Why do pictures on the camera's LCD look so much better and brighter?

[The Mad Monk]

Nikon is a high quality manufacturer.

You will *never* get the LCD to "match" what you see on your monitor. What you see on the LCD is highly dependent on lighting, which will always vary unless you only look at the LCD under the same lighting every time, which of course doesn't happen. Just use it to compose the shot, with the understanding that you will make the needed adjustments when you get them on your computer.

There are color calibration plates you can use with your camera and with your monitor, you might want to look into borrowing them.

[Sir Og]

He wants to modify his pictures so that they look bright and colorful on crappy and/or uncallibrated monitors.

He should use some software. Picasa is free and he can give it a try as a start. Then there is always Photo Shop.

[onodera]

Nikon Coolpix S630


thank you

Your camera sucks, but try going to Menu (Shooting) -> Color Options and set it to Vivid. If that doesn't help much, set exposure compensation (right on the 4-way controller) to -0.5 or -0.6.

[The Mad Monk]

His camera has issues, but they have nothing to do with the color balance.