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Thread: Dark Prints

  1. #1
    Lifetime Member Jay Gould's Avatar
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    Default Dark Prints

    I have just received the first group of prints; they are all significantly darker than I see on the monitor. The printer says - the backlit LED produces a much lighter print than when the image is actually printed. How is this avoided?

    Turning down the brightness on the monitor before processing so that it is processed brighter?

    The monitor is calibrated with the Spyder Elite.

    Viewing the calibration strip I easily see the right side of the strip; I have trouble distinguishing the first two black boxes and I can distinguish 2 from 3.

    Advice?
    Cheers, Jay

    My Digital Art - "Nature Interpreted" - can now be view at http://www.luvntravlnphotography.com

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    Hi Jay,

    Several things.

    1) What color space did you make the image that was delivered to the printer (sRGB, Adobe RGB, etc). If not sRGB, does the printer know and use the embedded color profile?

    2) It is true that a print will look different than RGB on the monitor. Do you have an ICC profile for the paper+ink from the printer? If so apply that and CMYK in the soft proof. That will come closest to what the final print should look like but still will never be exact. In CMYK, you may find some colors appear muted, often greens, so I will boost the saturation custom for that print as needed to show the colors better.

    3) For overall brightness, check the histogram. For a print to appear light it must have about half or more of the histogram above (to the right) of the half way point from left to right. I use the histogram position as the main test of overall brightness, not the look on the monitor.

    Roger

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    The images I've seen from your NZ trip are outstanding - disappointing to get naff prints back, for sure.

    Scott Kelby suggests making a duplicate layer and setting the Blending mode to "Screen". Then adjust the opacity to reduce the lightness - making some test prints at different levels of opacity. I find that on my own Epson printer that I need about 40% opacity, so I start experimenting around there.

    Maybe worth a try!

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    Agree with Roger- soft-proofing is one way to reduce/avoid printing surprises. Install the ICC profile for the printer and go View->Proof setup->Custom in Photoshop and select the printer/paper profile. Then toggle back and forth with Command/Control-Y to see the difference.

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    BPN Viewer Tom Graham's Avatar
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    A basic problem is a monitor displays with projected light while a print displays with reflected light.
    Forgive me if this insults your intelligence, but, you can not view the print in the same type of light as the monitor. The print requires daylight, I prefer shaded daylight. Typical indoor lighting simply won't work. Unless the bulbs are of special color spectrum and temperature type and then you can get fairly close.

    Tom

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    Quote Originally Posted by Tom Graham View Post
    A basic problem is a monitor displays with projected light while a print displays with reflected light.
    snip

    Tom
    I agree about the basic difference Tom and the result is that the monitor can only approximate the print. But, with a calibrated monitor and a colour-controlled workflow including soft-proofing it is my experience that the approximation can be pretty close with few surprises at the printing end.

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    Quote Originally Posted by John Chardine View Post
    I agree about the basic difference Tom and the result is that the monitor can only approximate the print. But, with a calibrated monitor and a colour-controlled workflow including soft-proofing it is my experience that the approximation can be pretty close with few surprises at the printing end.
    John,
    I agree. Regarding what kind of light to evaluate the print in, in my opinion, it should be the same type of light that will illuminate the print where is hangs. For example, if the print is hanging indoors and illuminated by incandescent light, then it should be evaluated under incandescent light. This adds yet another complication in matching monitor with print that soft proofing currently does not handle.

    Roger

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    BPN Member Don Lacy's Avatar
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    Jay, If you want the best prints you can get you need to work with a custom print studio who will make proofs and do the Photo Shop work needed to produce the prints you envision. They are not cheap for the first print but once they have the finale file optimize you can order subsequent prints at a lower cost. I have worked with West Coast Imaging in the past and they do excellent work but there are other studios that provide the same level of service. Read through their website it is loaded on information for preparing files for printing and the services they offer will give you an ideal of what to look for in a printer http://www.westcoastimaging.com/wci/...bitionmain.htm
    Don Lacy
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  9. #9
    Susan Candelario
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    Hi Jay,
    I do a lot of my printing myself in different types of media including gallery wrap canvas prints. But for my high volume work I do send it out to various labs and have yet to have a problem.

    Many labs will be happy to either send you or have ICC profiles available for you to download from their website. That will enable you to adjust your images prior to uploading or sending them in.

    They will also specify what color profile to attach with the image. SRGB & Adobe RGB being the most common for color photo printing. CMYK is mainly used for offset printing & press printing in commercial work such as magazines, postcards etc.

    If the lab is using CMYK and they are asking for SRGB or RGB it's because their printer drivers will make the appropriate conversion. Just like inkjet printers do.

    HTH

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    From what I've seen the most common cause for dark prints is that the monitor is set up too bright. You said you calibrate the monitor wit the Spyder Elite, does it report what the luminance level is after calibration?

    Ken

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