Prints darker than on my screen!

nikonal

nikonal

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I'm having a little problem after tidying up some images in photoshop.
On my PC, and in fact on my camera, the images look nice and bright, but when I have them printed they are coming out quite a bit darker.

Any ideas or guidlines for levels etc within photoshop, bearing in mind I'm learning everything about photography and studio lighting, and even photoshop....so be gentle!:)
 
Where are you getting them printed from?
I had a few darker sets of prints done before I got a calibration print sent out from my printers and also their colour profiles to use in my editing software.

While these aren't as good as having a calibrated monitor and printed they certainly helped me to obtain much nice prints from my next order onwards.

Tommy.
 
There are lots of things it could be, unfortunately.
Colour profiles could be one, they can be very complicated and I just set everything I can to sRGB.
When I go to my local printer I get duff results, although I needed some in a hurry once and they came out well, so I trusted them again and got duff results again. But when I send off to DSCL or Snapfish I get back what I see on my screen. Photobox prints do not match my screen.
 
I've been getting them from PhotoBox and have had a couple of good prints but many that are too dark.
Looking at my screen they look quite similar and good quality, but when they arrive printed they are way too dark.
 
Yep, that's Photobox for you.

Everything I ordered from them came out dark, and there's plenty of other people with the same problems.

Try DCS Colour Labs instead, prices aren't that much different.
 
OK peeps, one problem could be the brightness of your screen. Most home screens have the brighness set WAY too high which CAN easily contribute. I have mine profiled for colour but still had to turn it down about 20%. Now my prints not only match my printer but are also fine with external printers. If you have a printer at home it's worth a try. Turn down your screen till it just about matches the print and then go back and adjust the pic and try printing it again. In essence, the one on your screen is showint too bright. :)
 
I usually lighten the image by about 1.5 stops before printing to compensate.
But I'll try AliB's suggestion :thumbs:
 
Just to update some folks Photobox now have a correction system, simliar to Loxley
 
I have had the same problem with photobox in the past.

Images on my calibrated monitor look fine and when I print at home the results are also good. But most prints from photobox come back too dark.

As mentioned above, either use a different vendor or lighten the images before you send them.
 
I don't have a calibrated monitor but also found Photobox to be quite dark. I recently tried DS Colour Labs and am very impressed. I experimented a little too and found that increasing the brightness of the images by about 18% in Photoshop before sending them off gave me good results.
 
i have the same problem, i put a screen layer @ 38% over the top and it totally sorts it out!
 
I got Photobox to send me a calibration print, then adjusted my monitor to match the print (I had to reduce the brightness by 10%). After that my prints were fine, and I had the added bonus that once I got used to the darker monitor I found it far more comfortable for my eyes.
 
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