Over saturated images when viewing on a phone after exporting as Srgb jpeg

[michaelm64983358]

Hi

I recently edited some headshots in photoshop using the raw sony files I had everything set to SRGB. Im using a Dell Monitor which is set to display as SRGB and my macbook pro which I also have set to SRGB display. Both macbook and monitor image looks the same.

When I import the file into lightroom for the final colour edit changes it to looks the same and I have set the export as jpeg/SRGB. On my monitor and macbook my picture looks as intended the issue is when I open the same picture file on several of my phones the image is completely over saturated and the image is ruined.

My understanding was setting everything to srgb was the safest way to export images to be viewed on multiple devices. But this is not the case for me or am I do something wrong? I sent the files via we transfer for the client to look at which she downloaded via her phone and the same issue happened she appeared way to saturated in the images. How can I fix this?

[dj_paige]

Either your computer monitor is not properly calibrated, or the screens on your phones are not properly calibrated.

[michaelm64983358]

I havent done any proper calibration with the devices you can purchase. My monitor however does give me several colour space options to work in. The two main ones are Adobe RGB and SRGB. I select SRGB and use my macbook as SRGB display also. They match quite well. So im not understanding why when exporting the files on the phone it looks so over saturated. The phone displays are more closer to how it would look in Adobe RGB. Is this a common thing that phone screens match up better with Adobe RGB. Does this mean I should edit in Adobe RGB so i can manage the over saturation from the start of the edit.

[dj_paige]

Monitor mis-calibration is not magically cured by exporting sRGB. If your computer monitor is not calibrated properly, the exports will not look right on screens that are properly (or nearly so) calibrated. Similarly, if your phone screen is not properly calibrated, it will not display the photos properly.

I believe both Windows and Mac have built into the operating system software a method of calibrating (which may not be as accurate as hardware calibration), but ought to get you close.

And no, exporting as Adobe RGB won't help either, if somewhere in your devices/computer monitor there is improper calibration.

[michaelm64983358]

Thanks for your help. I will be ordering a calibration device now. Once this is done will my images on screen when exported look the same as my phone if exporting to srgb?

[dj_paige]

If both the monitor and the phone screens are properly calibrated, then you should see the same images on both.

[Conrad_C]

What kind of phones are they? The photo should look roughly the same on an iPhone because of the system-level color management.

Older Android phones don't have any color management, and some newer ones have wide gamut displays. That's a bad combination, because if you have an image with a color like Red 250 and no color management, the wide gamut phone will display a much more saturated Red 250 than the sRGB phone. The solution, if it's your own phone, is to set the phone color mode to sRGB.

I was reading about the Galaxy S10 phone, which has a newer feature that will actually recognize an embedded color profile and adapt its color mode for it..., helping to prevent oversaturation. But I don't think the majority of Android phones have that feature so they're prone to oversaturation, especially if they are set to a wide gamut color mode.

In short: It can depend on the particular combination of phone display (its gamut), phone model, phone OS, and phone OS version. Which of course you can't control for everyone out there who might view your photos. The best you can do is edit on a calibrated computer display, export with an embedded color profile (which Lightroom does), and just let it go.

[michaelm64983358]

The phone I was looking at the image on was a google pixel 2 XL which was showing the color graded image as super saturated compared to Dell monitor display.

I don't mind it not being exactly identical but to be so far off was really worrying. I have a spyder Xpro coming tomorrow. Hopefully I can use it to callibrate both my macbook pro and my Dell UP2716D monitor display. So next time I begin a colour grade on these monitors it wont be so problematic when a client views the images on their phone.

[Alexander3498]

Hey there I was searching because I'm having the exact same problem on the same phone. Pictures look great on computer but terribly oversaturated on a Google pixel 2 xl any fixes you've found for this yet?

[defaultobitrf6v5pxc]

Hi there! I am having the exact same issue as both of you, just with a different phone model. Has anyone found a solution to this?

Thanks!

[Alexander3498]

Hey I never could get it to be fixed. So I ended up buying a new laptop and
a new phone and it fixed it. A MacBook and an iPhone, and the colors match
between both perfectly. 😅 sorry that might not be much help to you

[defaultobitrf6v5pxc]

Haha wow thats extreme! Though I'm glad it worked for you.

I edit on an Acer pc but images come oversaturated on my iphone/ ipad. And generally iPhone displays any image (not just my edits) very differently to my pc in terms of colour..

Did you try re-calibrating your monitor on a previous PC?

[josephlavine]

A good place to start when addressing color issues and especially color spaces is to confirm that your monitor(s) are calibrated accurately. For image professionals, it is suggested that you use a hardware device to "read" the color information and adjust accordingly. A couple of common options are those by Xrite and DataColor.

https://www.xrite.com/categories/calibration-profiling

https://spyderx.datacolor.com/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIj9KM4bXF6AIVA6SzCh3fjg0fEAAYASAAEgL7h_D_BwE

[miken36446098]

I had the same problem. The photo looks grossly over saturated in Lightroom on my Pixel 7 Pro and any person in the photo is extremly red. But when I export the photo is looks fine. Even if I take a screenshot of Lightroom with the photo looking terrible, the screenshot looks fine.

I fixed this by going to Settings > Display > Colors and changing it from "Adaptive" to "Natural".