Michael Emge

I am having trouble syncing my computer screen with my printer so that I do not have to save a second copy with a longer exposure adjustment to make the photo look like what I snapped. The photo comes out so much darker that it sometimes loses a lot of detail. Are there other methods other than the one I have been using? My computer is a MacBook Pro and my printer an HP 4500 series. I am using preview to print.

jak86094

A couple of answers would help us help you...

First, what application are you looking at your photographs on on the MacBook Pro?

Second, are you doing any post processing of the images before printing them?

Third, are you printing the photographs using the same application as you are using to view or post process them?

This will help I think. Formerly, Macintosh computers used a different gamut than PC's. But the Mac gamut was darker than the PC's. I'm not sure if this is still the case, but if so, it would seem to have the opposite effect from what you are experiencing, i.e., that the pictures would print lighter than they looked on your screen. Still, adjusting and managing your computer's monitor is probably the way to permanently fix this problem so you aren't adjusting each photograph separately and so the image on the screen closely matches the printer output.

jak

Rich1939 Loc: Pike County Penna.

Michael, It is a fact of life in the photography world that monitor images are brighter than printed ones. The image on a monitor screen is produced using transmitted light, the light essentially "comes out of the screen". Because a print uses reflected light it will be darker. How much darker depends on how bright your monitor is set and the light you use for viewing it.

Here are a couple (there are many more) threads on this subject here

https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-513473-1.html
https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-524559-1.html

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

Most monitors are turned up too bright, which always results in dark prints. I suggest you profile your display using an Xrite i1 Display Pro or similar, and use a white clip point starting value of 80 cda/m². If your prints are too bright, then use a higher value, and vice versa. My guess is that your display is likely in the range of 120 cda/m² or higher. The profiling tool will also discover and remedy any color issues as well.

Harry0 Loc: Gardena, Cal

Macs also raised their gamma settings.
Playing with normal settings to match PCs and printers wouldn't help.
My Macs OSs have about 10% more gamma than the PCs.