prints don't match my screen- darker and blah in color

[Juliehardingphotography]

I am calibrated using colormunki (D55 100 are the settings I have it at)  and am having a hard time getting my prints to match my screen. The prints are overall darker, esp in the shadows and color is not as vibrant. I have a 27" Retina5k iMac.

first set is from my comptuer

next if picture of the print 

[Damien Symonds]

Are these the instructions you followed?  Including the troubleshooting part?

[Juliehardingphotography]

i am hoping that is the problem- when i last calibrated the prints and monitor matched good enough. but seems off now. should i try recalibrating and troubleshoot if need to? 

 

also- remind me- is it better when it comes to adjusting the brightness of the monitor to go darker or lighter if can't get it to be exact? 

 

[Damien Symonds]

29 minutes ago, Juliehardingphotography said:

i am hoping that is the problem- when i last calibrated the prints and monitor matched good enough.

Do you still have the prints from back then?

30 minutes ago, Juliehardingphotography said:

also- remind me- is it better when it comes to adjusting the brightness of the monitor to go darker or lighter if can't get it to be exact? 

Darker.

[Juliehardingphotography]

I don't still have the prints- sadly. I just ordered new ones so hopefully once i get those I can recalibrate and match monitor to prints. 

I'll be in touch. 

 

[Juliehardingphotography]

ok- I am back. I ordered test prints from a diff lab (ACI) as I wanted to try a diff lab other than ProDPI. 

 

anyway- the test prints are darker than my monitor (more so for the pictures taken indoors vs outside in open shade). So do i recalibrate and fine tune the numbers until I get my monitor to match prints? 

 

also- on the test prints they sent me - they stated they would adjust the density to make the picture lighter - but assuming for me not to do that, instead calibrate my monitor to match these prints and I will see that they are darker. Does that make sense?

 

[Damien Symonds]

14 minutes ago, Juliehardingphotography said:

anyway- the test prints are darker than my monitor (more so for the pictures taken indoors vs outside in open shade). So do i recalibrate and fine tune the numbers until I get my monitor to match prints?

Yes, follow the troubleshooting part of my calibration instructions.

15 minutes ago, Juliehardingphotography said:

also- on the test prints they sent me - they stated they would adjust the density to make the picture lighter - but assuming for me not to do that, instead calibrate my monitor to match these prints and I will see that they are darker. Does that make sense?

Yes, definitely don't allow them to adjust densities.

[Juliehardingphotography]

ok- remind me... calibrate in the dark? so monitor is the only light in room? 

or should i calibrate in the environment I will be editing- which is daytime light bulbs with big window in the room that has wood blinds. 

[Damien Symonds]

Calibrate in the dark, yes.  Well, dim, at least.  It certainly doesn't have to be pitch black.

[Juliehardingphotography]

recalibrated at 90 luminance and monitor was too bright, so re-ran at 80 luminance. my brightness adjustment would go from 86 down to 57. so i picked 57. 4 out of the 5 prints match pretty well. I will check again tomorrow in my normal daytime editing settings to confirm.

BUT - if prints match from this lab is it safe to assume all pictures will match going forward? 

[Damien Symonds]

39 minutes ago, Juliehardingphotography said:

BUT - if prints match from this lab is it safe to assume all pictures will match going forward? 

It's reasonably fair to assume that, yes.