I recently purchased a digital camera and an HP PhotoSmart printer. I am very happy with the images from the camera when displayed on the computer, however the quality of the printouts is frustating me. They usually are either too bright or too dark. The Red/Green/Blue balance seems to be ok. (I took a picture of something very red, green, and blue on a white background and printed it. The colors themselves in this case look ok.) However, the brightness of the printouts is way off. If the picture has dark objects in it, the printout is very dark. If the picture has more light than dark, the printout is very bright. Does anyone have any ideas of how to correct this so that what you see is what you get?

-- deborah (deborah.bryant@ni.com), April 10, 2000

Answers

I am not an expert at any of this. However in most of the software programs (e.g., Adobe Photo Deluxe, MGI PhotoSuite II, and Ulead PhotoImpact) for handling the images from digital cameras you can make adjustments to contrast and brightness among many other things.. You might try these controls to solve or alleviate your problem.

-- Victor LaBolle (viclabo@northcoast.com), April 23, 2000.

You need to get a "baseline" picture that displys what range of contrast you should expect from your camera in an extremely contrasty situation. If you have a light meter, it should be an easy matter to determine the "real" range and then the digital picture may be examined (and altered and printed) to determine what the camera is capable of capturing (and your software is capable of altering and your printer is capable of printing). Of course, if your final output is the screen and not a printed image, you don't need to worry about the printer part of this.

In PhotoShop, select the Image > Adjust > Levels command and, in the ensuing dialog, you will see three triangles (black, grey, and white) which you may move (with your mouse) to alter the "absolute black", "middle grey", and "absolute white" zones. Play with these three ranges and you will see the results (assuming you have "Preview" turned on). Try a test print, then adjust and print again. MUCH better control than what I used to have in my darkroom (a lifetime ago). let me know if this helps

-- Barry Levine (macguy@elp.rr.com), May 04, 2000.