Having not posted much work online before, I am surprised of the difference that different monitors show the work. What would look like a perfectly light piece with enough shadow for atmosphere at home, ends up looking too dark to see the details when I view it here at work. I have also noticed this among some of the work i see posted here, where some I can kinda see something in the shadows, but it looks basically black here, till I look at it again at home. I know it is with how people set their monitor brightness...but was wondering what people do to compensate for such thngs...if anything.

Not sure this IS much you can do. Most people just tune their monitors to what looks good to them while I use Adobe PS's monitor calibration at home. I think ya just gotta go with what looks good on your monitor and if it's calabrated, hopefully that puts you in the "middle" of the range of setting the picture might get viewed at elsewhere. If there is anything else that can be done, I'd be willing to listen, too.

And it may not have anything to do with monitor settings. I had the same problem at home. Images were too dark to really make out. I realized over the years I'd cranked the brightness level all the way up.

Then I bought a new monitor. Oh boy the difference! And it wasn't just that monitor. When I married last year, my husband brought his old 486 machine & 15" monitor. It was worse than mine. I guess as a monitor gets older, it looses its ability to get brighter. Now he has a spiffy new computer (and I'm jealous) with a new monitor that has no problem with images when set at a medium brightness.

So it may not be JUST the settings of your monitor... it may also be it's age.

Damn I hate how fast these machines get old. I bought my 21" monitor about 4 years ago, and loved it.....but you are right, when I got home yesterday I realized that I had its brightness set to 90%.....and any less it was hard on the eyes.

In some cases it's the monitor... not the settings. For instance... I have two Mitsubishi DiamondTrons on my workstations, a 17" and a 19". Both have excellent video cards, and both are calibrated and adjusted to the best of my ability. However, this system that I surf on has an old 17" Gateway monitor that is dark and muddy at best. It's also low res... a minimum of .28dpi. Images that look moody, but legible and crisp on my Mitsubishi's look dark and muddy on this monitor. And since you can't tell what the guy on the other end of the internet will be browsing on... it's kind of a crapshoot when you upload. Only way to really tell is to test view images on various monitors, and that's not practical for most people.

Don't forget that your graphics cards also have brightness, contrast, and gamma settings. Tweaking those settings can help compensate for older, darker monitors.

On my monitor I can just see into the double shadow
bottom left side

On my monitor, right about the point where your arrow touches is almost completely black. I can no longer see any part of the table showing in it. NOW, right above that shadow, where the apple curves under, I can make out the edge of the apple in the shadow all the way to where it joins the grape. Just barely, though. In other words, the shadow under the apple is not completely black...it is the faintest of a green-black.

I am able to see this double shadow here on my machine at home quite clearly.