Why don't your photos look good on my computer?
This may simply be that you need to adjust your monitor. There are a few things to adjust. One is the refresh rate, I personally like to be over 75 Hertz. I can see the monitor flashing at slower speeds, which gives you headaches and eye strain.
You should also check to see how many colours you have displayed. This is in the control panel for your system. Change it to millions… The more the better. (this is the same place you will probably change your refresh rate)
Another thing to adjust is the contrast and brightness. Adjust them so that you can just (barely) see all of the graduations in the test strip bellow. This is a ‘rough and ready’ approach, but one that will significantly improve your viewing pleasure. The controls for contrast and brightness are usually on the monitor itself. Some notebooks (like the Mac Powerbook) only has contrast and no brightness (or is it the other way around), so be warned not all systems are the same.
Source unknown – forgotten actually, I can’t remember where I got this from. If you do recognize it please drop me a line and I’ll update the missing reference.
To adjust colours… I use a Color Vision Spyder for professional calibration results. There is plenty of help on the web. Just search ‘monitor calibration’ or have a look in my delicious links.
If you still can’t get my photographs to look good, then blame the windows system. I am publishing from a Mac system, and the two systems use different white gamma points. No matter how much you adjust you may never get them to look right. Though I use PC at work, and I still think they look ok considering.
commenting closed for this article