How much brighter for prints?

[K.ErickPhotography]

So Ive heard the stories about prints being ordered and the image is darker than expected, so you have to brighten your image before sending it out. My question is how much brighter. Can you give me a value inside PS, other then cam raw??

Im printing at Mpix if that helps, Thanks.

[RebelScum]

I guess I've not really had that problem. I get my prints at Adoramapix and they seem to be pretty spot on. Some local places in my area will run pictures through their own color correction (even if you tell them not to ) and then the images look terrible, so I just avoid those places. I'd actually get some test prints and see if the brightness or colors are what you expected and adjust from there.

[OsmosisStudios]

There's no straight-up value for brightness on printers: you need to test and see. It sounds like a lot of work for a reason: it is. See if Mpix provides their printer profiles for Photoshop, so that you can at least get your photos to that standard.

[SusanH1970]

Calibrate your monitor, that will help immensely with both brightness and color. If you have an LCD monitor, they are notorious for being very bright - I have the brightness turned waaaaaay down on mine, and my prints match what I see on my screen.

[crockny]

Susan - I'm wondering how far down you have your monitor brightness? I just started printing on an Epson photo printer R2880 and the print was much darker and warmer than what was on the monitor -- I did think to turn my monitor down now at around the 50% mark ... still much lighter and cooler than the printout ... I calibrated with Spyder3 Pro ...

[SusanH1970]

Originally Posted by crockny

Susan - I'm wondering how far down you have your monitor brightness? I just started printing on an Epson photo printer R2880 and the print was much darker and warmer than what was on the monitor -- I did think to turn my monitor down now at around the 50% mark ... still much lighter and cooler than the printout ... I calibrated with Spyder3 Pro ...

Mine's down around 50 something, I think....

When did you last calibrate? Also, you should let your monitor warm up for a while before you calibrate, and calibrate in a fairly dark room.