Photos from Lightroom print too dark

I have saved my photos in RAW format and imported them into Lightroom. I have then made changes to them and exported them from Lightroom as JPEG files. However, when I go to a printing kiosk and get the photos printed, they are all darker than what they displayed in Lightroom. What do I need to do to be able to print accepable photos?

It really isn't that difficult to print and get good results. But the key is to make sure the monitor is set properly. Those who are really into printing strongly advocate using a hardware monitor calibration device. I agree, but haven't invested in one. Over the years I have worked with the controls on my monitor and software tools to match the monitor to my printer. And having done so I have found that images that I send to a lab match very well, too.
Since you have never printed before, or are just getting started, you really need to take time to get that monitor adjusted to match the results you are getting. Photolabs are pretty consistent. And if your images are too dark you must at the very least reduce the brightness of your monitor. Color matching can be a whole additional challenge. If you want to print, whether on your own printer or through a lab, getting your monitor set up properly is critical.

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Lightroom prints too dark on Epson 7600 after 10.6 update

I've been reading / trying to troubleshoot this all day.
I've completely wiped and re-installed the printer drivers, Lightroom and the profiles.
I've tested printing with CS3 which works just fine, so it's likely not the Epson driver.
When I preview in Lightroom it looks correct, so does Print Preview. However the image coming out of the printer appears much darker with a noticeable color shift. Darks are way darker, light yellows with a hint of red become light yellow with a hint of grey.
I've tried 2.3 and 2.4.
If printing from CS3 works fine, that points to Lightroom as the culprit.
Anyone else having similar issues?

Because the printer still works after upgrading to Snow Leopard. As noted by the output being the same as 10.5 in all applications except Lightroom.
I appreciate the help. But that doesn't stop all signs pointing to Lightroom. Especially when most of the Epson / LR issues are 2-3 years old and I was never afflicted with.
The breakdown:
In 10.5 Lightroom, CS3, etc all printed fine. All results were the same.
In 10.6 CS3, etc still print fine, exactly the same they did in 10.5. There are no issues with the drivers, no hanging, no freezing, nothing bad coming out the printer. Everything coming out of CS3 looks the way it's supposed to and has been setup.
In 10.6 Lightroom all of the sudden does not print normally anymore. In 2.3 nor 2.4 (both released before 10.6).
I fail to see how that doesn't point all fingers at Lightroom. Perhaps they will release 2.5 and all will be well in the world.
I've come to the Adobe board to try and figure out the problem I'm having with this particular Adobe product as troubleshooting has led me here.
I'm perplexed as to how this is even an issue if LR and CS3 are supposed to use the same print routines. They should print exactly the same. If one is messed up the other should be too.

Lightroom printing too dark

Hi
Apologies if I didn't find this topic on the forum.
I am evaluating Lightroom to replace Photoshop Elements as an organiser and I really like the Library tools however I am struggling seriously to get printing right. All my prints come out dull an dark compared to say a Elements print. I've found stuff on the web referring to all sorts of stuff with Color Management - these are the things I've tried:
- Customise monitor profiles with Adobe Gamma
- Run through pretty much every color setting on my printer drivers and turn on and off enhancement (HP Colorsmart C7283)
- Tried network and USB printer connections
- When I try change from "Managed By Printer" to "Other" the list is blank so I'm stuck with the first option (???)
I've got the following setup:
- Windows Vista SP1
- Dell 1907FP LCD monitor
- Trial of Lightroom 1.3.1
- HP Colosmart C7283 Printer
I seriously want to use Lightroom but right now I'm thinking I may be stuck with Elements, any help would go down like an ice-cold beer on a hot summer afternoon!
Thanks
Adrian

I think you will find that it essentially boils down to LR using the CM of the OS in the print workflow even when choosing a profile in LR.
So that means that the driver needs to (instead of CM off) have ICC or ICM selected. If you can replace the default paper profile in the OS CM with a custom profile so much the better. If not than then you will have to work with the default profile.

How do print from photoshop CS3 to my new epson XP520 printer? The photos are now far too dark: never had this problem with any other printers?

Help please. I have a new Epson XP 520 printer and do not know how to set the CS3 print to get good results as my printed photos are now far too dark. Never had any problems with previous printers and despite changing settings have been unable to resolve.

