Dark and Dull Prints

[roebuck]

I have a Epson 810 Photo Printer using Epson inks and premium glossy paper and it does well most of the time however there are some photos which print very disappointingly. I have had my monitor calibrated and the monitor may be a bit lighter than the target image we used but otherwise it is a good match.

I appreciate that the nature of an image on screen being a projected image will be slightly better than a print relying on reflected light but still I would like a much closer match than I am getting. The image attached is one such photo the red flowers aren’t too bad a bit dull but the greens are way too dark, very dull and have no punch at all.

I have tried going for a much lighter screen image using levels adjustment layer in PS CS with out much success and I have tried to lighten the image via printer properties but this just makes a muddier image.

I will try getting this image printed professionally to see if they can get me what I want but I would prefer to do my printing at home. By the way a new printer is not an option just yet.

Does anyone have any suggestions or strategies?

Thanks

[Hellashot]

What print space options are you using when you go to print? I found on my R1800 that using the print profiles/spaces supplied for the R1800 came out waaaay overexposed. I found that "Colormatch RGB" and gamma 1.5 works pretty well. You may need to play with print spaces to find one that works.

[roebuck]

Thanks for the response.

I am using sRGB in the camera and PS CS then with the printer I have auto colour settings switched on and a Gamma setting of 2.2.

Looking back over the past photos it would seem that I don't print too many landscapes but the few that I do it's the greens that are coming out very brown and flat.

The vast majority of my printing is portraiture / architecture and they are fine.

[Hellashot]

Those aren't the color/print spaces I am referring to. In your print/page setup there should be some "advanced" settings where you choose your print space/profile.