Thinkpads Forum

I was recently given a ThinkPad T490 running Windows 11 25H2.

The screen is a bit dark when viewing images or videos. I've turned up the brightness using the F6 key, but that hasn't helped. Anything dark colored in an image, such as dark colored clothing or a shadow, appears as a black area lacking in any detail.

I think that this could be remedied if I could figure out how to lower the screen contrast. I say this because I recall that back in the 60s when I was an amateur filmmaker, we used a high speed Kodak color film stock that was high contrast. It was common to have the lab perform an operation called "flashing" that exposed the film to a low level white light. This reduced the contrast and produced more detail in dark areas of images.

I'm wondering how to lower the contrast on my ThinkPad screen.

I don't think adjusting contrast will do anything. I'm willing to bet that the T490 you were given has a low quality display and that's why dark areas don't look good.

But if you do want to adjust contrast, go to Control Panel, select "view by large icons" instead of "category" on the top right of the window then select "Color Management"
It should have opened up a new window.
From the new Color Management window, go to the "Advanced" tab on the top left, and click "Calibrate display".
Then follow the steps to calibrate your display.

Hi again, dcfbf,

I just found that you also answered my other post from over a week ago. As with my other post, I was expecting to receive an email alert that someone had responded to my query. (I just found the check box at the bottom of the page for "Notify me when a reply is posted").

Many thanks for the speedy and informative reply!

Will in Seattle
a.k.a. "Clueless"