The contrast and brightness settings of your monitor may be maladjusted. If you've set your contrast and brightness levels for office related applications (ms-word, etc.), these levels may show photographs as too dark. In most cases, the contrast level should be set to maximum, and the brightness level raised (starting from it's lowest setting) until all seventeen tones in the following reference bar can be distinguished clearly.

The brightness setting can be lowered to return the monitor to levels appropriate for word processing, etc. An alternative might be to configure your your applications to use a light gray background. This will be easier on your eyes, and the higher brightness level will allow you to view photographs correctly.

Additional monitor settings can be verified on our monitor calibration page...