One of the common issues photographers run into when printing their photos is a print that looks too dark. Sometimes the issue is simply a matter of not making use of proper color management techniques, such as calibrating the monitor display. However, another issue is a matter of compensating for the output behavior of your printer.
In particular, if your prints exhibit a lack of detail in shadow detail, a simple correction may help.
The first step is to test the behavior of your printer. Many printers are not able to reproduce the full range of tonal values, causing a loss of visible detail in dark areas of a photo. A similar issue can affect bright highlight areas, though that is less common.
I created a target image you can print in order to test the tonal range behavior of your printer. Print the image using your normal color-managed workflow, and then evaluate the print under a bright light source. You are looking for the darkest value of black where you can still see a difference between the next darker value.
More details about testing the black and white point capabilities for printing can be found in the article “Print Output Levels”, which is included in the February 2024 issue of Pixology magazine (https://www.greylearning.com/courses/pixology-magazine).
You can download the target image here:
