What can you do about photos that are too dark?
This all has to do with color management and proper preparation. Although digital photos are often viewed on screens, a physical print remains the best way to truly bring an image to life. Yet, the result can sometimes be disappointing. A print may be too dark, have a color cast, or show other deviations. This often happens because color management is not set up correctly. Fortunately, there are several ways to improve this and take your prints to the next level.
Why is color management important?
Color management is essential to ensure that your entire workflow from camera to screen to printer is properly aligned. Without good color management, a photo on your screen can look very different from the final print. This happens because each device has its own color space, and the human eye can perceive more colors than a screen or printer can display. When you lighten a dark photo or edit an overexposed image, color management plays a major role. A properly calibrated monitor ensures that you see a realistic representation of your photo, so the final print doesn’t turn out too dark or too light.
Calibrating your monitor for accurate colors
Many modern monitors are set too bright by default, making photos appear lighter on the screen than they actually are. This can result in prints that are too dark. A properly calibrated monitor is essential for editing photos. By calibrating your screen, you adjust the display to better reflect reality. The NIDF standard recommends a white point of 6500 K, a gamma of 2.2, and a brightness between 90 and 120 cd/m². This ensures you see a realistic representation of your photos before printing. You can find more information about this on our support page. It doesn’t have to be expensive.
After calibration, a monitor profile is created that is recognized by your operating system and photo editing programs like Photoshop and Lightroom. This allows you to trust that what you see on your screen closely matches how the final print will look.
Setting up your workspace for accurate colors
Not only your monitor, but also your workspace affects how you perceive colors. The environment where you evaluate your photos should have neutral colors to prevent color deviations. A light gray on the walls is ideal. Lighting also plays an important role. According to the ISO 3664:2009 standard, as referenced in the NIDF guidelines (Dutch Institute for Digital Photography), the light’s color temperature should be 5000 K, with a color rendering index of at least 90 preferably 94 or higher. Additionally, the light intensity at your monitor should be between 32 and 64 lux.
If your workspace is too brightly or too dimly lit, it affects how you perceive your photos and can lead to unwanted adjustments in your editing. Working in an environment with proper lighting allows you to evaluate and edit your photos more accurately.
Setting up color management in Photoshop and Lightroom
Proper color management in Photoshop is essential for color-accurate prints. Many users unknowingly work with default American settings, which are primarily aimed at CMYK. For photographers, however, RGB is much more important, especially when working with RAW files.
In Photoshop, under ‘Edit’ → ‘Color Settings,’ you set your color space. ProPhoto RGB offers the largest color gamut, but Adobe RGB is also an excellent choice. If you work with RAW files, Adobe RGB is the best option for editing your photos. However, no printer can fully reproduce ProPhoto or Adobe RGB. Therefore, when converting colors outside the printable range, choose ‘Relative Colorimetric’ or ‘Perceptual.’ For online use, always convert your photos to sRGB for consistent display.
Work with printer profiles for consistency
The printer and paper you choose affect the final colors of your print. We use our own ICC profiles to give a better representation of how your photos will ultimately be printed. If you submit your files in sRGB or Adobe RGB, we automatically convert them to our latest profile. Want even more control? Install our ICC profiles and view your photos with the correct color profile to get a realistic preview.
With the right settings and profiles, you ensure that your photos are displayed optimally, both on screen and on paper.
How to Prevent Dark Prints
The difference between a monitor and a print is that a screen emits light, while a print depends on ambient light. This often makes prints appear darker than what you see on your screen. This means that when editing your photos, you should already take into account the conditions in which the print will eventually be viewed or displayed.
To prevent your prints from being too dark, it’s important to calibrate your monitor properly and set the brightness slightly lower. This way, the display on your screen better matches how the print will look in real life. It also helps to evaluate your photos under lighting similar to the space where the print will hang. Consider the difference between daylight and artificial light it makes more of a difference than you might think. Finally, after calibration, you can make the photo slightly lighter in your editing program so that the final print doesn’t appear too dark.
Brightening and optimizing your photos
If your prints consistently turn out too dark, it may be related to your monitor’s brightness. Modern monitors are usually set too bright by default, making photos appear lighter on screen than they really are. As a result, you may unconsciously adjust them too dark, which leads to unwanted effects in the prints. Calibrating your monitor and lowering the brightness helps correct this.
If your prints are still too dark despite a properly adjusted screen, you can apply an additional correction in Lightroom. In the ‘Print’ panel, enable the ‘Print Adjustment’ option and experiment with the brightness and contrast sliders. This can help bring your photos into better balance. Some testing is required, as you’ll only see if the adjustment works after printing. Once you’ve found the right settings for a specific paper and printer combination, you can apply them consistently for reliable results.
If you don’t have experience with photo editing or don’t use Photoshop or Lightroom, you can use Profotonet’s automatic optimization. This option automatically corrects brightness, contrast, and color so your photos look their best on paper. While many standard print services have optimization on by default, with us you need to enable it manually. This is because we know that many photographers prefer to edit their own photos and maintain full control over the final result.
Preparation is key to a perfect print
If you’re unsure whether your monitor is correctly set up and you don’t manually adjust your photos, it’s wise to enable optimization. This prevents your prints from turning out too dark or dull. Ultimately, it’s all about preparation: a well-set-up workspace, a calibrated monitor, and the right tools ensure that your photos are printed exactly as you envisioned.
Make sure to follow the proper steps to prepare your photos, so you won’t be surprised when you print them. Good luck creating beautiful prints that bring your photos to life!