System info? Exact print settings? Color management?
Mylenium

Exported Jpeg's when sent to photo lab print too dark

I have had consistent results with exported jpeg images that look fine on my monitor (as raw files)and show in the histogram in lightroom 2.5 as the highlights just starting to clip as printing too dark when sent to a photo lab in SRGB. Is this a fault of my monitor? I have calibrated the monitor, a Dell S2409W, using charts on the website at http://www.normankoren.com/makingfineprints1A.html but this still happens. Will darkening the Monitor help or will the images still clip at the same point? I have been able to send a second image with the exposure and or brightness boosted a bit and they print brighter, but this is a pain. What is the best way to correct this so that I can see the same image as I get back from the lab?

hello henrykipson,
you said that you want starting an professional laboratory business,i can talking about this because i had a laboratory until some years ago .i hope that you made some artistic study,so it's more easy for you to learn this topic.you must study,an pass an examination for take an artigianal licence that allow you to open this activity ,the licence given you the opportunity to work either for sale photografic material either to shoot and developing,one time that you had pass this examination you must gone to the police autority and inform these of your business (is under police control.because you work with chemical material,and also because you had a reservate people information,and they must given you their assent.)after all you can start to buy a good developer and print machine beyond to have a dark room.for manual print.you must decided if do you want work in black and white or color.You can do both but is better to specialize by one of them ,like you want.
Remember from the digital events many people print his image at home,you must deciding maybe is better to work with a professional photographer,that can given you more work.itsn't easy.you must have a good preparation because ,they are more exigent.The good results depend also from the quality of your works.a good machine,good chemical product,good upkeep,of your laboratory.(in italy this is the procedure,i think also in other country,because is a ticklish question licence.)I hope that this my little explanation are useful to you.Good luck .
cheers alessandra minotti

Photos Print Too Dark

I've read a similar thread about this but didn't understand the suggestions.
I'm new to cs3 indesign and have windows xp. I've prepared a newsletter with colors photos saved as pdf which are being printed for black and white newsprint. The photos come out way too dark and lightening them only washes them out. Is there a setting I'm suppose to be using when saving to pdf? If I need to change any settings for the images could you please give me step by step instructions?
Michael Baribeau

> The photos come out way too dark
This is called dot gain. Different printing devices print dots
differently. Some throw a bunch of ink (or toner) at the paper, while
others are more conservative. You need to talk to your printer and
prepare your pictures specifically for his press. Ask about color
correction. And yes, when you're talking about color correction, black
is a "color".
And if you're starting with color pictures, convert them to grays first.
You're letting the output device decide how to convert colors to grays.
If you do it yourself, in Photoshop, you'll get a much better idea of
what it will look like on paper.
> lightening them only washes them out.
Washes them out onscreen, or washes them out in the final printed
output? Work with the numbers, not what you see onscreen. Dot gain means
that, for instance, the dots that make up a 90% black will run together
on press, effectively printing at 100%. Dots that make up a nice 50%
black will probably yield an effective 54%. On press, darks usually get
darker, midtones usually get a littler darker, and very lights get
whiter. So you compensate for that by color correcting: lightening the
darks, lightening the midtones a little, and darkening the
almost-whites. Different kinds of presses (and different presses,
different papers, even different press operators) experience different
amounts of dot gain.
In Photoshop, you want Image > Adjustments > Curves, and the exact curve
depends on numbers you would get from your printer. After you get a
curve you like, you can save it as a .ACV file for that printer, using
that print process.
> Is there a setting I'm suppose
> to be using when saving to pdf?
What program are you using to save your photos to PDF? Why PDF? Why not
TIFF, or PSD, or even Photoshop PDF (PDP)?
Kenneth Benson
Pegasus Type, Inc.
www.pegtype.com

Epson prints too dark from LR on color managed MacBook Pro?

