Having Trouble Calibrating Display

[metalshredder]

First off:

2008 MacBook Pro, 15" w/ LED Backlit Display
OsX 10.6.8 Snow Leopard
256Mb nVidia 8600 (I think)

Used:

Spyder 3 Express

Calibrated my display over a year ago, and I thought I was doing fine, until I started getting more pro lately, and noticed some things weren't right. In particular this picture was giving me problems. My site sells and delivers prints thru MPix, which I thought was fine until the customer contacted me that some things weren't right. The blacks just go super dark and run together. Other pictures looked fine, but not what was on my screen. Colors were off. I re-ran the spyder, still off. Do I need to get a better spyder, or a different brand? Please help, what's going on now just is NOT working...

I've tried the prints at other places, re-ran the spyder, and yes, I also tried it on a real monitor on a desktop system, also calibrated, and had the same result. I'm at a loss at this point...

See link for photo in question. I have run prints at ASAP Photo in Houston, and the prints look none short of stunning, but I just can't for the life of me get my display to display colors right. Skin tones are off. Better in print, but different than on screen.

Photos By Trochta | LHS Parents Night | Photo 63

[Rson]

is Mpix color correcting your already correct prints?

Are you embedding the correct color profile? (Srgb)

[metalshredder]

Mpix did color correct the prints on that particular order, I have since disabled the option, and re-ran a few pics, and they looked darker. Printed the same at ASAP and they are dark. Granted it's night time under football lights, but, it's printing way darker than my screen is displaying.

Yes, sRGB IEC61966-2.1

[picman]

The luminance part of calibration is not a fixed number, it varies according to ambient light and other factors. Too bright a screen will equal dark prints.
This explains it better than I can and if you need more info Googling: "Why are my prints dark" will bring up a lot.

Why Are My Prints Too Dark