Problems with dark prints. What colours do you see on your screen?

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stellarbeam

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539
Name
Jessica
Edit My Images
Yes
I just got 16 images printed at DSCL and the all colours seem incredibly dark and just not right. I've added a couple of photos here. How do they seem on your screen? (I'm not sure if it's my computer or the prints that are wrong)

3062215838_1fcda6a2dc.jpg

What colour do you see top left? I see white or very slightly off white. The print is quite a dark biegey grey

3045979085_e35174dec7.jpg

The colour of the hand shows as a light-mid brown on my screen. The print is a bold yellowy-orangy

3050808193_6378b248c9.jpg

On my screen the top right is a mid-dark blue and the top left a much deeper blue. On the print you'd be hard pushed to tell if it's in colour or black and white.

These prints were supossed to be for a college application portfolio and at the moment I have about 2 useable prints out of 16. I'm willing to accept it may be my screen. I feel so disheartened at the moment :'(
 
Im seeing all the same colours as you, lovely shots!

Edit: After another look, in the thirs, the left is very black and the right is quite dark blue. Is your screen calibrated?
 
Not too sure about the colours as I'm not really calibrated on this laptop but I've run a colour meter over the third print and the top left section is full on black here.

Sorry. :(
 
I think I'm going to get a couple printed at Asda tomorrow and see how they look and go from there.

Anyone else able to tell me what colours they see?
 
the_doctor199 said:
Im seeing all the same colours as you, lovely shots!

Edit: After another look, in the thirs, the left is very black and the right is quite dark blue. Is your screen calibrated?
Click to expand...


Just seen your edit. On my monitor only the top left corners are very dark (more so on the right) My monitor isnt calibrated. Is there any free/inexpensive way of doing it?
 
What colour space were the files you sent for printing using?
 
I have no idea what colour space is or which one it should be *slightly embarassed*

How do I check which it is, what should it be, and how do I change it if it's not right?

Thank you everyone :)
 
Depends on what s/w you have. If you've photoshop the easiest way to check is open the image and then Edit > Convert to Profile from the menu. In the window that appears it will tell you the source space. Note that down, click cancel and report back.

If you don't have photoshop then tell us what s/w you have and your workflow - shooting raw, converting with, and so on.
 
Sorry for seeming stupid but I can't figure out what s/w means.

I'm shooting large jpeg and any editing is done in PSP8. Most editing is just slight contrast and saturation boost. I have had some images back that had no editing, other than cropping, and they are orangey and unusable.

ahh..s/w = software? so yeah, Paintshop Pro 8.
 
Ok, I expect the images are sRGB then. One last place to check is in PSP8 colour management settings that the working space is sRGB also.

If that's the case then the next step is to get your monitor calibrated. PSP8 has it's own system for this which might be worth a look (check the help file for details), certainly if you want to continue using it as PSP doesn't play well with dedicated h/w calibrators.
 
pxl8 said:
Ok, I expect the images are sRGB then. One last place to check is in PSP8 colour management settings that the working space is sRGB also.

If that's the case then the next step is to get your monitor calibrated. PSP8 has it's own system for this which might be worth a look (check the help file for details), certainly if you want to continue using it as PSP doesn't play well with dedicated h/w calibrators.
Click to expand...


The help file is saying that there is a calibration thing at jasc.com but that site is no more. it says to go to corel.com but that has nothing.

Some of these really orangey photos looked fine on the back of my camera. Not identical to my moniter, but not miles out. Be interesteing to see what Asda print tomorrow.
 
My calibrated monitor shows them being closer to how you describe your prints than your screen. I suspect my setup is pretty accurate now since prints from Loxley match my monitor images quite nicely.

Could it be more to do with your monitor brightness than colour adjustment? You might try turning down the brightness and contrast a little.

Hope that helps. Best regards,
Andy.
 
Andy,

Thank you.

I'm just trying to work out how to adjust the contrast setting at the moment. I can find the brightness but not contrast.
 
Blue. A mid to deep blue. The picture had a richness of colour to it but still bright and sharp in the centre of the image.

I'm trying to think of something to compare the colour to but I can't think of anything.
 
