im begging for help.... "please"

i used to know how to pp my images. i used to use a Dell PC and CRT Monitor and would use Paint Shop Pro ( rarely Photoshop CS2 ) to make my images look good.
As a matter of fact on the bird forum here on POTN many used to say my images were gorgeous.....

so i bought an iMac 24" and now im using Elements 4.0 ( Cant afford CS3 and there is no Mac Paint Shop Pro. I havent posted any images in about 3 months coz i cant make them look nice....
they look "good" on my monitor but when I upload them and look at them say on a PC - they look flat and dull - too dark !
Im using a huey to calibrate my iMac LCD screen coz some people have said its a gamma thing - which i have no clue what that even means!
Im PP images and im just guessing what to do with elements 4. My imaghes look bright on my monitor but dull and drab on other monitors so i have to "guessitmate" how much brightness to add - this is a dumb way to PP.

If anyone can help me - i will be so greatful!!!!
If you can help me please use laymans terms coz i really dont understand the PP lingo too well... like i said i had a system that worked so good and now i cant even make a decent image without asking how it looks on other peoples monitors..

windoze

Are you shooting in Adobe RGB or sRGB? I'm not sure how Elements handles the conversion, but that's a possibility. Things that look good in Adobe RGB on my screen tend to look terrible when converted to sRGB if you don't follow the right steps (and since I don't use Elements, not sure what the correct steps are).

windoze wrote in post #3431890
i used to know how to pp my images. i used to use a Dell PC and CRT Monitor and would use Paint Shop Pro ( rarely Photoshop CS2 ) to make my images look good.
As a matter of fact on the bird forum here on POTN many used to say my images were gorgeous.....

so i bought an iMac 24" and now im using Elements 4.0 ( Cant afford CS3 and there is no Mac Paint Shop Pro. I havent posted any images in about 3 months coz i cant make them look nice....
they look "good" on my monitor but when I upload them and look at them say on a PC - they look flat and dull - too dark !
Im using a huey to calibrate my iMac LCD screen coz some people have said its a gamma thing - which i have no clue what that even means!
Im PP images and im just guessing what to do with elements 4. My imaghes look bright on my monitor but dull and drab on other monitors so i have to "guessitmate" how much brightness to add - this is a dumb way to PP.

If anyone can help me - i will be so greatful!!!!
If you can help me please use laymans terms coz i really dont understand the PP lingo too well... like i said i had a system that worked so good and now i cant even make a decent image without asking how it looks on other peoples monitors..

windoze

Windows has traditionally used a Gamma of 2.2 while the Mac OS has used 1.8. If you want your images to look good "universally", you should calibrate your monitor using a Gamma of 2.2, not 1.8.