Epson R300 Photo Print Question...TOO DARK

[doubledown]

Ok, I just got my Epson R300 and I tried to print one 4x6 photo. It came out really dark though. The picture was a simple picture of my cats in the sun w/shade on them....yes, simple.

Anyways, it printed out much darked than what was on my screen. I used Epson Borderless 4x6 Premium Glossy Photo Paper.

As for printer settings....I used:
- PHOTO (not Best Photo...what is the difference?)
- Premium Glossy Photo Paper
- 4x6 Borderless

It printed fine as being borderless....but the color just seems dark. This was the first thing I printed with this, besides the test page.

THANKS!!!!!



EDIT
Hmm, I printed the same picture on normal paper and it looks a bit lighter.....

I know you can adjust brightness, contrast and a few other settings.....any suggestions. I was reading on NEWEGG in a review that someone adjusted:

brightness -3
Contrast +10
Saturation +10

Do those sound accurate? (it seems I would need brighter?) I don't want to waste a bunch of ink/photo paper

Thanks

*EDIT
Tried:
Brightness/Contrast/Sat all +10...still turned out too dark, but better. Maybe I will set brightness to +20

 

[humidore]

Yeah, I have a Canon iP3000 and I noticed the printed photos are darker than how they look on the screen. I just use the auto enhance feature on this photo editing program I got, but I thought it was weird too...I don't get the brightness and detail in the print. It's hard to describe without showing examples, but yea.

 

[doubledown]

I d/l new drivers, hopefully that works. I printed out a different picture and it looked better...still a little dark. I used +5 on bright/contrast/sat

I will try printing the same picture I've been having trouble with to see if it's better. Maybe I just have to kick brightness up more on the printer...still annoying though.

 

[masha]

Darker then what? What monitor do you have? CRT? You need to calibrate your monitor and printer (if possible) in order to see if colors you see on your screen will print out the same. If you have Photoshop you can use Adobe Gamma Control Panel.

If you are a pro you won't be able go without Spider. http://www.colorvision.com/index.html

Great source for photographers http://luminous-landscape.com/

 

[Magical Fruit]

ok here is something to try.

check to see how bright your monitor is. most people dont realize this, but if you adjust the brightness on the monitor it doesn't make the stuff in your pc brighter.

how bright you see it on your monitor is not how it prints out. I was an epson rep for 2.5 years. you can do a couple things:
1. dl a picture monitor sync program. atm i cant think of the name of one, but hi end photographers use these so that when they make adjustments to pictures they can see exactly how it will print. you don't want to print a 13x19 picture that costs you like 6 bucks to be messed up.
2. change your brightness to normal levels. then use a program like photoshop and adjust brightness/gamma/contrast etc. as a warning the more your brighten a pic the worse it will look.

also from my experience printing smaller pictures will also make them darker. hope that helps.