Printed photos darker than screen image?.

[Christine]

I have spent a very exhausting couple of evenings trying to sort settings so that monitor,Elements 4.0 and printer,HP Photosmart 8450 are all compatible.
I have read every possible thread re calibration etc,but that is beyond my capabilities,so I have set the Elements to "optimize for print " setting.The printer is set at default for Adobe SRG,as it has been mentioned that if ones cam shoots in Adobe,not the Srgb,then everything should be compatible.
The printed shots are perfect in quality,but just fractionally darker.I have not noticed this before,until obtaining a widescreen monitor,so everything is very bright.
Would I be better off using the original default settings.The new system is a bit of a nuisance as everything goes straight in Elements,whereas I prefer to load into My pictures.
Trying to put some RAW files into Adobe,took me 3 hrs trying to convert them,lost half of them,and the only way I could convert to JPG was by saving for Web,what a waste of time!!!!
So if anybody is using a similar set up,and could advise re settings please,I would be grateful.I have printed off an image this evening,it looks okay,very sharp ,perfect detail,but just a tad darker than the screen image.
This keep printing and testing is using too much ink,very costly.

[nirofo]

Are you sure you've set your monitor up correctly for contrast, brightness and gamma. If your monitor settings are out you'll never achieve proper colour from your prints. Try readjusting your monitor to have a gamma of 2.2 if you're using Windows, or 1.8 if you're on a Mac. Colour temperature on your monitor should be approx 6500 Kelvin. For a very usefull gamma clibration tool use QuickGamma, can be downloaded free here.

http://www.normankoren.com/QuickGammaV2EN.exe

For very usefull web links to setting up your monitor etc, go to this link.

http://www.normankoren.com/makingfineprints1A.html

nirofo.

[Craftysnapper]

Hi Christine, I use the HP7960 and CS2 & Elements 5 and I actually prefere printing from Elements and get perfect results so lets see if I can help.

I have read every possible thread re calibration etc,but that is beyond my capabilities,so I have set the Elements to "optimize for print " setting.The printer is set at default for Adobe SRG,as it has been mentioned that if ones cam shoots in Adobe,not the Srgb,then everything should be compatible.

If this is the case then forget the links posted in the previous thread and lets keep it simple, what you are doing here is the correct procedure for a colour managed workflow.

The printed shots are perfect in quality,but just fractionally darker.I have not noticed this before,until obtaining a widescreen monitor,so everything is very bright.
Would I be better off using the original default settings.The new system is a bit of a nuisance as everything goes straight in Elements,whereas I prefer to load into My pictures.

Not quite sure what you mean here, but it is better to use Elements (which is colour managed than to print using a windows program.
It also sound like your new monitor is not calibrated Gamma wise as well as your previous monitor (being wide screen should make no difference)

You also do not say how you are calibrating you monitor, Spider, Adobe Gamma or the windows system.

But lets forget that for the moment and presume that from what you say "The printed shots are perfect in quality,but just fractionally darker" this means that the gamma of your monitor is set to bright, but you have to realise that veiwing the same image by transmited light "Monitor" and reflected light "print" are two different mediums and the print will always appear darker when compared to the monitor.

Now if the difference is dramatic you can alter the gamma of the monitor (as it is proberbly calibrated wrong) to match the prints but if you are happy with the brightness of your monitor you can use this little dodge I have found usefull for fine tuning the brighness of prints. With your image open go to enhance>Adjust lighting>brightness and contrast, now alter just the brightness slider to say +10 and try a print and see if it matches what is on your monitor (all we are doing here is altering the Gamma of the image rather than the monitor) when you find a setting that works remember it and apply it to all your images, but do not save the adjustment to the image when closing it down.

Trying to put some RAW files into Adobe,took me 3 hrs trying to convert them,lost half of them,and the only way I could convert to JPG was by saving for Web,what a waste of time!!!!

Quite simply when you open your raw images in Elements they are in 16 bit mode and you cannot save a 16 bit image as a jpeg. So got to Image>Mode> and change it to 8bit/channel you will then be able to save it as a jpeg normaly.

Paul

[Christine]

Paul and Nirofo,thankyou for your replies.Yes,I do know where the Gamma settings for the monitor are to be found,and I had been reading about them.So will change those and see if it makes any difference.
Also thanks for the advice re RAW,will have another try at a later date,far too time consuming,and it only seems to do what one can do in Elements ,without all the converting etc.

On the printing Christine, I can confirm both phenomenon and cure. My monitor is calibrated (using my usual favourite Cambridge in Colour that has a very extensive calibration sequence). I use an Epson printer and the print dialogue boxes I get AFTER giving the print command from PSE4 include 'Colour management' that has brightness & contrast sliders and colour sliders for CMYK individually. I usually find +10 in the brightness does the trick and doing it in the printer command does not affect the original. In a case where colour is critical, other adjustments might be needed. I expect the HP software has a similar adjuster - ask Paul.

On the business of RAW, please see thread I have started on using canon's own Digital Photo Professional. Sorry the v 2.2 download is 80MB, but worth every second. Editing becomes a joy instead of the sweat it used to be when I was having to do FZ7 jpg in PSE. I have only been back to PSE once in editing my first 200 RAW pics when the sky came out noisy. But PSE is good for printing.

You should not have lost anything, hopefully if you search for the folder you downloaded into from camera, the original .CR2 s will still be there.

[Craftysnapper]

Originally Posted by daedal

. In a case where colour is critical, other adjustments might be needed. I expect the HP software has a similar adjuster - ask Paul.

.

Indeed there are three adjustment sliders in the Hp software saturation, hue and brightness that can also be used as well

Chtistine as to raw you mayl come around to it eventualy .
These are the histograms showing the amount of data left after the adjustments.

The image on the right is raw opened up in Elements in 16 bit mode and a adjustment made using the shadow /highlight tool ,then a seperate levels adjustment made to the sky and land, all global and bit destructive adjustments.

Now the same image on the left as a 8 bit jpeg after the same adjustments. The gaps are missing data that has been lost by the adjustments in 8bit and thats just on three basic adjustments.
http://www.pbase.com/paulsilkphotogr...e/74038120.jpg
Paul



Paul

[Christine]

Thanks,Paul and Chris.I tried the Gamma for the monitor ,but no sign of 2.2 ,it goes up in % .But the monitor itself seems okay.
I had another try printing a very good Robin shot I took today(needed no editing apart from a dust spot or two) and in the printer one can set to print lighter if needed.So for portait shots,taken indoors,where flash is used,then this can be the better option maybe.
I will have another try with RAW sometime!!!.It is just so time consuming.