The details are lost in these corners, they need to be lighter than the figures showing up when I have checked there values, they are almost black in each corner, the first sky is an off white what colour were you looking for in this image?
 
Off white is what I see. A strong beigey grey is what I have in print. It's much more intense than what I'm seeing on screen.
 
I've emailed you.

At least I now know that it's my computer not the prints that are wonky. It's the worst possible outcome as it means pretty much everything I've ever edited and posted is wrong, which makes me feel sick in the pit of my stomach.

Suppose I can only blame myself for not getting it checked sooner.
 
Looking at the histogram of the third image it looks very dark too. I lightened it by 1 stop in Lightroom and got the following. How does this look to anyone else?

Histogram before
BeforeHistogram1.jpg


Histogram after +1 stop adjustment
AfterHistogram1.jpg


stellarbeamImage1.jpg


Andy.
 
stellarbeam said:
I've emailed you.

At least I now know that it's my computer not the prints that are wonky. It's the worst possible outcome as it means pretty much everything I've ever edited and posted is wrong, which makes me feel sick in the pit of my stomach.

Suppose I can only blame myself for not getting it checked sooner.
Click to expand...

I would not worry too much; I have been just where you are right now! I got a calibration system now so when I look at an image I know how it will turn out, that said there is still a slight difference between the screen and the finished print as the "photo" in your hand is seen with reflected light, the image on the screen is illuminated from behind.

The main thing is to be happy with the results you get!

Mail sent back :)
 
Quick update -

Took the pics to Asda at lunchtime and their photo machine is broken. Typical!

I went to a different Asda this evening so I'll be picking up the prints tomorrow.
 
Andy, So sorry, somehow I missed your earlier post. :$

Looks really good to me, but as I'm looking at it on my screen hard to tell what it actually looks like. Maybe someone with a calibrated screen can confirm.

Martin, I've just got my prints from Asda. There colour was a tad different to DSCL (more greeny!) But the darkness was the same (on the original print) The colour corrected one is far better. I can see the detail I wanted and the brightness makes the image seem even sharper. The colour is still a bit different but I think that is in part to Asds's printing.

A colleague is going to give me a copy of Photoshop (no idea what version) and another is going to let me borrow his calibration device. Another has offered to run my images through a correction thing so things are looking good. Think I'm going to have to have a serious look at getting a new computer for my photo work though. This laptop screen just isn't up to the job. It obv looks different depending on how much you tilt it, and it seems to be darker at the top than the bottom.
 
No worries. Feel free to email me the hi-res versions if you'd like me to adjust them to suit my calibrated monitor. If I email those back you'd be able to test print them and compare.

Best regards,
Andy.
 
stellarbeam said:
Martin, I've just got my prints from Asda. There colour was a tad different to DSCL (more greeny!) But the darkness was the same (on the original print) The colour corrected one is far better. I can see the detail I wanted and the brightness makes the image seem even sharper. The colour is still a bit different but I think that is in part to Asds's printing.

A colleague is going to give me a copy of Photoshop (no idea what version) and another is going to let me borrow his calibration device. Another has offered to run my images through a correction thing so things are looking good. Think I'm going to have to have a serious look at getting a new computer for my photo work though. This laptop screen just isn't up to the job. It obv looks different depending on how much you tilt it, and it seems to be darker at the top than the bottom.
Click to expand...

It’s good to hear we made a step in the right direction, its very hard to know what colours you are after in the finished print, as only you will know what is right!

I corrected the image using a curves adjustment layer by setting the high lights and the darkest areas to a range which will normally give a good colour reproduction in print, there should have been a reasonable level of detail in both the shadows and no blown highlights in the clouds.

I also sharpened the image before sending it back over to you, I have checked the histogram for this image and there was no colour tint / cast in the image, so I do not know where the "green" came from, I have often used Jessops for printing with this process and not had any issues, so a little lost to the why it turned out “green”?

On DSCL they have a set of links to help with colour reproduction, I am not sure if you had seen this page before:

http://www.dscolourlabs.co.uk/quality_advice.cfm

If you would like any other help you have my email please feel free to drop me a line :)
 
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