Extremely Dark Photos

[Sargee225]

Tried out a printing mob in QLD that I heard about on the forum and got about $75 worth of photos, they arrived today and they are all very dark.
dark compared to the same file that has been printed at Kmart and dark compared to what i see on my monitor which is a Dell U2715H, about 2 weeks old and has been factory calibrated

any suggestions, apart from perhaps not spending so much without knowing what its going to turn out like

Thanks

[ameerat42]

Get straight back to them and - based on your own observations - ask them Y!!!
Get some answer back from them. - I'm surprised they didn't furnish you one, like
"Hey, mate. Geez yer pictures are DARK"

If you're absolutely certain there's 0-thing wrong with the original files, then...
(Leave for others at this point.)

Any chance of posting one up here as you treated it?

[John King]

Disappointing!

And I second what Am said. Be an active consumer!

BTW, this sort of thing is exactly why I jumped for an Epson R3880 printer - if things go wrong, I only have myself to blame.

[Sargee225]

lizzard print.jpg
Top photo is the scanned print


Lizzard.jpg
Bottom is the image sent to print


can hardly see the tail in the photos

[tandeejay]

I've seen comments elsewhere that when using a printer you've never used before, you should always get a test print done to check their ability to reproduce your images.

What colour space is the print company is using?

[Glenda]

Monitor brightness can play a part also. I've seen where people recommend upping the brightness on digital files about 20% before getting them printed. I'd definitely be contacting the company and asking them as well.

[arthurking83]

Monitor brightness can play a part also. I've seen where people recommend upping the brightness on digital files about 20% before getting them printed. I'd definitely be contacting the company and asking them as well.

Shouldn't be required!
The point of calibrating the monitor is so that what you see is what you get on any other calibrated monitor.
This should then coincide with any print made too.

Of course, if you want 100% exact replicas of the file in a print, then it's best to calibrate the printer and paper type too, but for a 99% accurate rendering on print this isn't needed.

I've printed some sample/test images on my crappy laser printer and they come out looking acceptable. Not perfect of course, but usable and definitely not dark in any way.

Judging by the image rendered of the file to be printed against the scan of the print, I think the printing mob have stuffed up monumentally!
All my prints I've made, of any value or worth(ie. not test prints on my crappy home printers) have never needed any pre print editing.

[ameerat42]

I agree, AK. At this stage it's their fault. Answers are needed.

[Sargee225]

Sent an email to the company trying to find out what the reason was behind it and how to set my monitor the same as it will print and this was the reply

Dear Steven

Thanks for your email. We try and keep colour management issues relatively simple, however in order to address such issues we need to explain quite a few things which can make it appear quite complex. Because of this complexity it is therefore not a suitable topic to be discussing over email. If you could call us at a suitable time to discuss this, it would be much appreciated.


Colour space is sRGB
colour mode is RGB 8bit

[arthurking83]

The issue isn't colour space related.

if it were, then the blue/cyan colour on the underside of the lizard wouldn't render 'roughly similar' at all.

There are thousands or millions of reasons why the difference, but colour space isn't, and I'm assuming that you've used a sRGB file for them to print from too?

ps. FYI, I've seen your thread on both my aRGB screen, and on my sRGB(barely) only screen. They look similar enough that you could safely say that it's not an issue.
Strangely tho(and just a passing comment), but the image file(ie. the second image for printing) looks just a tad nicer on the sRGB screen. Mainly in terms of tone(s) and overall rendering.
It is a subjective thing too tho, as the image also looks (relatively) larger compared to the settings on my aRGB screen.
The scan looks dastardly on both!

[Sargee225]

Just tried printing the same file on my b&w laser and the tail is still visible

files are all being converted to sRGB when saved, unless I'm doing something wrong in this process

[ameerat42]

Sargee. That sounds like a fob - watch them, and that's not just a "fob-watch".

Make sure you get answers. Do not hesitate to ask for your money back - yes, return the "&^%^%#(*)*-prints".

- - - Updated - - -

Basically, you need to find out why they gave you such unacceptably dark pictures.

They should have advised you of a problem. It is UN-professional (if not, sadly, unusual)>> these days.<< edited.

[raysul]

hello sargee225

Ok i'm bit confused on monitor calibration, your monitor is only 2 weeks old and has been factory calibrated, what does factory calibrated actually mean?
Are not all monitors calibrated at first at factory settings.

