Are my images too dark?

Hmm having a quick look I wouldn't say they were overly dark. Some seem that way to capture the sky etc. Don't look 'odd' to me at all.
 
some beautiful work but if they were mine, my fingers would be twitching to brighten them up a bit
 
Now i've not looked at all the photos but Id say you have some that could do with lightening whilst others look OK. Some of the landscape could do with a bit of tweaking. A general lightening plus maybe opening the shadow areas a bit may help.

Have you tried comparing the orriginals to your flickr page. Maybe the web conversion is affecting them. Plus you may have some colour management issues that may be creeping in. Without comparing the two it's difficult to say
 
they do seem okay on my monitor
it might be my setup..

the colours seem very rich , which isn't to say they are too dark.
the landscape might be a touch too dark but that's about it on my screens here
 
If they were mine (if only!) I would brighten them a bit, particularly the landscapes
 
Think they look fine; although I haven't profiled my monitor for a while.

I find that images always look more contrasty and saturated when viewed on non-colour aware programs like browsers and picture viewers..
 
They look mostly ok on my callibrated monitor, theres one or two could be a touch lighter, but nothing serious, more personal taste really. Some cameras have a tendancy to under expose a bit to avoid blowing the highlights, if your unhappy try dialing in 1/3-2/3 of a stop plus exposure compensation and see how that goes.
 
kennysarmy said:
I post to flickr and recently began thinking my images are all coming out too dark...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kennysarmy/

Please can I have some feedback?

Cheers.
Kenny
Click to expand...
Are you judging brightness by looking at the histogram or simply the way the picture looks on your monitor? If you are using the image to judge, instead of the histogram, is your monitor calibrated? How is your monitor brightness set? How bright is the ambient light in the room you are viewing in? Do you have a bright light source (window?) behind your monitor? Do you edit at night (when ambient light is low) and view during the day (when ambient light is bright)?

I had a quick look on Flickr and they don't seem way off to me, but I did check out this image - http://www.flickr.com/photos/kennysarmy/3812373612/ - as the clouds caught my eye as looking less than dazzling. The histogram is very centred and compressed, with nothing anywhere near bright white, nor anywhere near pure black. In Lightroom the image can take +0.5 stops on the exposure adjustment and does look better for it. Deepening the blacks adds some punch but may not take the picture where you want it to be. Here is what the histogram looks like....

20090812_093109_09_LR.jpg


In my opinion the brightest part of the clouds should have the histogram touching at the right hand edge. This picture is too dark.

If you can't rely on your monitor and the room you are in to give you an accurate impression then I suggest you pay closer attention to the histogram. It will not tell you lies. The same thing applies when you are shooting - check the histogram on the camera and check for blinkies to indicate highlight clipping. The image alone is a very poor quide to exposure accuracy. The camera display is not calibrated and the environment in which you view the screen is completely uncontrolled - anything from dazzling sunshine to a dim room or the darkness of night. Your eyes may very well lie to you as they stop down and open up to adjust to the ambient light conditions.

If we look at the histogram for the condor, with highlight and shadow clipping warnings turned on, it looks pretty much perfect to me....

20090812_095558_58_LR.jpg


The white feathers on the neck are as bright as can be, with only the barest hint of clipping, and your deepest dark areas are very close to pure black, which looks right for this image. The capture looks spot on and the histogram confirms it. Actually, having looked a little longer, I would prefer it to be just a little darker in the highlight region - maybe knocked down 1/3 stop, but no more. If you shot this as a raw file rather than JPEG then it is a great example of an ETTR capture.
 
Maybe 1/2 a stop? Tdodd's post is useful, the brightest relevant part of the image typically (but not always, usual disclaimers apply) wants to be at the right edge of the histogram.

(Viewed on a calibrated Eizo S2411w on Windows XP. Operating system is important, as Mac and PC Gamma is different and will mess with you :) )
 
they look ok to me on my screen
have you done another set modified to do a a/b on them
 
Hi jeff

The vast majority of photo's look fine to me. A few of the landscape pictures maybe need a wee lighten but that's about it. Some fine photo's there too.
 
Thanks for all the replies and comments...

I do shoot RAW and process using DPP with hightlight warnings on and try to ensure I get a nice bright image...I think the issues have crept in for me when in Photoshop trying to get a nice sky...I've neglected the overall effect in some cases.

I usually add a curves adjustment layer to add some contrast...this seems to darken the image a bit...so now I add a slight brightness adjust after and I believe my images seem now to look better.

My monitor is calibrated with a spyder so I do think the issue has been ME :(
 
Interesting to see the different responses above, but my inclination would be to brighten nearly all of those on Page 1 of your photostream. On Page 2, the bird photos are about right for me.
 
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