About a year ago I ordered some prints from Bay Photo Lab and was disappointed in how much darker they were than my monitor images. In reading about this I determined my calibrated monitors were probably too bright. Today I decided to see if I could resolve this before ordering some more prints. Here is what I have done:
1. I recalibrated my two monitors (Dell ST2210 and LG IPS235) using my xrite I1Display with brightness set to 120 cd/m2 to be sure I had a known starting point.
2. I installed Bayshore's printer profile in the latest version of Lightroom Classic (running on latest version Windows 10).
3. In LR Soft Proof I opened one of the images I had sent to Bayshore and it indeed still looked brighter than the print I received from Bay Photo Lab.
4. Out of curiosity, I then turned the brightness on the primary monitor all the way down and using a Sekonic 308DC light meter took a reflective reading of a point of interest on the monitor image.
5. I then put the Bay Photo Lab print on the front of the monitor flush with its screen so it was subject to the same ambient lighting the monitor is and took a reflective reading of the same point of interest.
6. The reading on the monitor was 3.5 EV BRIGHTER than the print, even though the monitor brightness is now at it's lowest available setting (i.e., something well below 120 cd/m2).
Given all this I'm having trouble understanding how I can reliably get prints that match what I see on the screen. Any suggestions?