Contour plots look dark and off color

[profray]

I am making some simple contour plots using a fairly straightforward color scheme of 12 colors. The colors and RGB values are listed in figure 1 attached. When I plot a surface contour the colors are darker, even though everything is default/reset with respect to all the 3D settings as shown in figure 2. Note that the colors in the legend are brighter as well. Finally when I change to a 3D surface plot, the colors are much better.
Any suggestions on how to adjust the features of the surface contour plot? All I did was change the chart type with not further adjustments between figure 2 and 3
Thanks in advance.

 

[profray]

Well, I tracked it down. Turns out you cant do it from the Interface, but...you can from VBA. This was from a microsoft answers forum
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us...cel-2007/2b147908-636b-4445-9262-46463406accb
Just add the code line

activechart.ChartGroups(1).has3dshading=false

Props to Andy Pope....13 years ago...sheesh