Pages too dark?

[punkarsenic]

sorry, what do you mean by value?

this is really helpful feedback. thank you

[NanettesClouds]

Value is basically the lightness or darkness of an image. It's primarily used to describe the form of an object and to differentiate elements in a composition.
In general, you want a good balance between the lights and the darks of an image.

An image that is too light is "overexposed"

An image that is too dark is "underexposed"

An image that is over-or-underexposed isn't necessarily bad, but makes it so there's a loss in clarity and detail. The God Father is a great example of how to make dark underexposed images work well.

[punkarsenic]

ah right. so, to add value to the characters would be to brighten then?

[NanettesClouds]

Yes exactly. Keep in mind that you don't have to brighten the entire character either, like in this example from The Godfather.

You know where each character is because you can clearly see bit's and pieces of them, and the shadows that they cast on their environment.

[punkarsenic]

thats really helpful, thank you!

[tayo_rafferty]

I love the look of it but I would lighten it up by the tiniest of degrees because I thing the 'gutters' of your comic do quite a lot of work towards creating a dark environment/atmosphere.

[joannekwan]

Yeah, I'm on a mac retina display that skews toward a higher contrast with greater a range of values so it does look pretty dark on my end. I'm just gonna echo @niah146's great advice.

[serenitysquirrel]

Are you doing them using a laptop?

[punkarsenic]

@Mythos thats a good point

@serenitysquirrel yes, why?

[anitacomics]

I can easily read everything you put in there, both text and image so no, it's not too dark. Check it yourself on various devices, your might just be not too bright

[Pandastrophic]

It's too dark for me, like I can kinda see what's going on but it's straining.
Maybe just playing around with the brightness and contrast would help, even just a little bit.
(Aside from that I really like how your panels look, the shape and the outline are really unique)

[Pyomatic]

I don't think its too dark, I can still see whats going on, but sometimes its a bit tricky. I think you've got a nice way of showing the dark environment (its very atmospheric and pretty!!), but sometimes your characters blend in a little too much into the darkness, its sometimes hard to tell where a character ends and the bg begins. It may work if you add some lighter parts/backlighting around the edges which need it most. I do this quite a bit in my comic just because I think it makes whats important (characters) stand out at a glance
(eg from my comic vs )

Of course, my example is set when its still light, and i like the effect adding all these light lines gives in my comic, but if you maybe try going over some of the edges that blend with the darkness (i think especially around the characters hair in your example pages) with a dark blue line set to colour dodge or linear dodge (on photoshop, im not 100% sure about other programs, I think sai uses luminosity?) it could help subtly separate the characters from the background and help readability from first glance? Hope this helps!!

[Anthea]

It just about passes for screen but if you were to print this it certainly would be way too dark.

[NanettesClouds]

@Jennytinka Great advice, Photoshop tricks are super useful for fixing a lot of things quickly. Just in case Op isn't using photoshop and doesnt have access to those tricks though I thought I might mention that you can sorta do the same thing as a color dodge without having to actually use it.
It's a matter of choosing your color and then raising the value and lowering the saturation of it until you get that sort of glowey look. I also reduced the opacity of the layer that I added the highlights on by just a little bit.

That said - for a more painterly style like what Jenny is doing (Which omg I love that style, I'm gonna have to check out your comic) , color dodge is the way to go.

Just remember that the point is to add highlights to the image and you'll be fine.

[nolongerusestheforum]

Agreed! I think you did a great job and should leave it the way it is!

[edmourabarbosa]

I'll be very honest: it is too dark. Yes, I can see what's happening. Yes, it's clear and readable. But that's not only what you should be worried about. Lightning is THE MOST IMPORTANT THING in narrative art. It's how we perceive the world around us. It's how we feel the scene. If it's done wrong it can wreck the narrative. In my opinion, your pages look flat and boring. For example, the first three panels of the first page are awesome: you can feel the warm of the light in contrast to the cold darkness behind him. The following panels are cold and flat. Unless that's the way you intend to tell the story, to make the reader feel, you should add depth to the lighting.
Scenes, for as dark as they are, should have depth to the lightning. For reference look into some NOIR comics. They are usually dark, with deep black shadows, but still have strong lights. The key to that style is the contrast.

Light draws attention to the important parts of the scene. Our eyes are naturally drawn to light and empty spaces, avoiding dark or detail dense parts.
To answer your question more directly: you should add light to it. But just to some little parts, while mainting the darkness on the most part. Use it to draw attention the the characters faces, to movement, to something you want the reader to notice.
I think you're in the right path. Your comic setting is very interesting. I think adjusting the lightining would make it even more awesome. Good luck and keep up the good work!

[punkarsenic]

yeah, i figured i needed better contrast. im studying theatre lighting so its just been bugging me constantly.

this is a screenshot from my last page, could you tell me if this is any better / anything i could add? itd be a great help.

[joannekwan]

That looks fantastic! Much better! ^^

[edmourabarbosa]

Woooooow! Much much better! That's what I was talking about! Congrats!

Just one more thing: be careful to not always let the background so dark. It can get boring. It's okay to be mostly dark, but make some stuff glow behind them or far away. It can help stabilish the world and add to the scene. Maybe not in this exact page, but make sure to have a "stabilishing shot" to show the readers where they are.

Anyway, I think it's great! Really loved it =D

[punkarsenic]

yeah ive definitely incorporated that in the full scene - a large amount of this scene was in a corner of a cave, which was the dilemma, and i opted to sacrifice background visibility for decent contrast.

thanks so much for the feedback!