dark photos from jessops

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snipershooter

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wasim wazir
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just got my first batch of dslr photo print from jessops and they seem to be abit on the dark side why do you think this is.it didnt look as dark on my screen.besides now im think to make my photos more brighter in raw.
These ones from jessops were untouched by their auto correct system. So dont know what went wrong there?might need to print the same print from some one else.
 
Well I wouldn't bother asking for a refund :)

Have you calibrated your screen? It's quite common that what you see on your screen isn't what you see on a print...
 
Is your monitor calibrated?
How do the histograms look? you can't judge a photo's brightness by what it looks like on an uncalibrated screen, there's absolute values involved that are more precise than 'too dark' and 'looks OK'.
 
Calibrated?.im using a 42 inch plasma connected to my laptop.


Must i admit these were jpeg straight from the camera!

Ps in the past few day when i process my raw files ive never used the histograms
 
Ive read the thing about the screen being too bright hence dark photos which i will look into. Plus i wouldntjnow how to calibrate my tv screen.
 
Oh boy if you are using your TV as a computer screen you are asking for all sorts of trouble.

I've been advised that you should to for 100-130 cd/m2, a color temp of 6500k and a gamma of 2.2. Most desktop computers come with some sort of basic calibration, but screens come out of the box defaulted to office work which is brighter than you need for photographs.

Been there, bought the t-shirt, as they say!
 
snipershooter said:
Calibrated?.im using a 42 inch plasma connected to my laptop.
Click to expand...

When Phil mentioned monitor, he meant the laptop you're viewing the images with to post process the RAWs or tweak the JPEGs before outputting to your plasma telly.
And similarly the display on the back of the camera - if you've not adjusted the brightness of it, it will not be showing you an accurate review of the photo just taken.
That's why you've a histogram, so you'll see whether you're exposing correctly or over/underexposing.
Read your manual to see how to enable histogram view, and then read through this until you understand the correlation between the histogram and the scene you're shooting - http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/histograms1.htm
 
snipershooter said:
Calibrated?.im using a 42 inch plasma connected to my laptop.


Must i admit these were jpeg straight from the camera!

Ps in the past few day when i process my raw files ive never used the histograms
Click to expand...

It doesn't matter if it's 42" or 60", cinema sound with 3d - it's probably far from suitable for processing photographs. In much the same way the 18 megapixel camera on a phone isn't what we'd call a 'proper camera' :)
 
My tv screen is setup for very bright dynamic mode.which i totally forgot about..maybe it just needs to be setup to to normal mode and i dont mind using the actual laptop screen to process photos after all its also full hd but how do i go about to calibrate it? Is there a software that will do it for me. Im using sony vaio laptop. Thanks.
 
You will need software and a Spider that goes onto the screen and detects colours. They range from around £80 to £400 depending if you want to check the calibration from input right through to output.
 
William_S said:
You will need software and a Spider that goes onto the screen and detects colours. They range from around £80 to £400 depending if you want to check the calibration from input right through to output.
Click to expand...

And are, on the whole, totally unnecessary for most people as long as you follow the calibration software that comes with most monitors, even TVs come with THX setup nowadays which isn't perfect but will get yo close enough that there shouldn't be any surprises.
 
After comparing prints from another print company it turned out my photos were dark. Nothing to do with jessops prints.as for my monitor i have selected normal mode and it looks like the photo that i got from jessops. I will try thx mode aswell. Thanks
 
In general you find photos printed by Jessops and Boots turn out darker, almost as if the contrast has been turned up. Not sure if this is because their machines are badly calibrated or the inks they use or something else. I too was disappointed with the service and in fact did ask boots for a refund and got one.

Best thing to do is use a professional photo printing outfit, I use Loxley and they are very good imo. I would do this before rushing out and buying a monitor calibration device as most monitors arent too bad unless you've realy got your brightness turned right up.
 
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snipershooter said:
After comparing prints from another print company it turned out my photos were dark. Nothing to do with jessops prints.as for my monitor i have selected normal mode and it looks like the photo that i got from jessops. I will try thx mode aswell. Thanks
Click to expand...

You really have to calibrate the screen. Most LCDs are by default bright. Too bright for the printing standards. The result is a photo that looks fine on that screen will look dark in print (or on a properly calibrated screen).

There is no way around it - you need to calibrate and profile that screen to use it properly.
 
snipershooter said:
Calibrated?.im using a 42 inch plasma connected to my laptop.
Click to expand...


:bang:


A TV will not be anywhere near accurate enough in terms of colour to be making these kinds of judgements. If you want what's on your screen to be anything close to the print, you need a calibrated display. Even then it's no guarantee if the lab is crap.. which Jessops is (was).


TVs by default have awful gamma curves applied. It's all about high contrast, deeper than normal balcks and also very bright overall compared to a proper monitor calibrated properly to 120mcd/m2.
 
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