Screen brightness and dark prints - help

[jessica_brighton]

<p>First things first -- I am a hobbyist/enthusiast at best. I don't own any editing software, other than the basic editing tools in iPhoto. I will use this to adjust exposure, saturation, levels, shadows, etc., but I really don't do a lot of editing.</p>

<p>Anyway, I'd like to know if there is an easy way to set my screen brightness and/or calibrate my screen for photos. My prints are often too dark, so I'm sure I need to adjust something on my screen. </p>

<p>I did some googling on the subject, and I'm just completely overwhelmed. Is there a simple solution?</p>

<p>I have a MacBook Pro, if that helps. Also, I generally use really inexpensive printing options, like shutterfly. Again, I'm just a hobbyist. :)<br>

Thanks in advance!</p>

 

[keith reeder]

<p>http://www.calibrize.com/</p>

[john_wheeler6]

<p>Hi Jessica<br>

Calibrize as mentioned in a previous post may not work on a Mac.<br>

I have a MacBook Pro as well and accurate calibrating without calibration HW/SW is difficult yet there are options to try. You did not mention the OS version you have so my answers may not match yours (I am using OSX 10.6).<br>

If your prints are coming out dark the most common cause is the screen brightness being too high. With the screen brightness too high you edit the tones down to be even darker. This causes the color numbers in the edited image to be overly reduced and prints come out dark. You need to have the brightness of the monitor set to be at the same luminosity as your viewing conditions of the print. This is typically quite low compared to the maximum brightness of the screen. Here is a link that talks about this issue: http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/why_are_my_prints_too_dark.shtml<br>

I am also assuming that you are using the MacBook Pro screen instead of an external monitor attached to the Mac. You can adjust the screen brightness via System Preferences. The luminosity in the range of 120 lm/m^2 is a reasonable setting yet you have no way to set that without something to measure that brightness. My setting ends up being at about the 1/3 point on the slider scale when setting the display brightness. Also not to turn off the auto-adjust for room brightness to keep the brightness consistent.<br>

Without calibration HW this might take some trial and error to get a good match with what you send to your printing service yet should get you a lot closer.<br>

<br />For color calibration if needed, the Macs have a built in piece of SW accessible again through System Preferences > Displays > (Color Tab) > Calibrate. They have an optional "Expert Mode" checkbox that might be worth checking out too. To be honest, this SW is pretty touchy in getting real good results yet you could give it a go.<br>

<br />Note that both color and luminosity of most laptop displays is very sensitive to the vertical angle in which you view the image (tilt the display back and forth during calibration to confirm this sensitivity which shows a large shift in both luminosity and color. I suggest that you need to consistently view the image on the MacBook Pro display from a consistent angle - I usually pick straight on to screen)<br>

Hope this is helpful.</p>

[howard_m]

<p>On my older Macbook Pro, the brightness needs to be set fairly low (about 3-4 bars) to get a decent match. Most LCDs are blisteringly too bright which yields a too dark print.</p>

[jessica_brighton]

<p>Thank you for the responses.</p>

<p>John, I am using OSX 10.7.5<br>

I'm sorry - I don't know what HW/SW is. <br>

Based on what you and Howard have said, my screen brightness is definitely too high -- I usually keep it almost all the way up. Oops.<br>

So, at a glance, is the attached photo going to be too dark? And if so, do I just adjust the levels? I'm not sure how to make it brighter.</p>

<div></div>

[jessica_brighton]

<p>Thank you for the responses.</p>

<p>John, I am using OSX 10.7.5<br>

I'm sorry - I don't know what HW/SW is. <br>

Based on what you and Howard have said, my screen brightness is definitely too high -- I usually keep it almost all the way up. Oops.<br>

So, at a glance, is the attached photo going to be too dark? And if so, do I just adjust the levels? I'm not sure how to make it brighter.</p>

 

[peter_gaunt]

<p>I always set my screen to the same brightness when I'm processing pics which are destined for paper. However, it's still too bright and prints come out dark. I use Aperture for processing and there's an option in the print dialog to set the brightness (used to be labelled 'gamma' in earlier versions) and I worked out through a little trial and error what this needs to be set to - it's always the same (1.27 in my case). My screen's colour is calibrated with a Huey Pro and that results in a very close match between screen and paper; it's only the brightness which needs changing. Other applications may have similar print brightness adjustments.</p>

[john_wheeler6]

<p>Hi Jessica<br>

HW/SW is my shorthand for Hardware/Software.<br>

I don't really use iPhoto so it is hard to answer your specific question. A good measure is to understand the histogram when making adjustments as that represents the actual numbers that will be with the file (and eventually sent to the printers). Also, the exact result really depends on the viewing conditions of your prints (e.g. the luminosity and color of the light illuminating the print). You may just need to make some prints based on the new brightness setting of your Mac display and see if you get a better match.<br>

iPhoto does not provide the basic adjustments for an image yet does not provide the same level of flexibility for adjusting tone and color as would e.g. Adobe Lightroom, Apple Aperture, or Adobe Camera Raw (plugin in Photoshop).<br>

