Skip to main content
Participant
December 20, 2016
Answered

Photos exported from lightroom looks different on pc and iphone

  • December 20, 2016
  • 6 replies
  • 45146 views

When i'm developing an image inside lightroom i was expecting the same output after exporting it with srgb color profile. I am using foxstone viewer to view exact colors. But the image looks so much better inside lightroom develop module. I tried importing it on my iphone and the image looks brighter and a bit saturated on my phone Because i thought iphones displays exact colors. Do i have to depend on my iphone display to correct my image brightness ang saturation? My laptop is not calibrated.I am using lightroom cc 2015.5.1 on windows 7.

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer Laura Shoe

    Hi Jestir,

    You wrote, "When I'm developing an image inside lightroom I was expecting the same output after exporting it with sRGB color profile."  Lightroom essentially works in the ProPhoto color space, which is larger than sRGB - ProPhoto can contain and Lightroom can show you colors that are much more saturated than what sRGB can. If you have intensely saturated colors in your photo, these colors will be dampened down to fit into sRGB.

    It's no surprise that your photos are displaying brighter on your iPhone. There is nothing in your image file that tells your device (iPhone, monitor) how brightly to set the display - your monitor and iPhone are just set to different brightness values. You could sit down at your computer with an image on your monitor and the same one on your phone and adjust brightness on your iPhone so they match and set your iPhone brightness preference to not automatically adjust, but next time you walk outdoors you'll find that your iPhone is way too dark for you to be able to read it - its brightness needs to be adjusted to varying ambient lighting conditions.

    6 replies

    Participant
    December 24, 2020

    When I export I export a tiff file and a jpeg the jpeg looks wrong over saturated and dark but the tiff looks find when they are viewed from windows before I share the jepeg  on the Webb I have to get it to look good on the phone

    Why would the tiff look good same as it did out of lightroom and photoshop but jpeg wrong 

    ManiacJoe
    Inspiring
    December 24, 2020

    Windows? Which version?

    Is your monitor calibrated?

    Which program are you using to view the TIF and JPG files on Windows?

    Which phone? Which picture viewing app?

     

     

    Participating Frequently
    September 8, 2020

    Dear Ms. Laura,
    I  have a similar problem, after export the photo looks different, but it is much more saturated which i snot in line with your above explanation: " colors will be dampened down to fit into sRGB."
     The main question is how can the image been viewed inside LR  before exporting, to control the color output .
    Otherwise it will request a lot of trail and error until reaching the right color hue/saturation. I belive  there should be an export previw or similar posibility ?
    further to mention i have the same issue in PS.

    D Fosse
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    September 8, 2020

    It sounds like you're viewing it in a photo viewer which is not color managed.

     

    In that case it's entirely down to the characteristics of your monitor. Traditionally, most monitors are fairly close to sRGB natively, so an sRGB image would display roughly correctly without color management.

     

    The further your monitor is from an "ideal" sRGB response, the more incorrect it will display. With wide gamut monitors, unmanaged sRGB material will always display oversaturated. These monitors have a wider gamut than sRGB, so all numbers will inflate like a balloon, filling the wider color space.

     

    If you have one of these displays, you simply cannot use applications that are not color managed. That's the deal, and what you implicitly accepted when purchasing such a unit. There is no workaround: you need full end-to-end color management. Or, for that matter, accept the oversaturation.

     

    With color management, the monitor profile will remap the numbers into monitor color space, preserving correct colors. To get the full benefit of this, you also need a calibrator to make a monitor profile that describes your monitor accurately. A generic manufacturer profile will never be as precise.

    Laura Shoe
    Laura ShoeCorrect answer
    Inspiring
    January 8, 2017

    Hi Jestir,

    You wrote, "When I'm developing an image inside lightroom I was expecting the same output after exporting it with sRGB color profile."  Lightroom essentially works in the ProPhoto color space, which is larger than sRGB - ProPhoto can contain and Lightroom can show you colors that are much more saturated than what sRGB can. If you have intensely saturated colors in your photo, these colors will be dampened down to fit into sRGB.

    It's no surprise that your photos are displaying brighter on your iPhone. There is nothing in your image file that tells your device (iPhone, monitor) how brightly to set the display - your monitor and iPhone are just set to different brightness values. You could sit down at your computer with an image on your monitor and the same one on your phone and adjust brightness on your iPhone so they match and set your iPhone brightness preference to not automatically adjust, but next time you walk outdoors you'll find that your iPhone is way too dark for you to be able to read it - its brightness needs to be adjusted to varying ambient lighting conditions.

    Participant
    December 8, 2019

    So how do we fix it?? I've edited my photo but it's not looking the same when I export it. What do I do??

    Participant
    December 15, 2019

    Hi Aliyaam,

     

    If you are editing photos in Lightroom CC then try below option and check, I hope it will work.

    While saving photos save it as "Save for Web (Legacy)", select checkbox "Embed Color Profile" and "Convert to sRGB"

    Thank you

    Participant
    January 8, 2017

    I'm having the same problem I have a IPhone 6 and my photos in Lightroom look good but once I sync them to my Lightroom mobile app my pictures look different it's like they delete all my edits I'm not sure how to fix it

    Participant
    July 16, 2017

    I have the same problem, dont know how to calibrate either.

    Community Expert
    December 20, 2016

    I am pretty sure fasstone viewer does not color manage by default and so will always show you incorrect color even on calibrated displays. You need to calibrate your display using calibration hardware regardless. Also, except when your iPhone is a 6 or 7 model, do not expect the display quality to be that good as before that Apple wasn't really calibrating the screens that well. Also there are many settings on the phone that can mess up the color and contrast Such as the ambient adjustments they can do. Even the newer ones are not going to be very good although they are probably going to be better out of the box than a random uncalibrated computer display.

    dj_paige
    Legend
    December 20, 2016

    Calibrate your laptop monitor. Calibrate your iPhone.