iOS Photos lose saturation when edited and saved in Photoshop

Forum|Forum|2 years ago
September 20, 2023
5 replies
2140 views

Hi, my iPhone photos always lose color saturation and contrast when opened and re-saved in Photoshop. I've set PS to use the embedded (P3) profile instead of the working space (Adobe RGB) but when saving back into Apple Photos, the picture is noticeably flatter in color and contrast. Any assistance would be very much appreciated.

macOS

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Correct answer D Fosse

Not much to go on here, but immediately it sounds like your phone is oversaturating.

As long as the image has an embedded profile, Photoshop will treat it correctly. You can't say the same for phones.

S

stephen_mcnutt

Participant

In my particular case ( I made a post below), I'm looking at the image always on my MacBook, both for Photos and for Photoshop, so it's the same monitor.

D Fosse

Community Expert

You're missing the point. Color management uses icc profiles to define the numbers in the file as actual colors and tones. If you apply the wrong profile, the image isn't represented correctly.

What you see on screen is the result of a standard profile conversion, from the document profile into the monitor profile. If either of these profiles are incorrect, inaccurate or defective, Photoshop cannot display correctly. That includes profiles not written to standard icc specification.

S

stephen_mcnutt

Participant

I THINK I'm having the same problem, or at least a similar one. For me, I immediately notice when I open an Apple Photos image in Photoshop (2025) that it looks worse. I've made it look good to my eye in Photos, but when I open it in Photoshop, it's flatter with less contrast I guess. It just looks bad. I've been playing around with the Edit >> Colors... with no success so far. The dialog box when opening the photo says the image is using "Apple Wide Color Sharing Profile". Attempting to use that existing profile fails to open the photo looking the same as it does in Photos.

S

stephen_mcnutt

Participant

I'm thinking the difference is more about brightness and contrast than color, and it's true that, in Photos, I have clipped the highlights a bit, BUT it looks good to me this way. In short, I'd like to be able to open a photo in Photoshop so it looks exactly like it does in Photos. Is this even possible?

D Fosse

Community Expert

I have a hunch that "Apple Wide Color Sharing Profile" only works within the Apple ecosystem., and that it's not supported in Photoshop.

See if you can use a standard profile like e.g sRGB or P3.

J

jarek_4071

Participant

Hi all, bumping this up as it hasn't been solved and I'm getting the same issue but I have found something interesting (just Apple's Photos fault).

-For a test I have duplicated a photo in Apple Photos, colors on both are the same.
-I'm editing duplicated photo in Photoshop straight from Apple Photos, overwriting it with Display P3 color profile.
-Colors get washed out on edited photo in Apple Photos after uploading.
-I'm downloading both photos to my drive and opening them in Photoshop.
-Edited photo has a "Missing color profile" notification. After applying "Display P3" it get's back to normal.

It seems like Apple Photos is importing the file without embedded profile which causes color difference.

The only other issue I see is that after downloading original image, duplicating it, opening and overwriting, the brightness of this photo is slightly changing. It's barely noticable but not sure why it happens.

Example photos:

Edited in photoshop and uploaded to Apple Photos (Missing profile)

Original photo (Display P3 profile)

For test reasons

D Fosse

Community Expert

@jarek_4071

It has been solved as far as Photoshop goes: as long as the profile is embedded, Photoshop will treat it correctly.

Not an Apple user, but I find it unlikely that Apple Photos will strip the profile. It sounds more likely that the image has been exported without a profile.

J

jarek_4071

Participant

Sorry but if you are not Apple Photos user, you will not experience what this topic is about but thanks! Yes it has nothing to do with Photoshop color profiles as it works correctly on a local files when saving.

Simply:
-Editing a photo in Apple Photos and saving (CMD + S) ends with lost color profile (even if the photoshop has color profile embedded).
-Editing a photo locally and saving (CMD + S) will save the image with embedded profile.

-If edited locally and uploaded manually (instead of using Apple Photos > Edit in >...), colors stay correct (DP3 is embedded).

Do not know how to solve this in Apple Photos (will try reaching their support) but at least you guys will know what is happening and why. Maybe it will save you some time.