My photos look different once exported

Forum|Forum|5 years ago
January 19, 2021
5 replies
3797 views

Hey guys,

I have an issue with Photoshop.

I simply want to take a photo, edit it, and export it with an sRBG colour profile. However, each time I try this, my images’ colour/contrast drastically change after export.

I take RAW photos in sRGB, edit these RAW photos using Photoshop in sRBG, export these files in sRGB and the colours/contrast still somehow change after export. Hence, I’ve tried different methods such as: resetting Photoshop, embedding colour profiles, changing colour profiles, and much more. Still, nothing seems to make a difference.

Does anyone have a solution to my problem? I’ve had this issue for years and help would be incredibly appreciated.

Thanks 🙂

This topic has been closed for replies.

Warren Heaton

Community Expert

Color Management is a whole science unto itself.

Adobe has an entire forum dedicated to the subject:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/color-management/bd-p/Color-Management?page=1&sort=latest_replies&filter=all

D Fosse

Community Expert

Yeah, but in actual use it's very simple. It just works.

The main thing is to use software that actually does it. Most "color management problems" happen in applications that don't do it.

Color management has a reputation for being difficult - which then becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, because it makes people look for complicated solutions to simple or non-existing problems. And then they really mess it up.

NB, colourmanagement

Community Expert

I think this issue may be associated with the application that you are using to view exported or saved files outside Photoshop.

Photoshop uses colourmanagement to provide correct appearance by translating between document (image) colourspace and monitor display colourspace.
Ideally, the display will have been calibrated with a sensor and good software.
This means that Photoshop can accurately display the image data, providing a true window on your pixel values.
Only colour managed applications can do that.
Windows Photos does not use colour management (why they did that, who knows) so the screen appearance is very likely to be wrong. If you have a Wide Gamut display (probably touted as 'Adobe RGB gamut') that makes this situation even worse.
Windows Photos will show images with way too much saturation.
You are never going to see this "Photos" appearance reproduced in print or on any colour managed system. So, the rule is to avoid non-colour managed viewing if you want any continuity between devices. That’s what colour management is all about.
Use Photoshop to assess and edit colour; if you want more saturation, then add it there (but do be aware that if you are printing then wildly increased to saturation will only lead to disappointment due to the limited capabilities of ink on paper.

You can not expect a totally accurate colour on a mobile device. They are not user calibratable (but are quite consistent, to be fair), converting to and saving as sRGB is the best you can do to match the appearance of a mobile to a properly calibrated computer screen with the same image displayed in Photoshop.

I hope this helps
neil barstow, colourmanagement net :: adobe forum volunteer
google me "neil barstow colourmanagement" for lots of free articles on colour management
[please only use the blue reply button at the top of the page, this maintains the original thread title and chronological order of posts]

NB, colourmanagement

Community Expert

Hi

1: I would use "save as" when saving from Photoshop rather than export/export as or export/save for web.

In 'export as' or 'save for web' you have to be sure to check "embed profile" to get the sRGB profile embedded. That’s important.

2: Do you then view your saved sRGB image in Photoshop? If so the appearance should be unchanged.

Depending on your Photoshop color settings you should be getting a "no embedded profile" warning if you didn't manage to embed.

Having an embedded profile is vitally important since any colourmanagement savvy application will read that profile.

But - ONLY colourmanagement savvy applications do that.

If you view your sRGB images in, say Windows Photos, you cannot expect accuracy since that app does not use colour management.

So please tell more about your process

I hope this helps
neil barstow, colourmanagement net :: adobe forum volunteer
google me "neil barstow colourmanagement" for lots of free articles on colour management
[please only use the blue reply button at the top of the page, this maintains the original thread title and chronological order of posts]

J

Jacob5E17Author

Participating Frequently

Thanks for the detailed response.

When I use 'save as' then I can somewhat solve the issue. The colours nor contrast seem to change, after export, on my monitor. However, the image still looks much different when it is viewed on different devices (e.g. my phone).

This is why I'd like to embed the sRGB colour profile into my edits, as this would allow my work to appear more consistent. I know that this can be done using 'export as' which is why I'm trying to use this method. But even when I export my sRBG edit, with the colour profile embedded, the resulting image appears far different to my PSD.