Pictures to dark!

[Tony4Fingerz]

Hi all, I've printed out a few pics ( at a lab) and they all are darker than when viewed on my monitor. Will something like Spyder 3 elite help with this or will it just adjust the colours? I'm new to editing and want to get things set up correctly, any advice or help is greatly appreciated.

[kiwi]

Yes it will definitely help, calibration adjusts brightness and contrast etc but there could be other reasons, why don't you post the photo here

[4wdexposure]

Have you printed the pictures on your own printer as well? If they are OK then it could be an issue with the lab.

Personally, I don't have my monitor calibrated because I'm happy that what I see on my screen is what comes out my printer. Most modern monitors seem to be pretty good at rendering colour straight out the box.

If you don't have access to your own reasonable quality injet then my money is on your monitor being set to a very bright setting - and hence dark prints. In this case Spyder will fix the problem

Not sure what imaging software you use, but sometimes there can be settings that effect how your monitor displays an image. For example in Photoshop you can set the amount of reduction in colour saturation that is displayed on the monitor. However, it wouldn't be usual to fiddle with that setting which 0% by default.

For printing your colour space should ideally be set to Adobe RGB not monitor RGB, but again that is more to do with colour rendition than brightness and in most cases the difference seems to be almost invisible.

As Darren says - post your image here and if you get several replies saying it is dark then you'll know. If you don't want to spend $100 or whatever on Spyder you can try adjusting your monitor to match the lab image you have and then reworking your image and try again.

[Tannin]

Most modern monitors seem to be pretty good at rendering colour straight out the box.

Take care! This only really applies to good quality monitors made with at least one eye to colour-sensitive use. You'd be reasonably safe in guessing that any IPS or equivalent monitor would be roughly right - but the mass-market TN film things you see everywhere on the market range from fair to dreadful, with a lot of them tending towards the dreadful end of the spectrum. General rule-of-thumb: non-specialist monitors are far too blue. Not always true, but often.

[ricktas]

The other way to check is to look at the histogram for the photo, is it balanced or does the histogram show it is under exposed. If you are not familiar with histograms and how to read/use them, click HERE

[Damo77]

Hi all, I've printed out a few pics ( at a lab) and they all are darker than when viewed on my monitor. Will something like Spyder 3 elite help with this or will it just adjust the colours?

Yes, the Elite will. The Express and Pro won't.

The X-Rite i1 Display 2 will also do it.

[philiph]

when you say lab, do mean a real lab or a photo processing "lab" like you see in all the shooping centres in one place or another? I used a "lab" in a camera shop but got fed up and changed shops with, so far, better results.

Curious about 4WDexposure's comment about adobe RGB color space, I was told last night it should be sRGB but haven't had a chance to look at this setting yet, is it the same thing? The other thing I was told (busy night!!!) is that the first print is for the mother in-law, the second print is for the mother and the third print is yours!

[kiwi]

...still waiting for an example

[Tony4Fingerz]

Sorry about delay I'll put a couple up today, been crook thanks for all the feed back too. I'm going to get the Spyder 3 Elite either way as I want to get the correct colours etc but I'm hoping it's just a monitor thing. Will the Spyder allow for screen angle and such? The pics will up this morning so you can tell me what they look like on your screens. Thanks again.

[Damo77]

Will the Spyder allow for screen angle?

No, it won't. Nothing will. If that's a problem, you should invest in a new screen. Good IPS screens are cheaper and cheaper nowadays.

[ricktas]

As Damo says. screen angle is more related to the technology of your screen, than what a calibrator can do. A calibrator is attached to your screen, and then runs a series of colour 'patches' that are read by the colorimeter. The results are then compared to how each colour 'should' be displayed. The calibration software then knows for example that a particular red that is displayed was 5% to dark on your monitor etc. The software then builds a 'profile' for your screen to correct all the anomalies. That profile is then loaded at start-up of your computer and forces your screen to display them to match the 'standard' precisely.

Then you can be assured that if you look at a photo on your calibrated screen, then put it up on AP, I will see the photo basically exactly the same as you saw it, on my calibrated screen. Calibration just creates a 'standard' so that all calibrated screens will display the same photo the same way. Although this is a simplified example cause even things like me viewing the photo in a room with a fluorescent light can alter the visual result from my perspective. Colour management is a huge field all by itself.

[Tony4Fingerz]

Grrrrr having trouble resizing the images I made them 1024 on the longest side but it's saying the file size is too big