StevenG Loc: Long Island, NY

I’m not sure this answers your question or not. I Use a MacBook Pro and do my own printing. Initially my prints came out very dark. I successfully resolved this issue by lowering the screen brightness down to 3-4 bars while viewing and processing my photos. Then before printing I drop the exposure down another 0.1. I am very satisfied with the results.
Steve

Chief Rob

One possible answer to you question is:

Go to System Preferences ->Displays -> Display Brightness -> (1) UNCHECK Automatically Adjust Brightness, and (2) move the brightness bar to center

Good luck

peterg Loc: Santa Rosa, CA

There is no factory default brightness for Macintosh displays. Even if there was a default brightness, it probably would not be applicable for photo printing. Same for monitor calibration. As others said, if your monitor is too bright, your prints will be too dark. I set my brighness by comparing a test print with my monitor using my "Mark 8 Mod 1" eyeballs. Make them look the same. Even comparing one of your dark prints could work. Dim your monitor to match your dark print. Then, with your photo processing app, you'll make the photo on screen brighter for your next prints. The print will then be brighter. Simple. With my MacBook Pro, I use four clicks down from full bright. Not scientific, but it works. Room ambient light can make a difference. Keep it the same.

RRS Loc: Not sure

No, it has so much to do with getting a well exposed print back from your printer. When your brightness is set too high on the screen you then will make adjustments to make it look good to your eyes. Since the screen is set too bright you will actually be sending out a file when viewed at the printer or someone else's screen that will now be too dark, hence the reason for your dark prints. When you do your screen calibration does it not give the recommended parameters for each setting to try and achieve during the calibration and when you finish does it not show what you achieved. Also I have the option to look at a before and an after shot of "Mary" well that's what we called her when I was printing professionally (Film). If your numbers don't match up to what you started out to do then you have done something wrong or there is something wrong with your equipment that you are using. I have two options when I do a calibration, I do one at least every month, and that is a complete where I set everything Red, Green, and Blue as my screen allows that option or a somewhat limited one that is better then not doing one at all but does not give me what I need. I spent a lot of time working with my printer of over 30 years back and forth to be sure that we were on the same page as far as color.

PPP Loc: Florence

On your iMac go to System Preferences/Displays/Color and then "Option Click" on Calibrate. Select "Expert Mode". This will allow you to adjust your monitors Luminance/Gamma and White Point. Name and save the monitor profile you just created. That should get you close to a balanced monitor profile. Once that is done you need a set of print profiles from your printer which will be loaded into PhotoShop and you can select the print profile depending on the photo paper and printer they are using for your prints. With all that done your screen and prints should look the same.
Cheers

PPP Loc: Florence

Ooops....Forgot a step! In PhotoShop goto Edit/Assign or Convert to ICC Color Profile your print house will be using. Here is an explanation of what each one does! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J41LqjxyY1c

canon Lee

YES! its the only indicator I use, & have learned in LR how to adjust for my outsourced color lab. Shadow slider is most important to retain mid tones & lower black density.... I was just curious how to adjust the monitor brightness when using my ColorMunki.

canon Lee

HI.. the icc color profile just adjusts for color. How do I adjust brightness when using ColorMunki???

canon Lee

I tend to agree with you, that is why I use the LR histogram to lower black density using the shadow slider, as well as other sliders... I am satisfied with the color. Occasionally i need to lower the color "saturation" as well as the WB. It

rgrenaderphoto Loc: Hollywood, CA

Will not work, since all of our eyes see color differently.

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

Canon, I have a PC and use the ColorMunki too. I'll tell you what happens when I calibrate my monitor. First, when I use the app that comes with the ColorMunki (Photo), it has some setup parameters you must choose from. First, Profile My Display, then I select the monitor I want calibrate since I have 2, then at the top it has choices for LCD, Laptop or Projector, so I chose LCD, #2 I choose Advanced, and then D65 (recommended) and last I choose "I would like my display luminance set to the following value: 100cd/m2. This setting is the one that calibrates my monitors to a little lower brightness that almost always makes my prints match my display in brightness. After choosing my settings it will ask you to change the position of the selector on the ColorMunki to calibrate the device. Then you turn it back to its original position. And then you click on next and it place it on your monitor. Then next it starts the calibration process.

This may be the part you are looking for now. After mine starts the calibration process, it sometimes asks me to set the contrast to the highest setting and then next it asks me to change that setting so that the meter in the app is nulled out to the middle. Then it proceeds to the next part where it takes some more readings and then asks me to adjust the brightness to null it out to the middle. After that it's all automatic to the end.

Your Mac monitor may not act the same or have external adjustments but the app will actually tell you that if you don't have any adjustments then click "my monitor doesn't have adjustments". But your Photo app should allow you to select a lower luminance to produce a less bright display.

You may be able to grasp what is happening with my simple explanation as to why your prints are dark. Imagine your monitor "is" calibrated and your photos are printing perfect. Now, imagine you decided to manually brighten up your LCD simply because you prefer a bright screen for surfing the web. So now your screen (LCD) is 20% brighter. You forget this and decide to stop surfing the web and print some pictures from Photoshop or LR. You open one of those apps and find a picture you'd like to print. You make all the adjustments so that it looks fine on your screen. You print and it's too dark. But if you were to have turned the brightness down 20% before you printed, you'd see on your screen that your picture was not bright enough. Hence you'd re-adjust it to your liking and it will (should) be just fine. See what I mean? I hope my way of explaining this has shown you the light. LOL

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

That completely ignores international standards for image adjustment. EVERYTHING in ICC color management starts with monitor calibration and custom profiling.

The monitor (or any device) must respond linearly to color and brightness changes in each color channel. (Calibration)

The operating system must know how to conform the capabilities of that specific physical piece of hardware with the “connection color space” it uses to match color across all devices. (Profiling)

Monitor brightness must be set, in the calibration routine of the cal kit, and not changed until the next calibration!

If you set the black and white points, gamma, and color temperature properly, and illuminate prints being referenced with a 5000K, 91 to 96 CRI light source, they should match VERY closely. Mine do, even with the cheapest iMac and an office-grade Epson all-in-one printer.

Dennis833 Loc: Australia

Try setting your monitor brightness to around 80-90 cd/m2. Most monitors are set way to bright at around 120 cd/m2. Setting the brightness lower will give you lighter prints.

canon Lee

I need a how to.... I am using an iMAC 27/ macOS Sierra... Late 2012... I will be using LR Classic CC I am not sure My Mac has a way to set brightness "numerically", all I see is a slider and its set to midway... I would need instructions for a Mac....
I cant rely on the brightness of my monitor so I use my Histogram in LR...
Most comments here are about "color" not brightness..
I have been using the same color lab for a long time and have experimented with adjustments in LR so that I can get the prints consistently the way I want them.... I know if I send my files to them without any PP, the blacks will be overly dense and have no detail... So its important that I send them a boosted mid tone file upping my shadow slider... its just one of many tweaks I do...

canon Lee

Cal kit?