow - often this is called Colour Management (or Color Management - if you speak American ) Try this link as a place to start.

Luck.

[Deepsingh]

Originally Posted by snberk103

Just to explore another option.... if you are going to be doing more of this - consider getting your own printer. A cheap-ish desktop printer is still going to give you pretty good results. With your own printer, you have now have the ability to control the entire workflow - instead of relying on someone else's ability to keep their equipment within tolerances.

With your own printer you can do a little trial and error editing until you get results you like (and then record those settings for further use) or you can get a calibration device. Regardless... controlling everything in-house allows for more consistency.

Getting good and consistent results is a big topic. Professionals spend a great deal of time learning about profiles and their printers and monitors. The goal is consistency as much as getting the best quality. So, if you are feeling a little overwhelmed - well, it is a big topic. But there are some good resources. One of which is the Adobe website, where they talk about a good colour workflow - often this is called Colour Management (or Color Management - if you speak American ) Try this link as a place to start.

Luck.

american english is good.

[rockaw]

This comment is way off base:

The screen of your (likely) $2000 machine that's professionally calibrated by a series of tests to make sure it meets the best standards for professional photographers is "too bright"

I don't want to make the $9 an hour staff at Walmart sound like experts, but they are probably right.

I print fine art reproductions for a living. Usually, I use a mid 2010 MBP, which has a screen that is probably less bright than yours. If I relied only on the Mac OS "Displays" calibration tool, there is no chance that I could get reliable prints, from Walmart, or from our company's calibrated sixty inch printers.

The "professionally calibrated" screen that the commenter mentioned was calibrated, to be, well, bright. Bright screens look really good in a brightly lit room. Nothing wrong with twiddling with your photos with the screen turned up all the way, but when it's time to do the final adjustments to the image for printing, it's essential to use a calibrated screen.

"Calibrated" doesn't mean using the "Displays" preference pane. It means using an external hardware colorimeter and profiling software. In the middle of the profiling process, the colorimeter software will tell you that your screen needs to be adjusted down to about 120 candelas per sq meter.

Here's the word from the experts at X-Rite

Luminance
The luminance of your display/monitor determines the brightness. Modern displays are capable of 200-300 cd/m2 (candelas per square meter) – which is very bright, while older displays may struggle to achieve 100 cd/m2.
Choose a luminance level that provides you with comfortable viewing in your standard working conditions. For working in lower ambient light conditions, reducing the brightness of your display may provide more comfortable viewing.

If working in brighter conditions, or when matching your display to a controlled lighting condition, higher luminance is recommended.
120 cd/m2 is a recommended general-purpose setting. Select from any of the predefined settings, or choose your own custom luminance value to optimize your display for your specific viewing conditions.

After my most recent profiling (you have to do it about once a month in a pro setting), I can tell you that using the calibrated monitor profile makes everything look about half as bright as it does with the default system monitor profile. On top of that, if I want to get the brightness down to the 120 candelas setting, I need to turn the screen brightness WAY down from the brightest setting.

The setting that works for me is to use the custom profile (with its 50% apparent reduction in brightness) and keep the screen set three clicks down from its brightest setting, and then I set Photoshop to print at 10% brighter than whatever I see on the screen. After all that, I get 100% accurate matching between what I see and what the printer produces, no matter if I produce the prints or if I send them out to another pro lab with calibrated equipment.

[LucidX]

The brightness of your mac screen is a variable (especially if you are using the lousy mac ambient sensor). The same goes for the back of your camera LCD. The histogram doesn't lie.

If you prefer to have your images color-corrected for you, Bay Photo is good and EZ-prints does it too. Otherwise, use a monitor calibrator and re-calibrate every two weeks, proof your images - re-adjust the settings and make your final prints.

[flosseR]

Interesting answers here... my take is that you are working with an overly bright screen, which means you turn everything on the pic down in order to get it into place. The color profile assigning is purely how to show it on you screen but if your screen is cranked all the way up, it's off anyway.

Like Paul mentioned, I have my mbp screen set at medium brightness when i do photo work on my laptops screen. My larger screen is hardware calibrated and my office has a "daylight" lamp . I realize most people don't do that so I would say, leave your screen at medium brightness when you work with photos and work within the sRGB color space in whatever editing software you use.

The first image you have online... sorry but that has nothing to do with the printer OR the color space. I have no idea what you did with it but it looks like an in camera cross processing or someone going nuts with some filter.
Work with the original again, don't crank everything in the image up to the max (saturation, highlights etc.)

//F

[Deepsingh]

i will probably turn down the brightness on my monitor. see what happens. how do i set lightroom 3 to print brighter than whats on my screen.

[Deepsingh]

sent the same pics to mpix.com with a little bit of adjustment they came back just the way i wanted them to. from now on i will use mpix.com thanks everyone on your input.

[righteye]

This advise if you wish to end up doing your'e own printing.
The pursuit of a WYSIWYG set up can be a long and frustrating journey and finding the right information can also be difficult. I earn some income from Photography and the predecessor to this tutorial helped me on the way,so
my Advice go to the web site of "The Luminous Landscape" and look for the "store" on the left hand side & check out "Camera to Print & screen-2011".
This $59.95 multi hour tutorial will cover all you need to know and a lot more besides BUT you will have one resource for everything,TRUST ME this will end up being a massive time and $$$ (£££ on our side of the pond) saver in the long run plus you may find some of it amusing depending on your'e sense of humour.

I have no connection with TLL other than having bought and used this and other tutorials sold by them.

Watch,learn,enjoy and end up printing the way you want.

the LInk

http://store.luminous-landscape.com/...roducts_id=281