Please help!

[ben g]

Hello all, I have been having problems getting my prints to match what i see on screen. They consistently come out far darker and loose lots of detail in the shadow areas. This has been true for prints done at home and by photobox.
I guess this due to monitor calibration and I do plan to get a spyder or huey next month.
My first question is does the huey or Spyder (express/basic version) calibrate the screen brightness and contrast as well as the colour?
For the time being I have used Adobe gamma to try and improve things and this has made quite a difference. What i see on screen is now far more similar to what i see in the prints. This has meant that i have had to go back and change my original photos to what i wanted in the first place.
I have been using curves and dragging the shadow end up slightly and the highlight end down a little to get back to more what i saw the first time. Do you think this is the best way of going about it?
Lastly here are some pics before and after changing, which do you think are best?
1.before:

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after:

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2.Before:

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After:

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3.before:

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After:

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Thanks for your time and patience if you have read down this far! I would be particularly be interested in the opinions of people who have calibrated monitors.

 

[Susane]

Hi Ben, my monitor is calibrated, I can definitely see more detail in the darker area's on all your "after" pic's. I think you are getting there, I think the levels still need some tweeking.

 

[mho]

I would say the dark areas you have lightened up are too light / starting to look washed out a little, I think the original versions just need a little tweak but not too much.

Main things to consider, when you have adjusted and profiled your monitor for colour, is to get your printer profiled for the paper and inks you use don't rely upon the manufacturers profiles as they will be close but not exact to your printer.

The other thing to do is if you print the majority to Photobox is after profiling the monitor ask Photobox for a calibration print, when you have a calibration print set your monitors brightness to give you a close match for their print.

Another point is if you set your brightness to the standard recommended settings you will have to view your prints in that exact light brightness / colour for them to look the same.

recommended brightness settings are

CRT - 100 cd/m2
LCD - 120 cd/m2
Laptop - 90 cd/m2

I and most people i know find these settings way too bright resulting in dark pictures when printed.

Most peoples monitors I have calibrated have ended up at around 70-90 cd/m2 for LCD, which gives plenty of brightness for working with and matches their printer outputs perfectly (after the printers been profiled) and also matches the online printing sites like Photobox.

Also consider the quality and colour of your light in your computer room, recommended to be 5000K (D50) or 6500K (D65) (depends on your monitor colour temp) and a minimum 70 cd/m2 brightness.

I personally would recommend the Eye-One Display monitor calibrators as they can allow a 2 monitor setup to be done (if you buy the LT version go to Gretag Macbeth site and download the latest software for the Display 2 and it will work like a display 2), and the resulting profile will be better / more accurate than with a Huey or Spyder, the Spyder has had an issue with its sensor tolerance being too wide, so they have brought out a platinum range which is made to a tighter set of tolerances. They maybe slightly more to buy but worth it.

 

[ben g]

thanks for the replies, this is starting to give me a headache now!
susane; what tweaks would you recommend in levels?
mho; thanks for your really detailed response but most of that went right over my head! The values for brightness measured in cd/m2 are something new to me. I cant see anything like those values in my display settings window, are they something you see when using a calibration tool?
After using Adobe Gamma my settings are:

Gamma 0.8
Brightness -45
Contrast 200

I had a look at the Eye-One Display LT, thats quite an increase in price over the huey or spyder. As I only plan to use one monitor is it really worth the extra? Also do these calibrators sort the brightness and contrast automatically?
Thanks for any advice anyone can give, ben

 

[mho]

thanks for the replies, this is starting to give me a headache now!
susane; what tweaks would you recommend in levels?
mho; thanks for your really detailed response but most of that went right over my head! The values for brightness measured in cd/m2 are something new to me. I cant see anything like those values in my display settings window, are they something you see when using a calibration tool?
After using Adobe Gamma my settings are:

Gamma 0.8
Brightness -45
Contrast 200

I had a look at the Eye-One Display LT, thats quite an increase in price over the huey or spyder. As I only plan to use one monitor is it really worth the extra? Also do these calibrators sort the brightness and contrast automatically?
Thanks for any advice anyone can give, ben

I cant speak on the Huey or Spyder software as I dont use it. But on the Eye-One Display (its worth the extra money) you can measure the brightness of your screen in cd/m2 and adjust it with the brightness control on your monitor. It will run through all your settings and do them automatically just asking for user intervention when needed.

When you have got your monitor setting right get your printer profiled, this profile will then convert what you see on screen to your printer so it can output a print the same (99% ish).