With the tools you have available I would try some prints at this point and see how they look. If you had a home color printer you could improve the turnaround of your trial prints yet do not know if that is an option for you. Hope this helps.</p>

 

[john_wheeler6]

<p>Typo correction to previous post: iPhoto "does" provide the basic adjustments for an image yet does not provide the same level of flexibility for adjusting tone and color as would e.g. Adobe Lightroom, Apple Aperture, or Adobe Camera Raw (plugin in Photoshop).<br /> With the tools you have available I would try some prints at this point and see how they look. If you had a home color printer you could improve the turnaround of your trial prints yet do not know if that is an option for you. Hope this helps.</p>

[jessica_brighton]

<p>Thanks, everyone! This is very helpful.<br>

Just for fun, can anyone tell me if the above photo looks bright enough? I'm also open to constructive feedback on the photo, as I am trying to improve the quality of my photos. :) Thanks, again!</p>

[purplealien]

<p>Hi Jessica</p>

<p>Just for fun (because there are lots of things that could affect what I see - not least my eyesight!):</p>

<p>The brightness looks about right on my monitor. However, it looks a little too contrasty and skin tones look a bit off (too pink).</p>

<p>Nb. I am using Goggle Chrome, and my monitor is calibrated with a Spyder 3.</p>

<p>Chris</p>

[grh]

<p>Agree here. A touch too pink, and probably bright enough, although it could be a touch brighter, too, if that's what you like.<br>

My MO was to work on my monitors to get the color right first. I used http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/ for images. This involves making prints and comparing them to the screen version. The next step was to consider brightness. Being of mind that I prefer deeper satuation in my images, I don't like them too bright. But combine that with a bright monitor and you get dark prints. So after printing some and then going back to compare, I'm learning what I should target during processing that will result in a print that is correct (for my preferences). If you don't want to invest in HW/SW (an industry abbreviation, not just the above poster) this technique can get you pretty far. Another one is to take photos of objects with bright simple color (e.g. a Kodak box) and compare the screen image to the real thing.<br>

And if you don't have a gray card I encourage you to pick one up. This was inexpensive and portable: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/GENUINE-WhiBal-Certified-Neutral-Balance/dp/B004G3M36Q/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1349645963&sr=8-3&keywords=whibal">http://www.amazon.com/GENUINE-WhiBal-Certified-Neutral-Balance/dp/B004G3M36Q/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1349645963&sr=8-3&keywords=whibal</a> It's large enough that my D5100 can use it to set a custom white balance, as well as appear in photos.</p>

[Ray House]

<p>Hi Jessica, I am on a calibrated monitor and this is how I see your photo as presented and adjusted. Brightness was increased just slightly and pink color cast removed. Of course color is somewhat subjective. Hope this helps.</p><div></div>

[jessica_brighton]

<p>Awesome! Thanks again, everyone! I appreciate you taking the time to respond.</p>

[grh]

<p>...and now he's blue. Here's what I come up with:<br>

<img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8175/8066636793_f313c9c4d4.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="332" /><br>

with a bit of work in LR. Red -29, yellow -8, orange -14, blacks 9, brightness +23, clarity +50, vibrance +15.<br>

But that's just me.</p>

[jessica_brighton]

<p>Love that! Thanks, Gary! Would it be inappropriate for me to ask if you could post one without your copyright on it, so I could save it?</p>

[James G. Dainis]

It was inappropriate of Gary to put a copyright notice on that photo. I assume his photo editing program automatically enters it and he didn't catch it.

[grh]

<p>D'oh! I am so sorry!! That was completely unintentional and inappropriate. Please forgive me. I thought my export settings had that turned off. I wish photo.net would let you edit previous posts; and the weird thing is, the last copy I have on my desktop doesn't have the watermark. Oh: the image is from flickr; this forum doesn't let you upload photos.

[jessica_brighton]

<p>Thanks, again, everyone! I really appreciate the help. Gary, thanks for the link to the gray card. I have added that to my (ever-growing) wish list. :) The photo isn't showing up in the above post for me. Any chance you can try linking to flickr again? Thank you!</p>

[grh]

<p>Yes, I cleaned out my flickr feed and it went away. I was hoping photo.net would cache the image, but apparently does not. Here's the link to a copy in my gallery. I'm not going to repost the watermarked version (d'oh again!) since this is the same image.<br>

<a href="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/16518052-lg.jpg"><img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/16518052-lg.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="425" /></a></p>

[jessica_brighton]

<p>Many thanks!</p>