Export images are dark

[mikecox]

My boss often complains that my images are "too dark" or "muddy".

The images I send him are full-size RAW files that I exported as jpg files then zipped and sent to him as email attachments.

We are shooting a festival concert series that starts in the daylight and ends after dark, so half my shots are taken in the light of day, they can be slightly darker than what I exported and not be noticed. But when the night shots aren't as bright as what I sent him he notices and complains that they are "too dark".

I sent him a screen shot of a full-screen image in Lr and he told me it was fine, so we have concluded that something is happening to my stuff during export, or may during zipping.

I just posted an image he complained about this week, that I did not zip, to see if maybe that was causing this problem.

Has anyone else experienced a darkening effect when exporting

fyi the is the Festival Concert series we are doing. Spreckels

 

[Jim Wilde]

Is your monitor properly calibrated? Is your boss's monitor properly calibrated? Is your boss viewing the jpegs using a colour-managed viewer?

If any of the answers to those 3 questions is NO, then that needs to be fixed first.

 

[Gnits]

Make sure your export preset specifies a specific colour space (or use srgb as a default). Who knows what apps may be viewing the files and what assumptions they may be making in terms of colour spaces.

Check what app your boss is using to review files. Make sure it is a colour managed app. If your boss is familiar with colour management then agree between you what colour space profile should be attached to your images.

 

[mikecox]

Is your monitor properly calibrated?

I've never actually calibrated my monitor because it always seemed, to me, to be a complicated process requiring special software and skill. But, since I have 2 monitors, I can compare my images on both and they both look the same.

Is your boss's monitor properly calibrated?

Yes

/Quote]Is your boss viewing the jpegs using a colour-managed viewer?[/Quote]
Yes

I expect he's on top of the color space, calibration issue. If anything it's something on my end. But I'll run this by him for consideration.

Thanks.

 

[mikecox]

Make sure your export preset specifies a specific colour space (or use srgb as a default).

All my presets are using sRGB. I will check to see if he's using the same color space.
Thanks

 

[Hal P Anderson]

Calibrating a monitor requires no skill--just a hardware calibrator and maybe 20 minutes. While your colours may be accurate, having a monitor set to too great a brightness will result in dark prints, and if your monitor and your boss's monitor are set to different brightnesses where yours is set brighter than his will result in his seeing your images as too dark. Calibration allows you to set the brightness of your monitor (and your boss's monitor if he calibrates, too).

 

[mikecox]

Calibrating a monitor requires no skill--just a hardware calibrator and maybe 20 minutes. While your colours may be accurate, having a monitor set to too great a brightness will result in dark prints, and if your monitor and your boss's monitor are set to different brightnesses where yours is set brighter than his will result in his seeing your images as too dark. Calibration allows you to set the brightness of your monitor (and your boss's monitor if he calibrates, too).

Thanks,Hal, I going to figure out how to calibrate my monitor, so I can remove the variable from the equation.