I may be wrong here, I would of thought a re-calibration would be needed with your own device's for correct printing needs

Ray

[Sargee225]

CCI21092016_0001.jpg

[Glenda]

Shouldn't be required!
The point of calibrating the monitor is so that what you see is what you get on any other calibrated monitor.
This should then coincide with any print made too.

Of course, if you want 100% exact replicas of the file in a print, then it's best to calibrate the printer and paper type too, but for a 99% accurate rendering on print this isn't needed.

I've printed some sample/test images on my crappy laser printer and they come out looking acceptable. Not perfect of course, but usable and definitely not dark in any way.

Judging by the image rendered of the file to be printed against the scan of the print, I think the printing mob have stuffed up monumentally!
All my prints I've made, of any value or worth(ie. not test prints on my crappy home printers) have never needed any pre print editing.

A lot of pros recommend it though. Horizon just mentioned the same thing in another thread about printing and there are heaps of items about it on the net eg http://lightroomkillertips.com/prese...g-good-prints/
and https://support.blurb.com/hc/en-us/a...n-you-expected. I once had a book printed by Blurb and it came back with all the images too dark - nowhere near as dark as the example in this thread - and Blurb re-printed the book without further cost.

I do think looking at the examples Sargee posted the printed version is way darker than would be caused by monitor brightness so I do hope he gets to the bottom of it and either gets all prints redone or a full refund.

[Sargee225]

Trying another online printing mob here in Adelaide so I can compare the same files, except this time I won't be spending so much

[Mark L]

CCI21092016_0001.jpg

So what does that mean for photos on your screen?? And then the factory isn't using the computer that you have plugged into the screen.

[farmmax]

It is not that the print is darker overall, but as if the black point has been shifted. Any professional printer should immediately recognise there is a problem with the prints, if they all look like the scanned one you posted here. They should then have gone back to the source files to see if your files were responsible, or something went wrong in the printing process. Have they been in business very long? I can't imagine the people I use for printing letting prints like this go through.

Don't let them fob you off. I think you are owed some sort of explanation as to what has happened. I would have thought they would try and sort the problem out, then send reprints of the photos at no charge. There is always Fair Trading .

It will be interesting to see what the Adelaide printers prints look like.

[arthurking83]

The factory calibration will usually only be done to monitors that have their own internal lookup table.
That is, that monitor will look the same irrespective of the host device(ie. PC, laptop, Mac, or tablet or whatever! .. ) that runs it.

So .. assuming that Sarge has turned off any host device calibration software/colour profile settings on the computer driving the monitor, then the screen should render pretty well.
If Sarge has any other calibration stuff running on the PC, then it may conflict with what the factory has set and cause troubles.

But!.. in saying that: The image rendered of the file of the lizard displays well on my screen *
So we can assume that it renders well on Sarge's computer too.
The print is obviously overly dark .. so calibration isn't the problem here.

I reckon farmax is on the money. Printer's blackpoint setting on the file was somehow wrong.

Note to Sarge too:
I just had a quick peek at the monitor review on TFTCentral, and the factory calibration isn't actually ideal.
DeltaE values are all over the shop.
Note tho, that this still doesn't explain the print issue tho.
All those Delta E values mean is that the colour of your image on your PC may not be 100% accurate, so it may not render as vibrant in print as it looks on your screen.
This isn't the same as darkness levels tho. According to TFT's review the brightness from the factory is set to 122 cd/m2 .. which is fine.

I mentioned in my other reply tho, that the file image looks nicer on my sRGB screen, and a wee bit over saturated on my aRGB screen, and this is the real effect you may get from having a high and inconsistent set of DeltaE values.

Note too: that screen calibrates really well. So it's probably best to calibrate it if you have the ability.

I purchased my Samsung screen for a few reasons, and one of them was that the factory calibration was close to ideal, so when I first hooked it up, it was set pretty well.
Even knowing that, I still eventually took the time to calibrate it too.

[Sargee225]

Just got off the phone with them, they were happy to spend 20 mins on the phone explaining the importance of calibrating my monitor. Factory calibrations are no good
differences between Kmart prints are apparently Kmart apply an auto correction to your photos when you print them.


Upgraded computers a few weeks ago so didn't really want to have to spend more $$ on a calibration device right away

any recommendations on a calibration devices. Printing company recommends the i1 display pro