canon Lee

I use an outsourced labs to do my printing, & they always come back darker, especially lack of detail in the blacks. I use LR to do my settings, but when I bring those setting over to CS4 I notice the whites are down about 15% on the histogram. How do I compensate for the loss of brightness? I export to the lab sJPEG. My concern is not the "color balance" (WB) but the illumination or brightness of the print. The lab says they do color correction as well as "density" ( what ever that means) adjustments. I feel very out of control leaving these print adjustments to a lab. Why are the darker in the first place?

R.G. Loc: Scotland

I can't explain the drop when you move from LR to CS4, but have you considered that the brightness of your screen might be off?

canon Lee

I have a imac 27 that is calibrated for color. The brightness is an issue because it is arbitray in that part of the colormunki set up. Colormunki sets the monitor brightness to "default, which I have not been able to find the "default" setting. I have been bumping up the white levels to counter this darkness problem. Do you know how I could set the iMac27 "default setting?

R.G. Loc: Scotland

I'm not familiar with Macs, but if you get the right sort of set-up chart you can set it up optimally yourself. Try to find the sort of chart that has a band going from black to white in discrete steps. Adjust your brightness so that the bottom two or three steps (bars) and the top two or three steps are merged. If it's a really good monitor you might be able to get it so that none of the top or bottom bars are merged, but it's more likely that you'll be trying to get an equal balance between top and bottom.

I don't have the time to check this out right now, but try googling "monitor calibration (or set-up) charts" or something similar.

Usually the monitor settings can be adjusted using menus accessed by the buttons on the monitor itself. The default settings are probably tucked away in a menu somewhere (possibly "settings" ).

kubota king Loc: NW , Pa.

I have the colormunki and the spyder 4 elite . After trying both out for calibrating . I use the spyder 4 . It doesn't matter which one I use the $500 printer I have doesn't match perfectly . The reason why is the monitors have what is called back lighting that shines thru the photos as you view them on your monitor , and printers do not have this . SO to compensate , I adjust my monitor manually a little darker after the calibration is done . Then I have the option to print out a photo or 2 to check the darkness of the monitor compared to the printed copy . And I end up pretty happy with the printed results . What you could try if your going to use an outside source . First thing you could try is to hold up some prints and adjust your monitor brightness to where the monitor photo looks closer to the printed photos . And the 2nd thing you could try like I use to do . I would make the photo in Photoshop CC to what looks good to me , then I would increase the brightness by 30% to compensate for the printer printing out darker because it doesn't have back lighting as I said before . I only use PS so I can't help you with the lighting changing switching from lightroom to PS . This is how I fixed my problem , and it may help you or it may not . Something you can try if you want to ....Tommy

abc1234 Loc: Elk Grove Village, Illinois

Two observations. You are using a version of PS that is rather old so the color profiles may be off. I use CC and notice no difference between LR and PS. I suggest your updating the software which will be well worth it due to the improvements.

As for the printing, you might want to embed the printer profile in your file, check the rendering intent, export as a tiff and exclude the ICC profile.

OnDSnap Loc: NE New Jersey

Something I do prior to printing, whether I do it or send it out, aside from using the correct ICC profiles, in PS...I create a new later (similar to flattening but without doing so, with top layer highlighted, CTRL+ALT+Shift+E> select new layer> set Blend mode to Screen and lower opacity to about 20-30% Save as TIFF. (you'll have to determine this with trial and error) depending on where you send them to be printed.
If when you get your print back, and it's still to dark, or to light, adjust the opacity of the blend mode Screen layer. When done, shut that layer off for viewing on monitor.
Why are they Darker you ask, your monitor is lighting up the photo from behind unlike looking at a print where the light is reflected and absorbed. Remember the slide days....looking at them with a projector or on a light box compared to holding the slide at a 45° angle over white background. Kind of the same thing.

Jim-Pops Loc: Granbury, Texas

I just tried your suggestion Doug and I think this is just what I need to start doing. I've been having the same problem with my out source printing. Thank you for the tip.
:thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:

Bullfrog Bill Loc: CT

I print from LR not PS so I don't know your transition problem. However even with a fully calibrated monitor and appropriate color profiles prints were coming out darker than expected from my Epson or a color lab. After researching the issue I found that many of us prefer a brighter screen which is not recognized in the calibration process. When we print the finished product looks darker. To over come this, the LR print module has a final adjustment to account for the difference. Mine is +20. When sending a jpeg to a lab I select "Print to JPEG rather than to Printer in the Print Job section of the Print Module. That way the file reflects my compensation for the screen brightness.

OnDSnap Loc: NE New Jersey

Glad I could be of some help....works for me.

R.G. Loc: Scotland

Even better :thumbup: .

OnDSnap Loc: NE New Jersey

Unfortunately, in LR... Brightness in the print module is a sticky setting...and if every photo doesn't require 20% lightening and you forget to adjust accordingly, well... the reason I prefer my method is that the lightening layer stays with the file and is not a global setting that goes from file to file. But specific to that photo.

Bullfrog Bill Loc: CT

Yes it is sticky but it is intended to compensate for a bright monitor which, in most cases, is constant and not to account for exposure differences.

canon Lee

Just an after thought concerning the prints I get that appear to be dark.. The darkness is due to the black to mid range density. The whites are good. But I lose all detail in the blacks. I feel the mid range is the problem that my out sourced company is not getting correct. I have since told them to make sure I have detail in the blacks and mid tones. They have complied and the prints look much better. Note* they work with JPEG's so I am sure they are very limited in how much they can adjust the "density" of the dark areas.

Rich1939 Loc: Pike County Penna.

thank you for that tip! I will try that and see how it works out. Up until now after I have an image about where I want it I reduce the monitor brightness to its minimum to get an idea of how the image will look on paper. Unfortunately unlike color there seems to be no standards for monitor brightness and all of us have to make educated guesses.