RGTX

I use Photoshop to improve my photos. Inevitably, my finished photos look great on my monitor. They look great when posted on IG. They look great on my Android. They look great when emailed to others. But when printed, they are dark and grainy.

What's going on?

Thanks.

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

You're editing display is too bright. Turn it down and you should see an improvement. Get a display profiling tool like an XRite i1 Display Pro and you'll be getting as close to the display as per ossuble. Also keep in mind that you are comparing illuminated vs reflected images, each with a different color gamut.

bleirer

'Grainy' could be noise, you'd have to give more info or post some. How big were you printing, what size image in pixels to start with, what did you do to improve them, how or where did you print them?

JD750 Loc: SoCal

You have answered your own question. The problem exists between the computer monitor and printer. There is no guarantee that what you see on the monitor will be what you get out of a printer. Those who print spend time getting that right. Please do some research on the subject of Color Management.

As for the grainy photos, Gene51 gave you some good suggestion. I second his suggestions. Give it a try.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

This community can provide detailed analysis and actionable corrective actions based on actual examples. This free analysis and advice starts with a review of some actual examples. Just post a few, edited or originals from the camera, and be sure to click the box to store the original file.

PHRubin Loc: Nashville TN USA

My monitor displays about 1 MP while my camera takes photos with 24 MP. The monitor can't possibly match the detail in the photo. That being said, graininess (noise) is usually a sign of under exposure brightened in post or high ISO. Without seeing your photo with EXIF (use store original) it is hard to tell.

GENorkus Loc: Washington Twp, Michigan

A simple and inexpensive fix to the darkness problem you experiencing is to get a pure white piece of print paper then compare your screen brightness with it. Tweek the screen as necessary to match.

Note: Do it in the same background lighting as you edit with. You might need to talk to the printer company to get their specs.

Ednsb Loc: Santa Barbara

a number of thoughts - first, how big are your images in pixels. Whomever you use for printing should be able to tell you the minimum as well as the recommended number of pixels for that size image. If you don’t have them you may need to use a product like On1 resize or Topaz Gigapixel to intelligently expand the number of pixels. You also can choose the output size for the print. I'm an On1 Raw 2020 user who has thousands (no, hundred of thousands) images from prints, negatives, and slides I shot in the 60s through 2010 when I finally went all digital that have been scanned to digital. In some cases, they are quite small in pixel size especially the slides (my misunderstanding of the process and too lazy to redo them). On1 Raw 2020 resize allows me to expand them to almost any size. I recently did a poster of a slide I shot in Yosemite in 1971 where the slide was around 640x930 at 300 dpi. The poster was 8 feet by 6 feet and was perfect. 2nd, your monitor will show a lot more depth than a print so you need to soft proof the images to meet the profile of the printer being used or do a lot of expensive testing. I am pretty sure the PS app will allow you to print using the profile you can get from whomever you are using for the prints. I don’t know if it soft proofs (shows you the image on your monitor the way it will show after printing). Lastly, none of this will work unless you have calibrated your monitor as others have stated. BY THE WAY PHRUBIN, I don’t know what size your monitor is but my 27-inch screen shows 2560x1440 pixels which is almost 4 MP. The real issue is how many colors it can show. At some point, your eyesight will not be able to differentiate them. Dynamic range is the real issue here in my mind - Your eye sees 18 to 20 stops, the best digital camera sees around 10 (https://www.camerastuffreview.com/en/camera-guide/review-dynamic-range-of-60-camera-s), the best monitors are around 10 stops also. The dynamic range of a printer is based on paper and ink so variable and I am having difficulty in finding any specific numbers but my view for my prints is that I lose about 1 stop in printing in srgb, fuji frontier printer profile for glossy at costco.

Ednsb Loc: Santa Barbara

I forgot one thing - if you images are grainy in soft proof the AI Clear filter in Topaz is great. That slide I talked about above was agrachrome which was terrible for grain. AI Clear literally with a push of a button clear all the grain up without softening everything else.