Help oversaturated image after export, color shift from Macbook to Samsung phone

[Lamby11111]

I'm having an issue with color discrepancy after exporting from Photoshop. On my laptop (Macbook Air 2017) the colours look perfect however when I email them to myself and open them on my phone (Samsung Galaxy S20) the colors are way oversaturated, by about 15 points the orange hues and skintones are particularly bad. I purchased a SpyderX Pro monitor calibrator to try and resolve the issue but am still having the same issue. After reading through Adobe & Photography forum posts I've experimented with Photoshop's working color spaces eg sRGB, Adobe RGB, and various export settings (embed color profile, convert to sRGB). I'm stumped. It's very frustrating to spend hours perfecting the colours in Photoshop then on my phone they look completely different. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. 

Thanks in advance 

[Chris 486]

Hi Lamby!

That's the endless frustration of any color editor - how to get your vision across to other screens that don't have the same color setup your monitor does. Is your end goal to display your picture on that device only? Or are you just noticing that it looks different there and are trying to get them to match?

What model of phone do you have? Samsung phones have different color profiles usually found under ”screen mode” in the phones settings (for mor recent Samsung phones) I believe they set the default to “vivd” which is more saturated colors. You can change it to another setting like “natural” to help with that but you still may be limited.

Let us know if anything there works or if you can provide more detail on what your end goal is to display the photo.

[Lamby11111]

Thanks for your reply Chris486 🙂 The end goal is to display on instagram. The only workaround I can come up with is to add a Hue/Sat layer before exporting that desaturates everything by -15pts so that it appears on phones the way it looks on my laptop. It just seems like there must be a more sophisticated way of getting the devices to match, if not exactly then at least in the same ballpark. I figure there must be something wrong in my setup for the colors to be so far off. 

Phone model is Samsung Galaxy S20 5G. I could calibrate my phone but it concerns me that the oversaturated image would still display on other people's devices as most people don't calibrate their phones. Perfecting skin tones is so time consuming it's disappointing to have them result as an oompa loompa. Perhaps it's an issue with my Macbook monitor, despite it being properly calibrated. Or I need to use an external monitor. 

[Chris 486]

Thanks for the reply and more information! 

The short response for your comment on all devices being more unified in their color profiles – unfortunately once your pic hits the net, it’s 100% at the mercy of whatever weird settings each individual has their monitor/computer set to, or if they even bothered to change any settings at all.

Your goal at the end of the day is to just have a best effort to get you colors across the way you want them.

I bet others have great tips to for getting better colors as well! 2 off the top of my head -

If you are creating content for the web/social media/etc. Use the srgb color profile and when you save the pic, make sure you are saving the color profile with it. Almost every monitor in the world has that color profile imbedded in the monitor and all web browsers support it well to keep colors from shifting.

If you are very worried about oversaturation, then the other tip is where your intuition is lying. Play with lowering the color saturations on your calibrated monitor and finding a balance you like.

[Lamby11111]

Thanks Chris this is really helpful. I will ensure sRGB and Embed Color profile when saving. And play with slightly less saturated skin tones.

Cheers 

[TheDigitalDog]

That phone or browser used isn't color managed or it would match Photoshop (assuming the calibration was close). Saving in sRGB will help but not solve the issue if the other device isn't color-managed. Without color management, sRGB is a meaningless concept.

See:

sRGB urban legend & myths Part 2

In this 17 minute video, I'll discuss some more sRGB misinformation and cover:
When to use sRGB and what to expect on the web and mobile devices
How sRGB doesn't insure a visual match without color management, how to check
The downsides of an all sRGB workflow
sRGB's color gamut vs. "professional" output devices
The future of sRGB and wide gamut display technology
Photo print labs that demand sRGB for output

High resolution: http://digitaldog.net/files/sRGBMythsPart2.mp4
Low resolution on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyvVUL1gWVs