Prints Coming back dark

G

gpc1

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Name
Greg
Edit My Images
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Hi
I use simlab for my prints. I have a mac, calibrated with a spuder pro.

Everytime i get prints back from SImlab they seem too dark. maybe a 1/2 - 3/4 stop too dark
I edit in a fairly dark room and my monitor is set to auto brightness
Anyone else have this issue?

with the spyder pro, is there a way that it adjust brightness automatically for the ambient?

Rgds
 
•


Yes… a usual trap I fell into as well quite some time ago.

The perception of luminosity is extremely relative and
very subjective in all counts. The used medium is, in fact,
the key to this situation.

Your screen is backlit and performs pretty much like a slide
or transparency (additive colour) in the old days as the paper
works more as a reflective surface (subtractive) and this is
read as a difference in luminosity.

Solution:
A possible solution is to perform something like a strip test
in dark room jargon to evaluate the difference —which should
not be too far from your ,5 ~ ,7 estimation.
 
Confused when you say your monitor is calibrated .? I use a spyder pro 5 and you have to get the monitor within the green box ,, you do this by adjusting the brightness ,,,
 
chphotos said:
Surely, if you've calbrated your screen you shouldn't be using the screen with auto-brightness turned on?
Click to expand...

Agreed. One thing I need to do before each edit is check the calibration. I'm sure I did this so this may be a factor or not.

Also, I have 2 toddlers who live to bash the keys when I'm not looking! They may have hit the brightness key!

The strange thing is that the images look fine on other screens. It's purely the prints seem too dark.

I recalibrate do last night and the room was quite dark. The beignets was wayyyyy too high. In fact it should have been 90mha and I was nearer 160 MHa

I may try another printers as a comparison? Any recommendations that are good and similar priced to simlab?
 
amfoto said:
Confused when you say your monitor is calibrated .? I use a spyder pro 5 and you have to get the monitor within the green box ,, you do this by adjusting the brightness ,,,
Click to expand...

Do you do this each time you edit and is your ambient light consistent?
 
gpc1 said:
Agreed. One thing I need to do before each edit is check the calibration. I'm sure I did this so this may be a factor or not.

Also, I have 2 toddlers who live to bash the keys when I'm not looking! They may have hit the brightness key!

The strange thing is that the images look fine on other screens. It's purely the prints seem too dark.

I recalibrate do last night and the room was quite dark. The beignets was wayyyyy too high. In fact it should have been 90mha and I was nearer 160 MHa

I may try another printers as a comparison? Any recommendations that are good and similar priced to simlab?
Click to expand...

Phone Loxley and ask for corrected and non corrected test images and use the images you are talking about, you can get these test prints free.
 
Calibrate with more manual control and determine the brightness level of the display yourself. Try luminance of between 100-120 and then check your prints. Bearing in mind viewing conditions of the print will affect things. I.e. In a darker room the print will look darker and the screen brighter. Turn off auto brightness.
 
testbloke said:
Phone Loxley and ask for corrected and non corrected test images and use the images you are talking about, you can get these test prints free.
Click to expand...
Can you please tell me what the 'corrected process' at Loxley involves? Is this just the operator of the printer correcting the image to what he thinks it should look like? Does he do a comparition between what he sees on his profiled monitor to what comes out of the printer and adjust to suit? Is it purely visual?
 
momoka said:
Can you please tell me what the 'corrected process' at Loxley involves? Is this just the operator of the printer correcting the image to what he thinks it should look like? Does he do a comparition between what he sees on his profiled monitor to what comes out of the printer and adjust to suit? Is it purely visual?
Click to expand...

Human colour and density correction based on years of experience of how each printer behaves.
Calibration and daily maintenance procedures keep the printers consistent. There is also a check after printing by the person who did the colour correction. Pleased to say we get very few complaints but it is labour intensive.
Many labs automate and use software for correction but It's never been as good as a trained human in our experience.
 
As you suspect, screen brightness is the common issue with dark prints. With the Spyder there is no ability to auto correct for room levels. If you have control over the editing environment/lighting (and you really should) then you just need to set a fixed brightness for that environment (and turn off auto brightness control).

If the room is actually fairly dark, I would expect the brightness setting to be around 50%... maybe one or two clicks higher.
 
Last edited:
testbloke said:
Human colour and density correction based on years of experience of how each printer behaves.
Calibration and daily maintenance procedures keep the printers consistent. There is also a check after printing by the person who did the colour correction. Pleased to say we get very few complaints but it is labour intensive.
Many labs automate and use software for correction but It's never been as good as a trained human in our experience.
Click to expand...
Thank you.
 
Does your printer require you to use a special profile for their printers?
Pro Am in Bradford require the use of a special FUJI profile to be applied to pix you send to them and if you don't use it your prints are not correct.
 
testbloke said:
Human colour and density correction based on years of experience of how each printer behaves.
Calibration and daily maintenance procedures keep the printers consistent. There is also a check after printing by the person who did the colour correction. Pleased to say we get very few complaints but it is labour intensive.
Many labs automate and use software for correction but It's never been as good as a trained human in our experience.
Click to expand...

I think what he is saying here is that they keep the printers calibrated and maintained manually for the most accurate colour reproduction, Not weather what they think your prints should look like. Its up to you to make sure you have your monitor calibrated to the same industry standard with a sRGB profile the same as there machines.
 
SoDoSoPa said:
I think what he is saying here is that they keep the printers calibrated and maintained manually for the most accurate colour reproduction, Not weather what they think your prints should look like. Its up to you to make sure you have your monitor calibrated to the same industry standard with a sRGB profile the same as there machines.
Click to expand...

Both! If for example an album is being checked before print, the colourist will manually adjusted to colour and density on each image before printing to make sure the album is consistent.
You can request not to have this done but the majority of customers take us up on this service.
 
sk66 said:
As you suspect, screen brightness is the common issue with dark prints. With the Spyder there is no ability to auto correct for room levels. If you have control over the editing environment/lighting (and you really should) then you just need to set a fixed brightness for that environment (and turn off auto brightness control).

If the room is actually fairly dark, I would expect the brightness setting to be around 50%... maybe one or two clicks higher.
Click to expand...

If I edit in a dark room I need monitor brightness pretty close to minimum to get anywhere near my prints.

gpc1 said:
Hi
I use simlab for my prints. I have a mac, calibrated with a spuder pro.

Everytime i get prints back from SImlab they seem too dark. maybe a 1/2 - 3/4 stop too dark
I edit in a fairly dark room and my monitor is set to auto brightness
Anyone else have this issue?

with the spyder pro, is there a way that it adjust brightness automatically for the ambient?

Rgds
Click to expand...

One trick - hold a print next to your monitor and adjust the monitor brightness & contrast so that it roughly matches your print. Obviously it'll never look quite the same, but then you should be pretty close to knowing what you'll get from your next set of prints.
 
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