Not the moody ones but just plain dark on my monitor. There seems to be so many really dark ones that I can't make out what the artist did. I tried to set the brightness up on my monitor but to no avail. What else can I do. I feel so bad not being able to comment on their work if I can't see it..........................

I saw that alot, too, prior to switching to flat screens for everything. the reason they render them dark like that is often because they're sitting in a blacked-out room, where the computer is the only light source, hence it looks better to them if they render it very low-contrast.

It's pretty tough to find a balance.  Unlike a painting set up in a gallery, you have no control over what the viewer is going to look at your work through.  Even my some of own images look surprisingly different when I change equipment - recently I switched from a 19" CRT Sony Trinitron, to a 20" LCD NEC, and the LCD's black is tremendoulsly more defined and brighter than the Sony was.

I'd say that if a lot of pictures look too dark and you can't lighten them by turning up the brightness/contrast on your monitor, it's because you need a new monitor. They do deteriorate, and some rather quickly. Any CRT monitor older than a few years is probably far far darker than the day it was bought. Thing is that since you look at it every day, you don't notice it.

I don't know how flat panels deteriorate, I have't had mine long enough to tell, yet. But I wouldn't be surprised it it, too got darker with time. For that very reason I bought the brightest one I could afford.

I think flat screens are better than CRT ones for that.   I suspect that the problem is with high-contrast, rather than low-contrast settings.   There is also the fact that default Poser shadows are far too strong for most purposes.   Then there is a Poser peculiarity that makes a light's intensity a percentage, but the shadow value a decimal fraction.   Poser is quite happy to let you set the shadow for a light to 45%, rather than the intended 0.45, with the result that the scene looks less illuminated than irradiated.

i have had people ask me about that. i love my old monitor and really don't like LCD's much because i get massive headaches from them (don't know why exactly). i have worked far too long with my screen and have gotten so used to it that each time i view my renders in someone elses computer using an LCD i'm always amazed at the difference.

Attached Link: http://www.easyrgb.com/calibrate.php

Do you have Photoshop?  If so, look in control panel for "Adobe Gamma" and follow the wizard to calibrate your monitor.

There is also an online site that can calibrate by adding a cookie, but if you delete cookies you have to go back and recalibrate.

wow, i do have photoshop CS but wasn't aware it has the ability to calibrate the monitor for me, thanks very much for the info, Acadia!!!

Attached Link: http://www.computer-darkroom.com/ps8_colour/ps8_2.htm

Cool, I'd been meaning to do that with my new monitor and hadn't got around to figuring that out.  Thanks for the info.

thank you soooo much for that helpful link, Acadia!!! my monitor is down to it's last few breaths i think. not only does it fluctuate every now and then, the top and bottom has this distorted line on it, lol. i guess it's high time to get a new one soon.

Rainfeather, 

While researching monitor calibration. I recently read that adjusting the refresh rate of your monitor can sometimes eliminate the headaches that people get from staring at their monitors.  I read that a general rule of thumb is to set it one setting lower than the top recommended refresh rate of your particular monitor.  For instance; mine is a Samsung LCD with a refresh rate range of 60 to 75, so I set it at 70.  This made quite a difference in clarity.  Hope this helps as well.

that sounds like a great tip there Larry, thank you so much! i wrote it down for when i get the new monitor. =)