megalodon

I have 2 printers and i'm having the same issues with both. I've tried priting after doing some post processing, and now just direct from the card. my pictures always come out relatively faded and dull when compared to looking at them directly on the camera lcd. I am using a canon t3i, windows 7, elements 10, lightroom 4.2. my printers are a canon pixma pro9000 mark ii and a hp photojet 6280. my monitor is an acer x223w lcd. my second is my lg tv. i have read that the acer is not a great monitor for pp as it tends to be rather dark. the picture is extremely vivid on the tv. i have attempted to calibrate both using the greta macbeth eye-one match 3 software and mouse-looking tool. i have gotten nowhere and frankly i am upset and annoyed. can anyone offer any suggestions on how to get better looking prints?

Cibafan Loc: Virginia

What post process software do you use? Images on a lcd screen appear brighter and more saturated than the same images do on paper. Try increasing bightnes and saturation levels prior to printing.

megalodon

i've used both lightroom 4.2 and adobe elemts 10. It doesn't matter what i do in pp. the color in the print does not match the color in the lcd of the camera or on the monitor.

SonyA580 Loc: FL in the winter & MN in the summer

Sounds like the monitor is the culprit. Can you adjust the contrast and brightness so it looks dull and then re-adjust the picture on the computer so it looks good on the monitor and printer. It's the poor man's way of calibrating your monitor.

megalodon

even if i print dircetly from the camera, the photos are dull.

LFingar Loc: Claverack, NY

Does your printer have the option to let it's own software adjust the image? On my Epson the settings page has a check box the says "Fix Photo", or something like that. If I am in a hurry I will sometines use it and my testing has shown that it makes a considerable difference in the look of the photo. If your printer has a similar feature I suggest you try it. All it amounts to is that the printer is doing your pp'ing for you. BTW, what inks are you using?

megalodon

there are a few boxes to check, one says photo optimizer pro. i have no idea what that does. lol. i'm using genuine canon inks

lightchime Loc: Somewhere Over The Rainbow

If you are shooting JPG, have you checked the camera settings?

If you are shooting raw, have you processed or at least utilized presets?

First thing to consider is the human element.

jdubu Loc: San Jose, CA

There are a lot of components to making a print come out well.

First and foremost is the calibration of your monitor. I am not sure if you have actually calibrated your monitor based on your frustration. If the monitor is not calibrated, then you will have no idea what color the computer thinks you are actually seeing on the monitor. i.e. the computer may be displaying a bright green and the monitor is so off, you see a blue green. So you adjust for that on the monitor and now the computer is given a whacky color for reference, which it sends to the printer as a corrected color.
You can go through a lot of test prints before coming close to what you want.

Once you get a calibration done, the other obstacle is the difference of brightness. A print is reflected light and therefore will always be darker than what you see on a monitor, which is backlit and gives brighter more vibrant coloration. You have to make adjustments to screen brightness to produce a properly exposed print.

Using 2 printers, you have to tell the printer what kind of paper you are using and hopefully have a proper ICC profile for that printer and paper combination. Canon will provide ICC profiles for their paper and some others. I am not sure with your HP. Check the websites. Using some cheap papers will mean that the printer will print in an unforeseen way sometimes. Saving money on generic paper is a crap shoot. Third party paper makers (Red River, Moab, etc.) will provide ICC profiles for their papers for your specific printer on line as well.

Unless it's just for a quick reference, I never print direct from a card or camera.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

You need to profile your display, adjust the brightness to .4 cda/m^2 for black and 80 cda/m^2 for white point, and you will get a closer approximation. Also use OEM ink and OEM paper. If you use third party paper, you will have to profile the printer and paper as well, and use the profile when printing.

Datacolor and XRite have great tools for profiling printers and displays. Forget about eyeballing display settings - you cannot get reliable color with that method.

DavidPine Loc: Fredericksburg, TX

Once you have calibrated your monitor you can start thinking about the printing process. Lightroom is about as good as place to set up your printing as anyplace you can. Your paper choice is very important and the ICC profile of that paper should be available or download it. If you have off-the-wall paper you are wasting ink. The settings you choose within LR are important. I don't print in sRGB or Adobe 1998. ProPhoto RGB has the widest range of colors and should be selected. Your dpi is important and should be over 180 dpi and the smaller your print size the higher your dpi. You can do soft proofing in LR and it might give you an idea of where you are headed. Printing is an animal you need to learn and understand and is as important as understanding exposure in photography. There are free videos available on YouTube and places like B&H. There are also courses on Lynda.com and KelbyOne. Good luck.

wilikioti Loc: Deep South, USA

Re: the canon printer.This printer has had several updates to its software. Check with Canon to make sure you have all the updates and current drivers. Also, what paper are you using. This printer is very picky about having the correct profile to each type of paper you use.

Brian45 Loc: Melbourne, Australia

Give it a go and compare with something the same that you've already printed.

Morning Star Loc: West coast, North of the 49th N.

In Elements at least, you need to let the program take charge of colour management, not the printer.
Select: File -> Print.
In the dialogue box that comes up, at the bottom, is a button "More Options" - select that.
On the left, select Colour Management.
Find "Colour Handling" and using the down-arrow, select "Photoshop Elements Manages Colours"
In the same dialogue box a question pops up: Did you remember to disable colour management in the printer preferences dialogue? And the Printer Preferences button right below it.
I'm afraid you're on your own for that last item, as 1. I don't know what printer you have, and 2. Even if I did, I wouldn't know how that printer works (I only have a B/W laser printer now, and any photos I want printed go to the lab).

JCam Loc: MD Eastern Shore

I similar photo equipment as you--Canon 60D, Canon PIXMA Pro 9000 MK II, and PSE10, but my laptop is a Lenovo and my second monitor a Dell. Originally I had the same complaint as you do--the prints came out too dark (dull). A friend pointed out to me that as we get older we tend to brighten up the computer screens to make them easier to see and read, but the printers print as the printer or PSE software tells them. My solution was to leave the laptop bright but reduce Brightness on the larger monitor until it matched a color sample print then PP to what I seen on the Dell monitor--big improvement!

As several others have said use color profiles & tell the printer to "let Photoshop manage colors" otherwise all the PP you do is wasted work because the printer will ignore it and print per its own profile.