Printing in the dark

I know my title has nothing to do with what I'm asking here, but I thought it was a clever one . Anyways, I have noticed that each time I get an image printed, whether it be on my Canon printer at home, an HP plotter at work, or send them away to MpixPro, that output seems to always be a tad too dark than the original. MpixPro and the HP at work aren't that bad, but the printer at home is noticeable. Like last night, I was printing out some 4x6s for some frames we just bought, and the original file was too dark for my mother's liking, so I upped it 1 exposure level in Curves, and that was the best, without blowing out the highlights. Is this normal for printers to do this, especially considering the brightness levels on many screens have a wide range? I was talking to the guys at work who print on that printer too, and they said they have to lighten up their images too, so i'm guessing it's normal there. But for my printer at home, do I need one of those calibration software to fix this?

Matt, first make sure you've got the basics covered: Calibrated monitor with luminance adjusted to a level appropriate for photo editing, working in an ambient light controlled space, and viewing your prints (after drying) with the lighting they will be displayed under.

Use correct softproofing technique before printing.

One last thing I sometimes do in Photoshop, depending on the image, is put a final curves adjustment on the image before printing. I might set the RGB values to Output 45, Input 50.

Yea, I don't have a calibrated monitor, both of mine are different from each other, but my primary, the one I do the editing on, is calibrated for the Color LCD option in Display preferences (I'm on a Mac). My other monitor is for the built in calibration. If I try to make them look similar, it just doesn't look right. My room really doesn't have the proper amount of light, at least when the sun goes down. During the day, I have plenty of available light in here. Now what is softproofing, I never heard of that. Curious, why do you do a final curves adjustment?

mknabster wrote in post #10636598
Now what is softproofing, I never heard of that.

I don't know whether your pulling my leg or not...

https://seminars.adobe​.acrobat.com …ontent=true&pbM​ode=normal

As I said it depends on the image, subject, content, paper type, etc. When you get experienced with your photo printer, you can accurately predict how it will output certain image content and tweak appropriately before hitting Print.

It's like target shooting. If you are consistently hitting to the left of the bulls-eye, do you say, "Waaaahhhh! I can't hit the target." Or do you adjust your sights to aim slightly more to the right?

I guess I was pulling your leg, I guess I just never knew the technical term for it. Are these seminars readily available on Adobe's site, I would like to look into watching them. But thanks for tips, I'll have to print more with this and learn about it more.

Getting your monitor calibrated is key.

If your prints are "too dark" everywhere, my guess is your screen is too bright.

Have a read in the second part (and links) here: http://www.getcolorman​aged.com/color-management/testprint/