Just Calibrated/ Dark Look

[kevs]

Just upgraded from Spyder 3 to X. No complaints, but turns out after talking to rep there, I've been manually setting my imac way too bright (in fact all way up)
I like bright monitors.

But in fact, I'm supposed to (for last 12 years), have it set to 120 out of 400. I had set to 400.  I've now matched 120/ 120.

But.. now monitor looks, to me real dark, which is annoying for email, internet, and the other 99% of things I do.

The rep suggested trying to get used to that..

If you click lighting adjustment on an imac, correct setting for Sypder is 6 sqaures up. I'm used to 16 at top. Any suggestions? I was advised not to bump it up for internet and then back down later when printing etc.. But hard to keep to that.

[smthopr]

Just upgraded from Spyder 3 to X. No complaints, but turns out after talking to rep there, I've been manually setting my imac way too bright (in fact all way up)
I like bright monitors.

But in fact, I'm supposed to (for last 12 years), have it set to 120 out of 400. I had set to 400.  I've now matched 120/ 120.

But.. now monitor looks, to me real dark, which is annoying for email, internet, and the other 99% of things I do.

The rep suggested trying to get used to that..

If you click lighting adjustment on an imac, correct setting for Sypder is 6 sqaures up. I'm used to 16 at top. Any suggestions? I was advised not to bump it up for internet and then back down later when printing etc.. But hard to keep to that.

For printing photos I have my display set to 80 and view in a darkened room.  If you are adjusting your photographs for web display, probably 100 or even 120 will be fine.  It's generally not the best idea to adjust photographs on a display in a bright daylight lit room though.

I see no problem in setting the brightness of your display high for web browsing or other tasks.  Just make a note of the setting to bring it back down for photo editing.

[digitaldog]

IF it looks too dark, compared to the print, it's not calibrated properly. The numbers are all over the map, depend on how the print is being viewed; no specific recommendation is necessarily correct.

Why are my prints too dark?
A video update to a written piece on subject from 2013
In this 24 minute video, I'll cover:
Are your prints really too dark?
Display calibration and WYSIWYG
Proper print viewing conditions
Trouble shooting to get a match
Avoiding kludges that don't solve the problem

High resolution: http://digitaldog.net/files/Why_are_my_prints_too_dark.mp4
Low resolution: https://youtu.be/iS6sjZmxjY4