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S
sempiternalflow
January 17, 2026
Question

Colour Issue

  • January 17, 2026
  • 1 reply
  • 108 views

Hi everyone,

 

I’m hoping for some clarity on an issue I’m seeing with Lightroom Classic and exports.

 

I’m editing photos in Lightroom Classic on a Mac with an Apple studio display. Inside Lightroom, the image looks perfect and desired to me, skin tones look clean and neutral.

 

However, once I export the image as a JPEG (sRGB, embedded profile) and view it outside of Lightroom (email preview, WeTransfer download, airdrop.), the photo consistently looks a bit greener / yellower and slightly darker — even when I’m viewing it on the same computer.

 

So it’s not really device-to-device differences it’s: Lightroom preview vs the exported JPEG in other apps on the same Mac

 

I’ve already: Turned off True Tone and Night Shift, Checked that my export settings are correct, Confirmed this happens across multiple non-Adobe viewers. And I see too that my display on Studio Display is not the culprit as I sent it to myself and the export still differs.

 

I’m trying to understand what the actual issue is. If this is really just me needing to buy a calibrater or if there’s some switch I’m not hitting in Lightroom?

 

Any insight would be appreciated. It’s driving me nuts.

 

Thanks!

1 reply

JohanElzenga
Community Expert
JohanElzengaCommunity Expert
Community Expert
January 17, 2026

There is no switch. This could be a monitor profile issue. Lightroom uses a very large color space in the develop module, and AdobeRGB in the other modules. That means that the conversion from Lightroom to your monitor is different than from sRGB to your monitor. A faulty monitor profile could therefore lead to differences, even on one and the same computer. Select a different profile, just to see if the colors are the same when using that profile (they may not be correct, but they should be the same).

 

-- Johan W. Elzenga
S
sempiternalflowAuthor
January 17, 2026

Thanks for the help and explanation.

 

I tried switching between all of the available display presets/profiles in my Mac setting (Apple Display P3, Photography P3-D65, Digital Cinema, Design & Print, etc.), and the behavior is not consistent between them. Lightroom’s Develop view continues to look different from exported images and other apps regardless of which preset I use.

 

At this point, what would you recommend as the next step?

Does this effectively point to me needing to purchase a calibration tool such as Calibrite Pro or something?

 

Thanks again, Johan

JohanElzenga
Community Expert
JohanElzengaCommunity Expert
Community Expert
January 18, 2026

Calibrating your monitor is always a good idea, even if this problem turns out to be something different. Calibrating the Studio Display is a little different from the traditional icc-profiling done with other monitors, however. Maybe this helps: 

https://www.lightroomqueen.com/community/threads/calibrate-apple-mac-mini-with-apple-studio-display.53636/

-- Johan W. Elzenga
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