-
Thank You For Visiting... Please Click Here and sign up to contribute
Glyn Dewis - prints too dark?
- Thread starter Elines
- Start date
Thanks for this Chris. Really not noddy at all.
I was calibrating TV screens back in the 80's for brightness, contrast and white balance using a (then vey) expensive piece of kit. The principles haven't changed, so using old kit really shouldn't be an issue. Your calibrator may have shifted calibration but experience suggests this shouldn't be enough to make prints obviously too dark.
I agree with the comments here regarding the histogram: white is white and black is black on a histogram. You can't get whiter than the base colour of the paper and you can't get blacker than the maximum amount of ink laid down. If your histogram is covers the full tonal range then so should the print, although I have noticed that prints can look better if the mid-range tones are lifted. I think I may have got that from Simon (@Digital Finger ). The best way to find how much lift is required is to print a few.
I agree too that reducing the brightness of the screen is helpful to adjust these things visually although I tend to use 100 candela in combination with the histogram as this works in my environment. Opinions may vary.
I did Nick Carver's printing course earlier in the year and was impressed with its clarity and coverage although you do need to pay for it. Nick recommends judging the print away from the monitor and I think he is right, you are never going to be able to make a print that matches the image as displayed on a monitor. Adjustments are made to improve the print judged on the print itself and not on the image as displayed on the monitor.
I was calibrating TV screens back in the 80's for brightness, contrast and white balance using a (then vey) expensive piece of kit. The principles haven't changed, so using old kit really shouldn't be an issue. Your calibrator may have shifted calibration but experience suggests this shouldn't be enough to make prints obviously too dark.
I agree with the comments here regarding the histogram: white is white and black is black on a histogram. You can't get whiter than the base colour of the paper and you can't get blacker than the maximum amount of ink laid down. If your histogram is covers the full tonal range then so should the print, although I have noticed that prints can look better if the mid-range tones are lifted. I think I may have got that from Simon (@Digital Finger ). The best way to find how much lift is required is to print a few.
I agree too that reducing the brightness of the screen is helpful to adjust these things visually although I tend to use 100 candela in combination with the histogram as this works in my environment. Opinions may vary.
I did Nick Carver's printing course earlier in the year and was impressed with its clarity and coverage although you do need to pay for it. Nick recommends judging the print away from the monitor and I think he is right, you are never going to be able to make a print that matches the image as displayed on a monitor. Adjustments are made to improve the print judged on the print itself and not on the image as displayed on the monitor.