having monitor issues (i think)

so i do my editing on my computer here at home. the final product looks decent (in my eyes) and the dark aread look dark and even. but then i view the same picture at work and the dark area is much brighter and you can see its uneven.

heres a sample because my description is terrible.

This is obviously heavily modified pic of my stock Soul
but on my computer the black all around the frame of the scene is black, at work on my monitor its not, i can see the original pavement and sky peaking through. it looks like crap.
what do you see? and is it my computer or my work computer?

I see the tall weeds in the cracks of the footpath. Your monitor needs calibrated.

I can see the weeds to the back of the car too (my monitor is calibrated)

Weeds. Agree with EOS_JD.

I have a calibrated monitor and the blacks around the edge look dark and even, I can't see any sky coming through.

i can some of the weeds and im OK withthat. so ive made a great looking outline on the picture here. anything beyond this red outline is dark enough on my monitor that i cant see anything. inside the red i can see weeds and the car obviously.
thank again guys.

For me the background is jet black outside the red outline. Monitor is calibrated.

thanks guys. so is it safe to assume my work monitor needs to be calibrated?

also i must say i love this forum. the response time is fast, and accurate

team haymaker wrote in post #8817120
thanks guys. so is it safe to assume my work monitor needs to be calibrated?

Your monitor should be hardware calibrated if you are printing and want your prints to closely match what you see on your display, or, if you are generating images for the web and want your images to look good when viewed on other properly calibrated monitors.

team haymaker wrote in post #8817120
also i must say i love this forum. the response time is fast, and accurate

Feelin' the love... But I can't vouch for accuracy!

my work monitor is for work only, (insurance work, not photography) but i like to keep my photos on my desktop so i can stare at them.
anyways i have one picture of my Soul printed on a poster and it looks identical to my home monitor.
i just wasnt sure which monitor was having issue but if its work then i dont care. as long as my home is good and people view as i do here im happy

I can see a *bit* more detail at the bottom, outside the red line (Powerbook, but calibrated)

team haymaker wrote in post #8824482
...my work monitor is for work only, (insurance work, not photography) but i like to keep my photos on my desktop so i can stare at them.

Oh... OK, that wasn't clear to me. You can still do an "eyeball" calibration on it.

On my setup (two dell monitors, calibrated) I can't see anything outside the outline. If I view it on my uncalibrated LaCie (not for graphics work) on my Mac, I can see the pavement just barely extending to the bottom of the screen and further to the left.

If it's going to be full black, just lasso the car, invert selection, and clear to black.

now why didnt i think of that earlier?

team haymaker wrote in post #8830039
now why didnt i think of that earlier?

Well, that is a way to make sure, but you need to ensure that your selection blends into the shot, otherwise on that bright monitor you'll see an ugly line!

Another approach would be to create an oval gradient around the car for smooth blending.

What brightness setting is your monitor cal'd for? 80 cd/m2? 140 cd/m2?