Dark photobox prints

Kev M

Kev M

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Does anyone else find photoboxs prints quite dark? I'm generally happy with the quality of photobox prints but I find the a bit darker than my monitor most times and have sometimes lost some detail in shadowy areas because of it. I've bought me one of them thar monitor calibrator jobs but I'm sure there's more to it than I'll ever comprehend. Is it possible to make the whole print lighter on screen without bugering up all the hard work done to edit a photo to how you want it to look in the first place? As an aside has anyone worked out how much printing from home compares to photobox when you're doing bigger prints like 9x6, 10x8 or even 12x8? I'm wondering if it's worth me printing from home and having better control over the prints I sell or is it just more hhard work than it's reall worth to do it properly from home?

Kev
 
The best thing you can do is set up your monitor properly so that what you see on screen is as close as you can get to the printed article, that way wysiwyg.
 
you can download a print from photobox to callibrate your monitor to match their printing but.....ahem...I've had a dreadful job with one of their photobooks I made of some photos taken in a goldenish sunset...they kept printing them way too dark but eventually, after a phone call and an email they sort of got it right...I am mostly impressed with PB prints but their books seem to not be consistent ggrrr
 
It's not unique to photobox - I just had some prints from Bonusprint that look a little dark. I calibrated my monitor a month or two ago and know I had to make it brighter. Calibration still looks right but I can't help but wonder as prints were always OK before then.
 
When we did the photobook of our Hebridean pics there was one shot I was really worried about - it was of the image projected onto a wall by a camera-obscura - inside the room was at first glance totally dark and you just had to site and wait for your eyes to get used to it....eventually the image appears on the opposite wall. Clever-clogs here decided that it ought to be possible to take a pic of it, and did actually manage too - however, even once pp'd it did still look quite dark and I was concerned that Photobox would simply end up printing a black blob. Much to my relief when the book came back that one was absolutely fine.
 
Photos will always look brighter on a monitor due to the nature of the device. A monitor is a box with a light that shines outwards, a print is paper layered with ink. Shadow detail will be easier to see on the screen.

That said, if you're calibrating properly, you shouldn't notice too much difference, though is will still be there.
 
I'm glad someone else has mentioned this because I thought the last batch of my photos from them was too dark.

I order from them pretty much every month and they're always excellent so maybe I'll drop them an email.
 
fingerz said:
Photos will always look brighter on a monitor due to the nature of the device. A monitor is a box with a light that shines outwards, a print is paper layered with ink. Shadow detail will be easier to see on the screen.

That said, if you're calibrating properly, you shouldn't notice too much difference, though is will still be there.
Click to expand...

Indeed, Have ordered many times from them before and never had this problem, Monitor and calibration remain the same. Pleased to see that if on occasion they get it wrong, they are quick to accomodate and rectify, unlike another poor customer service experience I am in the middle of sorting.. Allied Carpets ..... :bonk: :bang: :thumbsdown:

Anyhow have just orderd some more - so fingers crossed.
 
If photo print darkness is an issue then turn your monitor brightness down a bit and if you're using a LCD then you'll need to turn it down even more

Failing that – place a high powered bulb behind your prints :p
 
I have used photobox a fair bit inthe past but recently gone off them a bit - their prices are quite high and it seems on many occasions they apply some de-noising + sharpening filters, quite unnecessary since I do all this myself prior to sending them away - as a result I have noticed colour blends and loss of detail (from the de-noising) as well as a fair bit of halo-ing and artifacts from the extra sharpening.
It could be their processes have changed?
 
shiato storm - who do you use now ?
 
Just sent a set out to dlab7 to see how they come out, couple of 8x10's and 9x6's. I'm also putting together a photo book of my time in Italy recently (pressie for my dad, the trip was to celebrate his 60th so figured do something nice as memento), just have a few hundered images to still go through and process - thats RAW, then I have to fine tune the output tiff's to suitable quality...its been a month and still loads too do.
 
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