Make sure you don't have any screen glare or reflections in your monitor. Lamps or windows that reflect in your screen prevent you from accurately seeing any image, especially the dark tones. A dimly lit room, with only a little bit of light behind the monitor, is usually the best environment for 3D lighting work.

Make sure you can see a full range of tones, dark to light. For starters, you should be able to clearly see the distinction between the bright and dark rectangles in this image, and read the numbers 1 through 8 in dark and light text:

Check your monitor's gamma. From a distance, the solid center of this image should be the same brightness as the striped edge areas:

Adjust your desktop wallpaper and application background colors to a neutral gray or black. Bright colors on your monitor would make you see your work differently.

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