UNSOLVED photos printing darker

liz123 · #1 11-09-09

I have been printing photos at home for years (or sending the larger ones to
local printing shops) and the photos have turned out great.
Recently, all photos have printed much darker than they appear on the screen.
I have always used Adobe Photo Shop 2.0 to ready them for printing.
Nothing has changed there and I have used the same computer for years.
I thought the problem could be in my new camera, but then tried printing old photos from years ago. Still dark.
Also, thought it could my screen , so used my husband's computer to edit w/ Adobe Photo Shop. Still things seem to print much darker.
Am I crazy? Any ideas what could be wrong?
Thanks, Liz

Ian · #2 11-09-09

Quote:

Originally Posted by liz123

I have been printing photos at home for years (or sending the larger ones to
local printing shops) and the photos have turned out great.
Recently, all photos have printed much darker than they appear on the screen.
I have always used Adobe Photo Shop 2.0 to ready them for printing.
Nothing has changed there and I have used the same computer for years.
I thought the problem could be in my new camera, but then tried printing old photos from years ago. Still dark.
Also, thought it could my screen , so used my husband's computer to edit w/ Adobe Photo Shop. Still things seem to print much darker.
Am I crazy? Any ideas what could be wrong?
Thanks, Liz

Hi Liz! Welcome to DPNow

Did you make any changes to your photos (editing and adjusting, etc.) before printing? If so, then it could well be your monitor, as the display does change with time. Do you calibrate your monitor?

Can you (or do you already) check the image levels via the exposure histogram (CTRL+L in Photoshop) - that will indicate if the image is inherently dark or not. You can post an image or two for us to analyse of course... feel free!

Ian

liz123 · #3 11-09-09

Ian, Thanks for the response I do a lot of editing on most photos. Editing out road signs, etc. Yes, I do check the color levels and all seems to be OK there.
Haven't calibrated the monitor recently, and shall do so. I'll give that a try, but since I
also have tried using the same photos on my husband's computer with different monitor, and same "dark" results that may not be the problem. Off to calibrate... Liz

Ian · #4 11-09-09

OK, changing focus to your printer - have you changed your inks or paper type recently? Do both computers use the same printer?

Ian

Rodbender · #5 12-09-09

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ian

OK, changing focus to your printer - have you changed your inks or paper type recently? Do both computers use the same printer?

Ian

Also look at the printer settings. My Epson printer has a Gamma setting that lets me select overall brightness of the print. Worth a look.

liz123 · #6 12-09-09

The prints come out darker on all printers including the larger ones which I take to my local print shop. Therefore, I am concluding that it could possibly have something to do with settings in Adobe Photoshop. Is this possible? We carefully lcalibrated and looked at all settings on my monitor. No luck. Photo printed darker than appears on the screen. Also, emailed a photo to a neighbor and she printed it on her printer. This photo came out darker than the screen picture as well.......

Ian · #7 12-09-09

This is a long shot, but could your images be in Adobe RGB colour space instead of sRGB?

In Photoshop load an image and then from the Edit menu, click on Convert to Profile... which will identify the source space (and the destination space setting if you were to do the conversion). If the source space is Adobe RGB, you would see a colour and density shift with printers not configured for this colour space.

Ian

Danny Chau · #8 14-09-09

Quote:

Originally Posted by liz123

I have been printing photos at home for years (or sending the larger ones to
local printing shops) and the photos have turned out great.
Recently, all photos have printed much darker than they appear on the screen.
I have always used Adobe Photo Shop 2.0 to ready them for printing.
Nothing has changed there and I have used the same computer for years.
I thought the problem could be in my new camera, but then tried printing old photos from years ago. Still dark.
Also, thought it could my screen , so used my husband's computer to edit w/ Adobe Photo Shop. Still things seem to print much darker.
Am I crazy? Any ideas what could be wrong?
Thanks, Liz

Hi Liz,
Did you upgrade your OS recently, this had happen to me many times previously, where either changes in the OS or software upgrade in either the printer driver or image manipulation software could cause the print to be darker than the screen image (assuming the screen and printer is calibrated).

Ian · #9 14-09-09

Quote:

Originally Posted by Danny Chau

Hi Liz,
Did you upgrade your OS recently, this had happen to me many times previously, where either changes in the OS or software upgrade in either the printer driver or image manipulation software could cause the print to be darker than the screen image (assuming the screen and printer is calibrated).

Danny, how did you correct the problem? Was it simply a case of re-calibrating everything after the OS change or software upgrade?

Ian

Danny Chau · #10 14-09-09

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ian

Danny, how did you correct the problem? Was it simply a case of re-calibrating everything after the OS change or software upgrade?

Ian

I encountered similar problem about 2 months ago, and found out it was due to the new printer driver selected did not register at the OS level, so I have to manually change the printer driver at the System preference (Mac OS), so the printer driver then select the printer/paper preset properly.