Help : Dark Photo prints

[vdineshk]

Hi all,
I have a Canon Ixus 750 (7.1 Mp). I shot all my wedding pfotos in the `auto' mode. It was a bright sunny day, so the flash did not appear. However, on the PC the pic looks bright and good. However, upon printing (sent to a photo lab : fujiflim) , the pic appears dark. Is it a problem with my camera, or that I should have have taken the pics with flash or is it a problem with the quality of the fiju flim photo lab/paper? Pls advice .......
Thanks a lot

[Wilt]

Perhaps you monitor is adjusted too bright, so you are fooled into thinking exposure is proper but when the prints are made, they come out at the proper level. Are you using any image editor on your PC to adjust brightness, etc?...if so it is important to have your monitor properly adjusted so that you can assess the color and brightness correctly!

Do photos look good on your camera's LCD...the unaltered photo should look similar on your PC's monitor. If they look good on the camera LCD and on the PC monitor, they should look good coming from the printer!

[vdineshk]

Hi. The brightness of my PC monitor is on medium settings. The LCD was also bright when I viewed upon shooting. Its just strange that the prints come out dark. I shot 200 photos for a wedding function and all of it appear dark. I did not use flash as it was on a bright afternoon day. Could
this be the reason?
Do you guys use flash outdoors? Pls advice.
Also, is fujiflim quality bad ( I sent my photos for develop in a photolab)
should I send the same photos for prints in Kodak photolab?

Thank you

[Wilt]

I rather doubt the issue is Fuji! I have used Fuji for many years for conventional film photography, and I also have had digital photos printed on Fuji Crystal paper and they looked exquisite!

Lack of flash is not likely the cause of 'dark'. Your knowledge of photography seems in the beginning stages, so I suspect a 'procedural' problem. You said the "the PC the pic looks bright and good. However, upon printing, the pic appears dark." That is generally symptomatic of a mismatch between your monitor and the output...not that unusual a problem to have initially... It is equally possible to have your monitor misadjusted dark, and prints to come out too light!!!

You might try to go to dpreview.com... http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/samples/colourpatches/canon_g2.jpg
and look at the color chart and gray bars. Set your brightness to see the example lightest area as 'white' and the gradations all the way to 'full black', and set your contrast to permit you to see as many of the19-20 increments in density as possible.

Then adjust your photo for brightness with your picture editor, and send that out to print. The results should be more similar.