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Participating Frequently
July 26, 2026
Question

Exported photos do not hold onto edits i made in lightroom

  • July 26, 2026
  • 14 replies
  • 179 views

I'm having some issues with my exported photos not holding the edits I made in lightroom. Ive been doing some research online but so far, I've had no luck in figuring things out :/. Would greatly appreciate any insight that could be provided here as to what might be the problem.  In one of the pictures below you can see the photo is very vibrant and colorful and the other one is dull and bland.  The colorful and vibrant photo is what I see in lightroom before I export, and the bland and dull photo is what I see after I export.

Thanks, in advanced!

 

 

    14 replies

    Per Berntsen
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    July 31, 2026

    @Ryan30733110b6fh 

    To test for a defective monitor profile, try setting it to Adobe RGB. (the usual advice is sRGB, but your monitor seems to be wide gamut, so use Adobe RGB)

    Close all color managed software – LrC, Photoshop, Edge.
    Go to Control panel > Color management.
    In the Devices tab, add the Adobe RGB profile, then set it as default.
    If this fixes the issue, you can use Adobe RGB until you get a calibrator.
    If it doesn’t fix the issue, please post your system info as I requested earlier.
     

    Use Adobe RGB, not sRGB

     

    Community Expert
    July 29, 2026

    The photo viewer that windows uses when you double click images is not always correctly color managed. Not sure why it sometimes manages correctly and in other cases doesn’t. I encounter lots of windows machines where it doesn’t correctly color manage when I teach classes. I think most of the time this is related to bad monitor profiles. You should check in a color managed app like Photoshop or just drag it into a web browser. Those are nowadays all color managed. Also be very careful with HDR settings in Lightroom. Your monitor might be set up to support HDR and if you have HDR editing enabled in Lightroom, you might definitely edit to something far more colorful than a sRGB jpeg can display.

    Lastly, the slightly less warm tone on the export (the only real difference I see) is often indicative of an incorrect monitor profile. You should try recalibrating the display.

     

    Per Berntsen
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    July 29, 2026

    I'm viewing the photo in the photos application that comes with windows, I'm not sure if I should be using that or some other third-party photo viewer.

     

    Windows Photos is color managed, and should display correct colors.
    When it doesn’t, it is either caused by a defective or incompatible monitor profile, or an outdated or buggy GPU driver.

    Please go to Help > System info in LrC, click the Copy button and paste in a new reply.
    Before pasting, click the Spoiler option in the three dot menu in the toolbar.
    The very long system info can then be hidden temporarily to avoid excessive scrolling.

     

     

    KR Seals
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    July 27, 2026

    Please post a screen capture of the full Export dialog in LrC. 

    I am seeing very little difference between the two images, other than the bottom one is showing a hue shift toward more blue, which seems to result in the silver car being more neutral tone. I’m using calibrated and profiled monitors. 

    Ken Seals - Nikon Z 9, Z 8, 14mm-800mm. Computer Win 11 Pro, I7-14700K, 64GB, RTX3070TI. Travel machine: 2021 MacBook Pro M1 MAX 64GB. All Adobe apps.
    Participating Frequently
    July 29, 2026

    These are my export settings that I used.  Also, what monitor are you using, I'm using a Corsair Xeneon 32UHD144 32-inch 4K 144 Hz Gaming Monitor.  Corsair Xeneon 32UHD144 32-inch 4K 144 Hz Gaming Monitor Review: Premium Excellence | Tom's Hardware

     

    KR Seals
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    July 29, 2026

    Is your monitor calibrated and profiled with quality software and hardware?

    Your export settings are very similar to mine which produce great .jpg reults.

    I’m using dual, matching NEC PA272W wide gamut monitors on an Nvidia RTX 3070ti CPU. I calibrate with Calibrite software and an I1 Display Pro puck. 

    Ken Seals - Nikon Z 9, Z 8, 14mm-800mm. Computer Win 11 Pro, I7-14700K, 64GB, RTX3070TI. Travel machine: 2021 MacBook Pro M1 MAX 64GB. All Adobe apps.
    Per Berntsen
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    July 26, 2026

    Are you on Mac or Windows?
    And in what application are you viewing the exported image?
    Applications without color management will not display correct colors.
    Color managed applications will display correct colors, regardless of what color profile was used when exporting. If they don’t, it is usually caused by a defective or incompatible monitor profile, or a GPU driver issue.

    Another possibility is that you’re exporting in Adobe RGB or ProPhoto, and uploading the image to a website that strips out the profile, so that the image becomes untagged (no embedded profile).
    Web browsers will assign sRGB to untagged material, and if the image was created in Adobe RGB or ProPhoto, colors will be desaturated.
    Always use sRGB when exporting, especially if the image will be viewed online.

    Participating Frequently
    July 29, 2026

    These are the export settings that I used to export the photo.  I'm viewing the photo in the photos application that comes with windows, I'm not sure if I should be using that or some other third-party photo viewer.

    KR Seals
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    July 29, 2026

    Import the .jpgs back into LrC and see how they look there.

    Ken Seals - Nikon Z 9, Z 8, 14mm-800mm. Computer Win 11 Pro, I7-14700K, 64GB, RTX3070TI. Travel machine: 2021 MacBook Pro M1 MAX 64GB. All Adobe apps.
    masonreed
    Participating Frequently
    July 26, 2026

    It looks like a color profile issue. Try exporting in sRGB instead of Adobe RGB or ProPhoto RGB, and check the exported image in a different photo viewer. If it looks correct there, the problem is likely the app you're using to view the exported file. Sharing your export settings would help pinpoint the exact cause.

    Participating Frequently
    July 29, 2026
    These are the export settings that I used to export the photo.  I'm viewing the photo in the photos application that comes with windows, I'm not sure if I should be using that or some other third-party photo viewer.