Help! Dark photos

[mecook]

I have a Fugi A210 digital. Every photo looks good in the LCD, but when I look at them on the PC or at one of the Kodak machines in Walmart or Rite-Aid, I have to individually lighten each and every one of them before I can print them. Any ideas for me? This is a major PAIN!
Thanks,
Melanie

 

[Kelly Grannell]

On many Fuji cameras, there is a the "exposure compensation" feature. Make sure it's at 0 instead of a negative number.

 

[eeyoreforever]

mecook - I seem to have the same problem with my Canan A-95. I'll think I got a decent shot of something, but then its so disappointing to see it on my computer. Someone else told me a while ago that maybe my monitor needs to be calibrated??? Of course, I have no idea how to do that, but now I have a new computer so I'll have to see if the new monitor makes a difference or not. I'm anxious to hear what others have to say about this.

 

[Kelly Grannell]

If your intention is to use your monitor as an editing tool, then you WILL have to have your screen claibrated. The two items I can strongly recommend are Spyder 2 (by Colorvision) and Huey (by Pantone).

They calibrate not only brightness but also contrast and colour rendition. This is THE only way to see your digital picture correctly on your screen.

 

[elizke]

If your photos are looking dark elsewhere, and in print, but look bright on the LCD, then it's not a monitor problem.

Your camera LCD brightness may be set too high. This helps see the pic on camera, but gives a false idea of what you're getting. See if you can lower the setting alittle to more match what you get in print. Some cameras' LCDs automatically adjust in darkness to help you see better. If yours does this it can give you the wrong idea too.

And the other factor is that most digital cameras are weak in the flash department. If it is mostly indoor flash pics you have a problem with, the number one thing to do is make sure you are in flash range for your camera. Tough to do sometimes!

If all shooting conditions are affected, you might want to check the exposure compensation setting and use it more. And worse case, when I found myself brightening every picture to get prints to look right, I got a new camera. : /
Good luck!

E.

 

[fiffy]

I would look at your exposure compensation, your LCD brightnes levels and the situations you are getting the dark photos in. If you are mostly shooting indoors you will need to be 4 to 10 feet form the subject. The small flashes in point and shoot cameras will not reach further then 10 feet. If you can't get any closer then 15 feet then just turn your flash off alltogether as it will screw up your exposure. Your camera will set the f-stop and shutter speed assumeing that the flash will reach you subject, but when it doesn't you are in trouble and your photos will be very under exposed. Another thing is that the LCD screens on the back of the cameras is not accurate by any stretch of the meens. It never was intended to be. So you can't really rely on it for colour and brightness. As stated above if you plan on doing your digitol photo corrections on your computer then you MUST have the moniter calibrated. Also, take your memory card to an actual camera store or photolab where they will hand proccess your photographs on silver halide paper. It will last much longer then your inkjet or diesub prints, plus you will have someone to do the corrections for you.

 

[Anewman]

B4 I started calibrating my monitors(3-4 years ago) my images also looked very dark on the screen so I would adjust b4 printing. Well prints would come back washed out and did not match what I saw on the screen.

I do not think full blown calibration is a MUST for everyone, some casual photogs can get away with poorman calibrations.

Send some test shots out to print, make sure the lab does NO FURTHER ADJUSTMENTS and then eyeball the levels on your monitor to match the prints. You can adjust black level easily with most modern video cards. Worst case, you can also use the settings on your moniter to adjust brightness/contrast. Again this is not for pros but it will help get better prints.

also you can find many Images that help you determine How off your monitor is.

That image should show as wide a gamut as possible. It should not become solid white(or black) until it gets to the far right or left. If it becomes solid White half way across your monitor is set too bright, if the image becomes solid black half way across it is set too dark.