Prtinted images are always dark

[jparnold]

I really don't think that attempting to adjust my monitor or adjusting how PSP displays my images is going to fix my problem as my problem (as I see it) is that the prints of my images are too dark in my opinion and adjusting the monitor and/or PSP is NOT going to affect the prints.

My wife takes all our still images and doesn't want to do anything more than 'point and shoot' ie. use auto. (I used to own a Nikon SLR (film camera) and always manually set the speed and aperture).

Images I have included here appear (according to others) to be fairly normal regarding brightness, saturation and contrast. Also when I display my images (mostly) I like what I see on my monitor regardless of if PSP or Windows Picture Viewer is doing the display.

So that MUST fall back to how the photo lab is printing my images.

I need to adjust my images BEFORE I have them printed to try and get the prints brighter and to my liking. My initial post was to ask for assistance as to what I should do to adjust my images, adjust gamma, adjust brightness and or contrast, adjust saturation or whatever. It would seem that I may not have explained myself properly as some have thought that I expected my prints to look like the images displayed on my monitor and therefore that perhaps my monitor is not adjusted correctly. That is NOT what I am trying to achieve. All I want is for my prints to look brighter/lighter than how they do (and so I thought that adjusting the images before printing would fix that).

[Tadjio]

My initial post was to ask for assistance as to what I should do to adjust my images, adjust gamma, adjust brightness and or contrast, adjust saturation or whatever. It would seem that I may not have explained myself properly...

Have you tried my suggestion of applying Gamma Correction (Shift+G) at say 1.1, 1.2 and 1.3 and sending them to the printer?
(Mine was the first response to your request

[David Milisock]

Thanks

I have been using this lab for some years and some time ago when I became tired of getting prints which I considered too dark I started to use their 'mass enhance' feature which was a 'button' to tap on the screen which said something like 'enhance all prints'. When I did that I was MUCH happier with the prints so always selected this 'feature' for subsequent orders (I wonder why the enhance features resulted in brighter prints?).

Maybe also I should take the same images to the other 2 or 3 labs in my area and compare the results and go to the one which gives me the images I prefer even if this means paying a little more and/or having to travel a little further.

And maybe I need to 'bracket' one of two images by creating a series of copy images each with slightly more (applied) brightness and compare the difference and then choose the one I prefer and then always apply the same change to every image (using batch script) before printing.

Lastly would you suggest that I modify contrast and/or saturation on the camera or do this later with PSPX2?

What I would try is to take the sRGB images that I gave you and apply a simple GAMMA correction, try a couple different setting and then try applying th eone you like to al you next batch of images this most likely will resolve the dark problem

[David Milisock]

My initial post was to ask for assistance as to what I should do to adjust my images, adjust gamma, adjust brightness and or contrast, adjust saturation or whatever. It would seem that I may not have explained myself properly...

Have you tried my suggestion of applying Gamma Correction (Shift+G) at say 1.1, 1.2 and 1.3 and sending them to the printer?
(Mine was the first response to your request

I think you're on to the answer.

[David Milisock]

My initial post was to ask for assistance as to what I should do to adjust my images, adjust gamma, adjust brightness and or contrast, adjust saturation or whatever. It would seem that I may not have explained myself properly as some have thought that I expected my prints to look like the images displayed on my monitor and therefore that perhaps my monitor is not adjusted correctly. That is NOT what I am trying to achieve. All I want is for my prints to look brighter/lighter than how they do (and so I thought that adjusting the images before printing would fix that).

No you did explain yourself but to give an answer I had to see the images first. The monitor suggestions are good for when you have to make changes, the gamma correction in a batch comand woul dseem to be your solution.

[Tadjio]

I think you're on to the answer.

Thanks, David. I shall be interested to see your book although I gave up with PSP and Color Management some time ago.
One problem was that once you start using it, it is nearly impossible to remove it later

[David Milisock]

I think you're on to the answer.

Thanks, David. I shall be interested to see your book although I gave up with PSP and Color Management some time ago.
One problem was that once you start using it, it is nearly impossible to remove it later

Actually that's because people over thnk it and make it too complex. The fact is that you have to use it and you are using it even if youtink you're not.

[Tadjio]

Actually that's because people over thnk it and make it too complex. The fact is that you have to use it and you are using it even if youtink you're not.

If just using it like this is what you mean, then yes I am using it

Basic Color Management in PSP

Color Management basic.jpg (123.63 KiB) Viewed 5843 times

What I was referring to was getting into Profiles, Proofing and Rendering using the Color Management features of PSP.

[David Milisock]

sorry some weird double post thing

[David Milisock]

Actually that's because people over thnk it and make it too complex. The fact is that you have to use it and you are using it even if youtink you're not.

If just using it like this is what you mean, then yes I am using it

Color Management basic.jpg

What I was referring to was getting into Profiles, Proofing and Rendering using the Color Management features of PSP.

Yes you are but even if you thought you weren't you were. If comes down to computer programming, in the case of of allprograms in this case PSP the computer MUST and I mean MUST consider the RGB numbers to come from a color space so all PC's MAC's and Unix devices consider untagged RGB as sRGB. Hence you're using color management if you like it or not.

The questions are do you make it complex or easy? ( get caught up in a soft proofing jungle) Do you utilize it to enhance your work to a higher level?

There's no issue from me with a person who wishes to easily take family snap shots and make family albums, this is easy and consistent color certaily will be their goal. What they achieve is knowing if it was the image or not so they can edit when needed. After all I have a 11 month old granddaughter.

I also can understand the person who wants to use PSP to convert their RAW captures to the prophoto color space for archiving and produce art quality images in digital format or print. I can tell you that there's no reason that they can't. yes the methods will be different than if using Corel Photo-PAINT X5, Painter 11 or PhotoShop CS5 but the end results can be just as artistic.

[ronzie]

John-

I replied to your post about metering.

The idea about getting the lab profile for proofing is to allow you to preview the image to get the correct amount of gamma to apply before sending in the images instead of sending several in with different gammas.

Now, in the PPSP CM Profile Window having the sRGB ICC in there as the monitor profile is incorrect. That is the monitor color space setting. For the Samsung Monitor this is what is should look like for basic CM.

PSPPX3 CM Dialog Perceptual with SM940.jpg (73.89 KiB) Viewed 5830 times

I am also showing some Win Control Panel Color Applet screens which illustrate the difference in Win CM profile availability and installation. This is an XP control panel applet available as a free download from:

Microsoft Color Control Panel Applet for Windows XP
The Microsoft Color Control Panel Applet is a tool for Microsoft Windows XP that makes it easier for you to manage Windows color settings.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/d ... 8d429fbb9e

Win Default Color Space Dialog.jpg (52.67 KiB) Viewed 5830 times

Profile Selection Win CP Color Applet.jpg (108.02 KiB) Viewed 5830 times

If you do get a profile for your lab you can install that for match mode so you can see the effects of the gamma value to figure what to apply in batch mode before sending in your photos. Preadjusting gamma is what has been suggested here and this is how to see the effects of different values so you can pick the right one.

One more screen shot in the next reply.

[ronzie]

Final Win XP Color Applet screenshot.

Win Device Display Profile List.jpg (83.39 KiB) Viewed 5830 times