Color differences exporting to sRGB & soft proofing not working

[Timothy5C5D]

I develop photos exclusively for web use in Lightroom Classic. That means I'm exporting in sRGB colorspace to post images on my website and social media. However, exported photos look completely different than what I see while developing. I assume this is because Lightroom uses a different ProPhoto colorspace. My monitor is a Dell S2721DGF IPS monitor. It has a wide-gamut and excellent color reproduction, though I have not done any calibration myself.

Now, I understand that Lightroom is a color managed program and windows/web is not, therefore I expect to see color differences when exporting to sRGB. I'm trying to use soft proofing to predict the differences and make changes, but the issue is that the soft-proofing doesn't appear to be working correctly. The picture I open in Windows does not reflect the soft-proofed sRGB copy displaying in Lightroom. Furthermore, the soft-proofed copy doesn't appear any different than the original in a side-by-side comparison inside Lightroom.

See the image below. The sRGB proof in Lightroom still appears different than the exported sRGB image. The exported image (left) is darker, higher contrast, and more saturated. Any ideas why these images would still be different after soft proofing? Alternatively, is there any way I can change the colorspace inside Lightroom to simply develop in sRGB and see the same colors when I export? Any help is appreciated, thank you.

[Guest]

I should add that this isn't an HDR display or anything that would be causing a file with a PQ profile to show up differently, although I don't think HDR displays honor those outside of .heif and .av1c (or whatever the new video-derived-still is called).

[Joshua 14091384]

I have the exact same issue. I don't think it has anything to do with scaling. Left is the PNG exported with SRGB. It's applied as a desktop wallpaper. (It looks the same viewed with irfanview) Right is the SRGB soft proof in lightroom, which always looks identical no matter profile or intent I choose for the proof. The colors are drastically different after export. My monitor is calibrated with a SpyderX using DisplayCal and the profile is properly applied in Windows. My monitor is a a 10 bit monitor but only covers 99.9% standard SRGB gamut.  

[TheDigitalDog]

It's applied as a desktop wallpaper.

Which means it's not color managed. Or it would match Lr. Desktop wallpaper on Windows perhaps? 

[D Fosse]

No, you don't have the same issue. I suggest you start a new thread with some more screenshots.

The Windows desktop is not color managed and will never display correct colors, under any circumstances.

Since your monitor is standard gamut, proofing to sRGB is pointless. Everything you see is already proofed to sRGB.

[Leonardo Izar]

Simple solution and many wrong answers. I faced the same problem. go to the color sync utility and change the default color LCD to sRgb. You may need to look for the profile in the color profiles folder on the system.

[Jao vdL]

DO NOT DO THIS! It guarantees you will have incorrect color. You are effectively turning off any correction for the display gamut. Your display is HIGHLY unlikely to be sRGB nowadays. Most Macs have a display P3 like color gamut. Many external displays are much wider than sRGB. The only correct answers are already given above. Calibrate your display, export to color spaces wide enough to contain all the colors in the image, only use color managed apps to view your exports. Luckily nowadays all browsers are color managed.  

[TheDigitalDog]

Simple solution and many wrong answers. I faced the same problem. go to the color sync utility and change the default color LCD to sRgb. You may need to look for the profile in the color profiles folder on the system.

By @Leonardo Izar

"For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong" -H. L. Mencken

+1 to what Jao vdL just posted. This isn't a fix. Now all you've done is hose Lightrooms color managed previews as well.