Dark Reproductions

I've been experimenting with different mediums, and services for printing. So far metal has been the best for what I send vs what I get back. I noticed that my photographic paper and canvas images tend to come out much darker than my original images that I see across not only my own screen but various other electronic media displays. I just got a canvas print back from Printerpix and it was very dark, not unusable, but dark.

When doing canvas, if I send a 300dpi image, is that too much? Perhaps that's part of the problem?

Included images is what was sent to the printer, and the actual canvas I received back.

Are you proofing the files using the printers profile and adjusting your file appropriately?

No, I was unaware of this process. Would this be listed on their website? I made sure my image sizes matched for the requested image sizes, and I exported the files from LR at 300dpi

I am on the Whitehall site and now have been walking thru the color profile section. In LR using the softproofing feature I now see why certain colors were not accurately reproduced. I an not certain how to fix these issues at this point but now I know what the issue is, I can do more research, thanks for the direction.

All decent printers should provide a profile for you to download. The other aspect that has a big influence on dark prints is the brightness of your editing monitor. Most monitors are far to bright out of the box.
Download one of the generic "printer evaluation" images and check the graduated black and white strips. You should be able to just visualize a difference at the extreme edges of the strips.

goalerjones wrote in post #19128354
I noticed that my photographic paper and canvas images tend to come out much darker than my original images that I see across not only my own screen but various other electronic media displays.

many if not most screens are set too bright. When you look at an image on an overly bright LCD and an overly bright computer monitor the resulting file can easily end up under exposed because you set the brightness/exposure based on the moitor.

Is your monitor calibrated?

DPI is irrelevant to brightness. It is just a measure of resolution when the image is printed.

Keep in mind that your monitor provides your eye with an image via TRANSMITTED light, while any print provides an image to your eye via REFLECTED light. So if the medium upon which the image is printed is inherently more reflective of light that falls on it, it will inherently be closer (not identical, though) to what you saw on the monitor.

Classic photographer accustomed to prints vs. trasparency (on light table) more more accustomed to this phenomenon...a slide printed will almost never reproduce what you saw on the light table!

I print on my Canon printer and have calibrated my monitor for brightness as well as color. I always boost the brightness when I print my photos to get what I'm looking for. It just seems to be a normal need.

Thanks for the replies. I used the "soft proofing" feature on LR and that image looked exactly like the canvas that arrived from the printer. Now I have to learn to make adjustments so they retain my intended image.

Dan Marchant wrote in post #19128566
Is your monitor calibrated?

Unfortunately I am using my HDTV for my processing work and don't have a "proper" setup. I downloaded a test image yesterday and ran it thru several of the default settings on the TV trying to find one that came close.

One suggestion was to email the printers with the intended image and ask their opinion on the brightness and color.