# Monitor question



## ajt302 (Sep 3, 2012)

I'm a new Lightroom user.  I generally view and edit my Raw files using my iMac until I'm satisfied. For myself, I wouldn't bother to make prints, but the Mrs. likes to have some prints for albums.  Often when I export the photos she wants to a thumb drive and she takes them to the local CVS, the prints are darker than I remember them on my display.  Any suggestions?


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## GBM (Sep 3, 2012)

I think you should research IT8 ... this is a protocol for setting your camera, scanner, monitor and maybe other things so that they are putting out ( or are corrected to ) standard colors and all that kind of stuff.... 
  The simpler answer is probably ( since you have a nice program like Lightroom ) to choose those images you are going to send to her thumb drive and apply a synched standard ( you experiment to find what you like ) neutral lightening to those images.    I have seen this complaint before somewhere but can not remember which software tutorial it was in.


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## Replytoken (Sep 3, 2012)

Welcome to the forum!  I would start by calibrating your monitor.  If your monitor is not calibrated, it's hard to know what may be causing the differences.  There are a variety of affordable software/hardware combinations.  I use a Datacolor's Spyder, but there are a number of other good choices.

--Ken


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## Hal P Anderson (Sep 3, 2012)

Welcome to the forum!

When prints are too dark, it's usually the fault of your monitor being set too bright. When you calibrate your monitor, as Ken suggests, there is usually an advanced calibration that you can invoke that sets your brightness level. About 115 cd/sq metre is about right.

Most monitors default to being too bright. That looks better on a showroom floor and causes them to sell better.

Hal


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## ajt302 (Sep 4, 2012)

*Print problem*



GBM said:


> I think you should research IT8 ... this is a protocol for setting your camera, scanner, monitor and maybe other things so that they are putting out ( or are corrected to ) standard colors and all that kind of stuff....
> The simpler answer is probably ( since you have a nice program like Lightroom ) to choose those images you are going to send to her thumb drive and apply a synched standard ( you experiment to find what you like ) neutral lightening to those images.    I have seen this complaint before somewhere but can not remember which software tutorial it was in.


Thanks I am going to try this approach (a preset for color prints) first.  But I have determined that if I take a RAW photo into Lightroom, do nothing and export it, it comes out darker than the Canon processed JPEG.  (I take my photos in both raw and JPEG.)


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## Victoria Bampton (Sep 4, 2012)

Hi ajt302, welcome to the forum!

Have you checked your camera settings?  There are settings like Auto Lighting Optimizer which underexpose the raw data - the Canon software and camera compensates, but LR doesn't know anything about it.


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## ajt302 (Sep 5, 2012)

*Auto Lighting Optimizer*



Victoria Bampton said:


> Hi ajt302, welcome to the forum!
> 
> Have you checked your camera settings?  There are settings like Auto Lighting Optimizer which underexpose the raw data - the Canon software and camera compensates, but LR doesn't know anything about it.



Thanks, Victoria. My ALO setting is (was) "standard". But I'm confused. I thought ALO doesn't affect the RAW files, only the JPEGS. My JPEGS do produce nice prints. My book "Canon EOS60D for Dummies" states that if you want to avoid ALO questions, shoot in RAW. "For RAW pictures, the camera applies no post capture tweaking, regardless of whether this filter or any other one is enables." :hm:


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## Jim Wilde (Sep 5, 2012)

The issue with ALO (or Active-D Lighting on Nikon cameras) is that they usually affect the actual exposure, which is then adjusted by the camera when producing an in-camera Jpeg file. Canon's own software (DPP) recognises that ALO was enabled and can apply the necessary exposure correction during the Raw conversion. Adobe cannot, however, and the result of Lightroom's conversion of an image shot with ALO enabled is usually an underexposed (darker) image.

I have ALO (and Highlight Tone Priority) disabled on my Canon 5DII.

Your book is wrong not to mention this aspect.


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## ajt302 (Sep 7, 2012)

*Disable ALO*



TNG said:


> The issue with ALO (or Active-D Lighting on Nikon cameras) is that they usually affect the actual exposure, which is then adjusted by the camera when producing an in-camera Jpeg file. Canon's own software (DPP) recognises that ALO was enabled and can apply the necessary exposure correction during the Raw conversion. Adobe cannot, however, and the result of Lightroom's conversion of an image shot with ALO enabled is usually an underexposed (darker) image.
> 
> I have ALO (and Highlight Tone Priority) disabled on my Canon 5DII.
> 
> Your book is wrong not to mention this aspect.



Wow this is very interesting. It would explain why when DPP processed the same RAW files I didn't have this dark problem.  I thank you for the suggestion.  I will take some high contrast subjects with ALO  and Highlight Tone Priority enabled / disabled and see what happens when I take them into Lightroom.

Tony


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