Help me with screen brightness!

I have such trouble with screen brightness it is quite frustrating. I think my laptop is actually brighter than the images I take so I under-compensate light levels and wind up with dark images. I use a historogram but I usually tend to adjust towards the darker end in post processing, once again due to my bright laptop screen. How can I properly calibrate the brightness of my laptop so that I am appropriately editing my images? Thanks.

If you want to make sure your screen is perfectly calibrated look into getting a screen calibrator. Datacolor makes a couple different ones, pick one up based off needs and budget.

Full calibration is a great idea for anyone doing photography, but until you get a calibration tool, at least follow the link below to get your screen's brightness in the ballpark.

http://canid.com/calib​ration.html

From what I've read, LCDs act a lot differently from CRTs. The Lagom LCD monitor test pages

It is difficult to adjust laptop monitors, which generally lack the Contrast and Brightness hardware controls found on the typical desktop monitor.

How does this look on your laptop?

Yeah, brightness can be a little trickier on laptops. On my desktop monitor, I use an X-Rite i1 calibration device, and I can set the brightness and forget about it (at least for awhile). Since my laptop doesn't have such control (fortunately I only edit on my laptop when I have no choice), I use the same device to color calibrate, and when it comes to brightness, I start full bright, and then take note of how many times I have to hit function-whatever it is to lower brightness in order to get my brightness to the right level (3 times for my current laptop). Then, if I'm editing photos, I make the screen full bright and then dim it 3 times, and I'm set. Unfortunately that doesn't help with contrast.