Hi all,
I have a newish MacBook Pro, calibrated with Spyder2, and printing to an Epson 2200. The prints are too dark, and don't really come close to matching the screen in LR. I've brought the images into PS2 for soft proofing, but the prints are still far too dark. It's not just out of LR, but DPP as well. I found this topic:
http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/webx/.3bc44027/28
Tthat seems to describe my problem, but it seems to be Adobe-specific. Doug doesn't say if he's tried printing from other apps. I use Epson's custom profiles, which actually seem to be worse than the standard profiles that come with the driver.
A new twist seems to be that profiled jpg images with sRGB profiles exported from LR also print too dark when I had them sent out for printing, which leads me to think that my screen is not profiled correctly, or there's some weird flaw in the Mac's color management engine that skews everything.
My first question: When I profile my screen using Spyder2, I have the brightness set at maximum. Should I bring it down, and if so, how far? The Spyder2 help says use "Factory Defaults", but the MBP ships with brightness set on auto-adjust based on ambient light levels.
My second question: Are there others who have this issue? Have any of you resolved them successfully, and if so, how?
Thanks!
Timmy

Time for a reality/sanity check for those who complain that "the "prints are too dark from my Epson printer"!
If you will just reduce your monitor's white-point luminance to the range of 80-90 cd/m2 when you edit your images, it's almost certain that the problem will be solved (assuming you're not making some other error in color management setup). Many people conclude that their problem must be a generic failure or defect of Epson printers (i.e., compared to HP, etc)-- or that the Epson paper profiles are defective. Well, perhaps there's some element of truth to that conclusion--to the extent that Epson printers have evidently been designed with typical professional editing environments in mind (i.e., the low brightness levels to which "serious" printers adjust their monitors and ambient lighting). Why would they do that: Well, who wants to spend many hours each day looking at the glare of a 200 cd/m2 monitor screen (and the reflections from a brighly lighted room)?
So, for getting "monitor-matching" prints from printers such as the SP 2200, you simply need to work (edit) with your images in a more-or-less "dimly lit" room using a monitor that is properly adjusted for such a low-light environment--(i.e., the screen luminance not higher than 90-100 cd/m2). Of course even with such a reduced screen luminance, the light used for print-viewing must be sufficiently bright(**)
It's possible that your monitor cannot be adjusted to the necessary (low) luminance level--or that you haven't any means to measure the luminance level. Those are correctable hardware issues, although may require $$.
(**)please note that a fairly bright viewing light is needed for prints (made as suggested above) to appear to be a reasonably close "match" to the monitor image.
Phil

Illustrator PDFs print correctly from PC, but print too dark from Macs

Photoshop and Illustrator PDF files (CS5 & 6) print correctly from my work PC, but not either of my Macs. See below:
At work, I have a Dell PC and an iMac, at home I have a MacBook Pro.
At work there is a big office color Ricoh printer for the Dell and iMac, at home I have a Epson 3-in-one laserjet for the MacBook Pro.
Both the work and home Macs will print Illustrator/Photoshop PDFs very dark/undersaturated/off color on their relative printers, but the work PC prints them correctly.
At work, If you hold up a print of a PDF file printed from the Dell PC, and one printed from the iMac, they are completely different looking - the Dell print matches the Dell and iMac screens, but the iMac print is very dark and dull.
At work, when I open a Illustrator or Photoshop PDF on the work PC and send it to the Richo printer, it comes out perfectly matching the screen, but, if I open it on the iMac and send it to the Richo printer, it prints too dark/off color.
These are the *exact* same PDF files I am opening on both the PC and the iMac - our files are saved on a server so I'm accessing the same documents on both machines.
Also, I create the files on the iMac and save them to the server on the iMac, but if I open them on the iMac it prints too dark, and if I open them on the PC, it prints correctly.
At home on the MacBook Pro, the prints are also much darker than the screen (despite color calibration with a ColorMunki as well as following all Epson's color calibration steps) and I see a similar color problem as printing to the work printer from the work iMac.
Someone please tell me this is just a printer profile thing and I can go in somewhere on my Macs and switch something so they print the same as the PC does!
Thank you in advance for explaining why my Macs are making me pull out my hair!

the iMac it prints too dark
your print space is off on the Mac
or you are applying the wrong source profile or both
on the MacBook Pro, the prints are also much darker than the screen (despite color calibration
EDIT: sorry i misread that as your monitor was also dark, if the mac displays the problem doc proper, you are targeting a bad print space, that's where i would look...
you app is apply the wrong source profile (or your monitor profile is off)
basing the source>print space conversion on the wrong source profile could account for your printing woes
be sure you are embedding an ICC profile in your doc, are opening it in a color-managed app, and it should display properly
be sure your workflow uses the embedded profile and your printer is setup to convert to the proper printer profile
color management theory
epson workflow

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Images appear fine in Photoshop cs6 and cc, but print too dark, and also show too dark in Windows picture viewer. How can I correct this? Is this a Photoshop setting issue or what?

