So I am at a point where I am reasonably happy with my photo editing skills (experienced amateur photographer), but have an issue where pretty much everything I print is too dark. Whether I’m editing on my MacBook Pro screen or my 27” monitor, I think the screen backlight gives added brightness that doesn’t come across when printed. I’ve also found that I can’t always rectify the situation just by upping the exposure before I print - that will often result in the highlights being blown out in the print. I use a canon Pixma pro 100 printer if it matters.
Is there something I’m missing when preparing to print, because I can’t keep adjusting and test printing every photo multiple times…
Since you’re not using a printing lab, it could also be your printer. Would be worth looking into adjusting the printer to match what you see. Turning up the exposure for print makes sense. There may also be recommended printer or color profiles you need to set up. When I printed with newspapers and magazines, they had to add profiles and brighten the hell out of photos to avoid printing dark. Assuming your histogram is a good average to start with. But what you’re experiencing is not unusual.
Thx, this is where I spent a lot of time - digging into the world of color profiles. It did help with getting the colors to look the same as on screen, but not the brightness. I’ll reconfirm that my histograms are good but might need to dim and/or calibrate the monitor with a dedicated tool as the other person suggested.
Turn the screen brightness down when editing.
Print a printer test image from the internet, then place it near (but not right next to) the screen. Turn the brightness down until you get a similar impression from screen vs print. That’s your best setting for editing.
Thx, I’ll try this first - simple and makes a ton of sense.
What editing software are you using? The better ones have the possibility to brighten the dark parts without changing the lights. Raw converters usually have softproof for printing, too.