Help with editing photos to be viewed on various devices

[jakoura73]

I find it so frustrating to spend so much time editing photos and then see them on other devices (friend's/families phones or laptops) and it looks like a very different photo and needs to be re-adjusted (in my eyes) to look more like the one I edited.  I edit photos in various programs, on both my desktop pc and iphone.  The differences between just those two devices can be annoying.  Then I'll look at the same pic on my Mom's android phone and I'm even more surprised at the differences in tone and exposure.  Anyone have any input, insight, suggestions as to how to edit a photo that will "remain true" to the edits as it's being viewed on various devices?  Thanks!

[D Fosse]

Use a calibrated and profiled monitor set to the appropriate white point for your working environment. Monitor white should be a visual match to paper white (unless you very specifically target HDR conditions). Use a color managed workflow with embedded color profiles.

Then you know the file is correct.

Next, convert to sRGB and embed the color profile.

That's it. Done. Then you have delivered optimally from your end.

How other people set up and configure their systems and devices , that's forever out of your control. That's their responsibility and their problem; not yours. Phones don't have full color management. They are usually able to handle incoming color profiles and convert them to the same baseline, but from there it's all to the wind and all over the map. Nothing you can do about that.

Keep in mind that even if a given display is way off, the user will see everything that way. If it hasn't bothered them before, it won't when seeing your images either.

[jakoura73]

Thank you for your insight and suggestions!  At this point, I haven't had anyone complain, it's more of what I see with my own eyes.  Thanks for the RGB reminder as well.  Not many folks print photos anymore, but there are always a few.  

[Oleksandra Osadcha]

Hi! The frustration you're experiencing is quite common among photographers and graphic designers, mainly due to the variations in device displays and color profiles. Here are several tips that can help you achieve more consistent photo editing results across different devices:

1. Calibrate Your Monitor: Start by calibrating your desktop PC monitor. This ensures that your monitor displays colors as accurately as possible. Calibration devices like the Spyder or ColorMunki can be very useful.
2. Use Standard Color Spaces: When editing, use standard color spaces like sRGB, which is the default color space for the web and many consumer devices. This won't eliminate all discrepancies, but it should reduce them as sRGB is designed to look decent on most devices.
3. Adjust Brightness and Contrast: Try to match the brightness and contrast settings of your display to typical conditions. Many devices are set to higher brightness by default, which can alter how an image looks.
4. Soft Proofing: If your editing software supports it, use the soft proofing feature. This allows you to see how your photos will look on various devices or under different lighting conditions.
5. Consider Export Settings: When saving or exporting the final edited image, pay attention to the file format and quality settings. Higher quality settings and appropriate file formats (like JPEG or PNG for web use) can make a difference in how images are rendered on different devices.

By following these steps, you can minimize the variability in how your photos appear across different devices and ensure that your edits retain their intended effect as much as possible.

[jakoura73]

Thank you, those are all very thoughtful and helpful suggestions!  I really appreciate your time in answering.  I'm in the middle of editing a set of photos from a recent maternity shoot, so, perfect timing 🙂 

[Oleksandra Osadcha]

Glad to have shared my experience! Have a good day!

[Ged_Traynor]

@jakoura73 unlike @D Fosse post, the above post is AI generated, so you should really thank ChatGPT

[Oleksandra Osadcha]

Yes, you're right. But gpt was only used to save time. From my experience, I wrote down 5 points that I would pay attention to. And asked gpt chat to give detailed information on each of them. This was done to save time. I don't know what you are reproaching me for. It's 2024 and you should be able to use technology to save your time;

[Ged_Traynor]

@Oleksandra Osadcha replying on the forum is all about user experience/expertise, there are plenty of community experts on the forum that can help without the need for AI, copying and pasting from some AI generated answer is not the same, it's cheating simple as!

[jane-e]

I don't know what you are reproaching me for.

By @Oleksandra Osadcha

Is there a reason you didn't include that you used ChatGPT in your post? 

Jane

[Oleksandra Osadcha]

Is this a community requirement? I didn't know that. If it is, I will point it out. 
Moreover, I explained that I shared my personal experience. The 5 pointers are what I wrote myself based on my experience. And gpt was used to briefly explain each of the five points.
I'm just new to communicating on the form. I had some time on my hands and decided to try and help out. Now you're doing the booling thing. This looks really weird. Didn't mean to hurt anyone;

[D Fosse]

@Oleksandra Osadcha 

The community requirement is that we are all humans here. You're welcome to join and share your experiences, but please check in ChatGPT at the door.

[Conrad_C]

Is this a community requirement? I didn't know that. If it is, I will point it out. 
Moreover, I explained that I shared my personal experience. The 5 pointers are what I wrote myself based on my experience. And gpt was used to briefly explain each of the five points.
I'm just new to communicating on the form. I had some time on my hands and decided to try and help out. Now you're doing the booling thing. This looks really weird. Didn't mean to hurt anyone;

By @Oleksandra Osadcha

There is no problem using AI to help research. But the information has to be used carefully and after consideration of the actual question, and reviewed for accuracy before posting.

When I look at the ChatGPT post, it looks like a lot of “suspicious” replies that look like AI because they are not properly tuned to the question and include info that is irrelevant or wrong. In this case:

1. Calibrating is good advice.

2. Using a standard color space like RGB is also good advice.

3. “Adjust Brightness and Contrast” is where this starts to look suspicious. If one has properly calibrated their display as in step 1, they would have already set a brightness level that the calibration was based on, therefore any further brightness adjustment could make the calibration invalid. Also, on current displays, Contrast is not a typical calibration adjustment (except for the “contrast ratio” option in some pro displays), and again, should never be changed after calibration. But unfortunately, the AI tells them to change both.

4. Soft proofing can help, but within the context of this specific question, it probably won’t help much or at all. For one thing, if the display is already set to a standard color space such as sRGB, then you don’t need to waste time soft-proofing because it’s already in a color space commonly used by devices. Soft proofing helps the most with printing…but this question is not about printing. The AI missed both of those points.

5. Export settings are important, sure. But the answer focuses on the wrong thing, it focuses on file format and quality settings. That will not solve this question. The important export settings are actually, what color space are you exporting to, and will it embed a color profile? If the color space and profile are wrong, then nothing you do with file format and quality will fix the colors. The AI missed these critical points. 

Those are some of the big current problems with copying and pasting AI answers. They get some of the details right so it sounds plausible, but they get enough of the details wrong that they often result in an incomplete or puzzling solution. If someone follows the partially wrong AI advice and their problem is still not solved because of the incorrect details, then the AI was of no help.

These questions are more reliably solved by humans with experience. AI is useful when you don’t know anyone, but on a forum, you have access to people who actually know, so that is preferable over AI.

[D Fosse]

@Ged_Traynor Yeah, it's actually amazing how easy they are to spot! That one's glaringly obvious.

The quality I always notice is bland. Very generic and unspecific. Who talks like an encyclopedia? ChatGPT, that's who.

One of these days I'm going to start looking for the same qualities (or lack thereof) in ai-generated images. I suspect that ultimately they can always be picked out.

AI may be "clever", but it has no soul 😉

[jane-e]

Good catch Ged!

Jane

[Ged_Traynor]

They're easy to spot, Jane 👍

[davescm]

Well done for calling this out Ged. 

Dave