Hi Dave. I don't know how my reply ended up responding to your comment. I was responding to Up-2-it, who said If it is brand new out of the box there should be instructions either in the box or on a CD as to making the adjustments needed. Actually, the more I read other comments, her problem may well lie in converting Adobe RGB to sRGB, both in Photoshop and/or in her printer. I don't use a printer, as everything I do is for the internet, however the sRGB conversion in Photoshop definitely lightens exposure and washes out color. But, back to 3rd party calibration equipment, the whole point of calibrating is to match your monitor to finite, mathematical reference points that are universal. If you adjust your screen by sight, then you are relying on what you see not what the rest of the world sees, not to mention the fact that room paint, lighting, or even the color of your shirt can alter the way you see your screen. Its computer stuff, 0's and 1's. Only 0's and 1's can communicate accurately with other 0's and 1's.

Hi Dave. I don't know how my reply ended up responding to your comment. I was responding to Up-2-it, who said If it is brand new out of the box there should be instructions either in the box or on a CD as to making the adjustments needed. Actually, the more I read other comments, her problem may well lie in converting Adobe RGB to sRGB, both in Photoshop and/or in her printer. I don't use a printer, as everything I do is for the internet, however the sRGB conversion in Photoshop definitely lightens exposure and washes out color. But, back to 3rd party calibration equipment, the whole point of calibrating is to match your monitor to finite, mathematical reference points that are universal. If you adjust your screen by sight, then you are relying on what you see not what the rest of the world sees, not to mention the fact that room paint, lighting, or even the color of your shirt can alter the way you see your screen. Its computer stuff, 0's and 1's. Only 0's and 1's can communicate accurately with other 0's and 1's.

Your text suggests you use a color calibration device. If so, then it should, if used properly, true the monitor colors.

I use the Sypder3 device, and it trues colors nicely. Only please note that you may have to adjust manually both the brightness and contrast.

Non-intuitively, if a print looks too dark, then you have to lower the monitor's brightness. Consider that if the monitor brightness lowers, then you'll have to brighten the onscreen image. This brightened image will then print brighter.

Note that you'll have to do one or more test prints to match the print's brightness to the monitor's brightness. The monitor should have a separate control for adjusting its brightness. Adjust the brightness incrementally until a print looks similar in brightness to the image onscreen.

At the same time, please bear in mind the monitor uses back-lighting to illuminate a monitor image. A machine under control of an algorithm presents the image within a color space used for monitors. Hence, a kind of trueness of color results.

Differently, a print uses reflective lighting to illuminate it for our eyes. This fact means the reflected light quality will depend on its source. For example, if your studio walls have a yellow coloration, then the light reflecting from this source will carry a yellow colorcast that will fall on your print. Light picks up the color from the surface it strikes and carries this color as the light reflects off the surface. The light reflecting off the print will have the contaminating yellow colorcast in it, thus affecting how your eyes record this light reflected off the print.

But our perception will adjust itself within two or three seconds to render the print coloration in our consciousness close to what our experience believes the coloration should look like in order for it to appear with true coloration. The same process happens when our eyes record color in a room lit by tungsten light which has a Kelvin around 3600. Tungsten lighting has an orange color to it. Our perception filters this orange light to use whites in the scene to bring the other colors into a trueness that our consciousness expects.

As a result, you should have a studio with wall surfaces painted a neutral white. Lights illuminating the studio should fall in the Kelvin range for mid-day light -- between 5000 and 5500 Kelvin. These conditions provide a known reference. You can buy CFL lights with this Kelvin temperature for controlled lighting conditions.

This is a big subject, and so I’ve not covered it all. Consider, though, that experienced photographers who show their printed images will print them for the lighting conditions where the prints will hang. A knowledge person associated with the place that shows your prints can give you the Kelvin temperature of the light sources used there.

Good luck.

anotherview, thanks for your insightful input on this subject. I am going to ask a few questions and hope I don't impose. Basic's first. I shoot Nikon D800 FX, capture in both JPEG and RAW (NEF), edit in mostly PSE, now 12, either RAW or JPEG and edit on a ASUS PA246Q IPS 1920X1200 monitor and print to a Canon PRO 9000 MK II inkjet. My monitor allows me to view in Adobe RGB or sRGB or its standard factory presets. My question is which setting I should edit in. I of course shoot sRGB in my Nikon D800, JPEG and RAW. The real confusion here is that that I also have a datacolor Spyder4 calibrator which seems to set it's basic calibration to what ever color mode I am in..and mostly the prints from that are not so cool. I am fully aware of brightness and contrast issues between monitor and printer and can control that, but basic color control differences are a problem. It's to the point that now I am considering abandoning print/hard-copy portfolios and going to digital. Any insight you might have would be greatly appreciate..and thanks for your time.