Started by kevinlearns, 14 Jan 2026. 9 replies, 348 views
Gear in this topic: Canon EOS R50
So I finally got some prints done from our Christmas trip to Sedona (R50 + the 18-150) and they all came out super dark and kind of muddy compared to how they look on my laptop! The red rocks look brown!! I edited them in Lightroom and they looked amazing on screen. Is it the print shop? I used the one at the pharmacy. Or is my laptop wrong? Someone on YouTube said you need a calibrator thing but they're like $200+. Is that actually necessary or is that just for pros?
Last edited:
Your screen's too bright. Almost everyone's is.
mfrost said:Your screen's too bright.
This, and it's the most common print complaint there is. Laptop screens ship really bright because that looks good in a store, something like 300-400 nits. A print is lit by whatever lamp is in the room, which works out closer to 80-120. Edit on a screen that bright and you'll push everything darker than you think, because it all still looks fine.
Step one costs nothing: turn your brightness way down, to around a third, and look at your edits again. You'll see the problem immediately.
Step two is a calibrator. Yes it's worth it, no it's not just for pros. A basic one costs less than the next lens you'll buy and it improves every image you edit afterwards. imo it matters more than the lens.
Step three is the pharmacy. Those machines often auto-correct prints. Ask if they can turn that off, or use a lab that lets you.
Last edited:
rawtherapist said:turn your brightness way down, to around a third
Oh wow. Just tried this and you're right, they look dark on screen now too!! So I've been editing everything too dark this whole time?? That's like 600 photos lol. My wife says she told me the screen was too bright months ago, so that's fun
Calibrate, yes, but don't expect the calibrator to finish the job on its own. A screen is light coming at you and a print is light bouncing off paper, and they will never look identical. The aim is to get them close enough that you can predict the difference.
What I do, after twenty-odd years of selling prints: calibrate the screen to around 100 to 120 nits, edit, then soft proof using the lab's profile for the paper you're ordering. Most decent labs publish one. Soft proofing will show you the shadows closing up and the reds going duller before you spend any money. Then order a small test print, or a test strip of the important part of the image, and look at it under the light it'll actually hang in. Only after that do I order anything big.
It sounds like a lot of faff for holiday snaps, but once you've done it twice it's ten minutes, and you stop wasting money on prints that go in a drawer.
Last edited:
omg this is me with my kids pictures!! I thought the store was just bad lol. I got a photo book made for my mom's birthday and everybody's faces came out kind of orange and dark and I blamed the website. ok turning my brightness down right now
counterpoint, my stuff only ever gets seen on phones so i edit at max brightness and it looks right where it ends up. depends where it's going
noisyshadows said:my stuff only ever gets seen on phones
Which is fine until someone asks for a print. Then you get this thread.
gwyn_ap said:soft proof using the lab's profile for the paper you're ordering
Update!! Ordered a calibrator (the cheaper one), turned the brightness down and redid the edits, and found a lab online that has profiles you can download like Gwyn said. Soft proofing is kind of scary, it showed me EXACTLY the brown rocks problem. Fixed them and got a test print and it's way better. The rocks are actually red now. Thanks everyone!