E10 prints on i950 come out dark: why?

[F. Todd Wilson]

Hello,

I've had an Olympus E10 for a while, enjoying it a lot. Got a Canon
i950 printer for prints, excellent quality. One problem: the prints
invariably come out darker than the images appear on the screen. Can
someone help me figure out why?

I use a Macintosh PowerBook G4 running MacOS 10.2.8 and iPhoto (or
Elements, as necessary; I don't think it makes a difference on this
issue). I use Canon Photo Glossy Plus or Pro paper (images appear dark
in both cases). The PowerBook brightness is at the max, but the screen
is uncalibrated (I know someday I should, but I'm hoping I can fix this
problem without going there first).

The PowerBook ColorSync settings (which may be the culprit, I dunno)
are:

E10: /System/Library/ColorSync/Profiles/sRGB Profile.icc

PowerBook: /Library/ColorSynch/Profiles/Displays/Color LCD-4270380.icc

i950: /Library/Printers/Canon/BJPrinter/PMs/Canon161PM.plugin/Contents/
BJ Color Printer Profile 2000

The default profile for the E10 is "Generic RGB Profile": should I
change it back to the default? Should I go and buy the Qimage E10
profile?

The default profile for the PowerBook is the one selected: should I
change it to something else, perhaps the same as the camera?

The profile for the i950 doesn't seem changeable.

Also, when I print, I do select Colorsync for color correction, but
leave everything else in the "Color Options" dialog the same.

I'd rather not fiddle with the color sliders, seems that shouldn't be
necessary and that I risk upsetting things more than fixing them.

Help!?

Thanks,

Todd

 

[MC]

Hello,

I've had an Olympus E10 for a while, enjoying it a lot. Got a Canon
i950 printer for prints, excellent quality. One problem: the prints
invariably come out darker than the images appear on the screen. Can
someone help me figure out why?

gamma coefficient?

 

[Jeremy]

I've had an Olympus E10 for a while, enjoying it a lot. Got a Canon
i950 printer for prints, excellent quality. One problem: the prints
invariably come out darker than the images appear on the screen. Can
someone help me figure out why?

For starters, prints are going to be perceptually darker than your screen,
and cannot reproduce the same range as your screen.

The PowerBook brightness is at the max, but the screen is uncalibrated

Well, that's a clue.

(I know someday I should, but I'm hoping I can fix this problem without
going there first).

Make your screen darker, or your pictures lighter.

You're using Colorsync without a calibrated monitor; this is not going to
lead you to true-color salvation. Indeed, with the brightness turned all
the way up, it's going to guarantee that your prints are darker than what
you see on your screen, because what you see on your screen is brighter
than it should be, but the system is assuming that you're looking at a
calibrated monitor.

The default profile for the PowerBook is the one selected: should I
change it to something else, perhaps the same as the camera?

No, you need a monitor profile. You can either generate one by calibrating
your monitor; or, you can not calibrate your monitor, look at the difference
between your monitor and your prints, figure out an adjustment you can do in
Photoshop that will get your prints looking like you see them on the screen
(the reverse of the difference between the monitor and the print), and apply
that adjustment every time you make a print.