Brightness calibration?

[indeedies]

I've recently started printing off photos and have noticed that my printed images come out much darker than what my monitor shows. I calibrated my monitor using Spyder Pro 3 and my colors are correct between monitor and image. Has anyone else experienced this or know what actions I should take to correct this?

My monitor is HP w2338h if that helps at all.
Thanks for any advice on this matter.

 

[MACollum]

I don't know much about this because I don't print at home but I think you need a printer profile to soft-proof your pictures to see what they will look like from the printer. Maybe someone who knows more about this could offer their opinion?

 

[dyyylan]

Are you using an inkjet printer? Some make things a lot darker than they should be, even if they're a "photo" printer.

 

[indeedies]

I'm printing at Costco. Should I try a different lab and see what happens?

 

[KmH]

I'm printing at Costco. Should I try a different lab and see what happens?

Just like MACollum suggested you need the printer profiles (ICC profile) for Costco's machine so you can soft proof your prints in your image editor.

You'll need to do that no matter which lab you choose.

Understanding Soft Proofing

http://www.bing.com/search?q=soft+proofing&form=MS8TDF&pc=MS8TDF&src=IE-SearchBox