Images appear fine in Photoshop cs6 and cc, but print too dark, and also show too dark in Windows picture viewer. How can I correct this? Is this a Photoshop setting issue or what?

Ok, look at your files in Photoshop. What is the profile assigned to them? You can find this out by going to the Status bar at the bottom, clicking on the right-pointing triangle and choosing document Profile from the list.
Then in Windows, go to your Control Panel > Color Management and add sRGB (if it isn't there) and select it as your default profile.
I hope that will work.

How do I take an edited photo from lightroom 5 to elements 12?

How do I take an edited photo from lightroom 5 to elements 12?

Marsha, you seem to be a bit confused or perhaps uninformed about how Lightroom works. Lightroom should be at the beginning of your workflow. Whether you are working on raw images or JPEG, or whatever, Lightroom is where you should begin. None of the adjustments that you make using Lightroom are applied to the image. They are saved in the catalog progressively as you work on the image. Photoshop Elements sits in a secondary position in the typical workflow. In Lightroom, there is an option to "Edit in", and Photoshop Elements or Photoshop or whatever editor you have chosen will be one of the choices. You go to Elements to do things that cannot be done or can be done more efficiently in the other program. When you have finished making the adjustments in Elements a new copy of the image containing both the Lightroom adjustments and the Elements adjustments will be created, and will be added to the Lightroom catalog.
If you want an edited copy of your image in Elements than you would want to use the export function in Lightroom to export a copy that would include all adjustments that have been made. A typical workflow would be to maintain your master set of images, including copies created by Elements because of additional editing in that program, and then export JPEG copies suitable for posting on the web, for e-mail, or for sending to a lab to be printed. After those copies that were exported have been used for their intended purpose, they can be deleted, and you only have your master images to maintain in case there are other adjustments or new approaches in the future.

Some images printing too dark

I have two cameras that I use with iPhoto 6.0.4. A Canon G4, and a Pentax ist D. In iPhoto both cameras have nice looking images. The images from the Canon make beautiful prints, but the Pentax images print too dark. How can I fix this? Can I set different printing preferences for each camera?

whenever I calibrate my iMac with the Spyder2 hardware, I have to calibrate it twice because I always forget to turn off the Screen Saver and the Energy Saver 'Put Screen to Sleep' option.
another important thing about calibration. where is your 'book located during the calibration? what lights or on or off? is there any direct sunlight shining on the 'book?
personally, I prefer to calibrate at night with all lights turned off. if I calibrate at day, I shut the tinted doors and turn all (fluorescent) lights off. I realise that you are supposed to calibrate under your normal lighting conditions but I prefer this method

Acrobat XI is prints too dark!

Acrobat XI is printing too dark to our machines. Acrobat 7 prints just fine, same file, same machine.
Anyone else having this issue? It's VERY frustrating and short of adjusting EVERY photo in EVERY
file we cannot figure out what the issue is. We are using Windows XP & Windows 7, same result in both.

Have you compared the colour management settings in Acrobat's print dialogs (Advanced)?

C309g-m printer, prints too dark

My printer always prints too dark.
The prints never come out like they look on the screen. I can manually change the lightness of the photo to compensate, but it would be nice if there were settings I could change in the printer instead.
Any advice would be nice..thanks!

What paper quality and paper type settings are you using? If you are printing on plain paper but have selected a photo paper then the result will be oversaturated. Also if your application gives the choice of RGB or CMYK then choose RGB. (The printer uses CMYK inks, but the driver is expecting RGB data.)
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Bob Headrick, HP Expert
I am not an employee of HP, I am a volunteer posting here on my own time.
If your problem is solved please click the "Accept as Solution" button ------------V
If my answer was helpful please click the "Thumbs Up" to say "Thank You"--V

Send a raw photo from lightroom to photoshop as a smart "object"

how to send a raw photo from lightroom to photoshop as a smart "object" not a flat "image" so it does not flatten the image but so I still get all the adjustments i have made in lightroom to show up in photoshop?

Select the image in Lightroom, choose 'Edit in' from Photo menu then choose 'Open as Smart Object in Photoshop'. The file will transfer to Photohop (Ps) complete with Lr applied edits which can be refined in Camera Raw by double clicking on icon in the Ps Layers panel (see screen shot).

Photos from Lightroom print too dark

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