Photos look different (greener) on the phone compared to PC

[AniLaFom]

Hello,

I know that there are already articles on this topic, but my issue does not go away even though I work in sGRB profile in Ps and when I save for web I choose "Convert to sRGB" and "Embed color profile".

The colors on my phone still look worse, less saturated, pale or greener (it is like they lose a bit red and magenta). I have samsung, the colors on iPhone also look pale, so I assume the problem is really in how I save the images.

It is very disappointing because I assume other people see my images pale in instagram (I just discovered it as I got new phone)...

Moreover, when I made a screenshot on my phone of my image to demonstrate an example here and sent it to my PC, the screenshot on my PC looks fine, not pale, but as it should be.

Please, help me to solve this problem, I am very confused.

[davescm]

Photoshop is colour managed. The colours are corrected to display on your monitor using both the document colour profile and the monitor colour profile.  That monitor profile should be made by a hardware calibration and profile device so it describes your display exactly.  You correctly convert to sRGB and embed the color profile when sending images for web use. Other colour managed applications will use that embedded profile and the local monitor profile to display correctly. If I view images here (using a calibrated and profiled monitor) they will look the same as elswhere (on calibrated and profiled monitors).

However - your phone is not colour managed (Android or iOS). Despite all the marketing hype over their screens and the colour capabilities of those screens, ICC colour management is simply not supported. So colours can look different on different phones (and even varying examples of the same phone).  That's life and marketing...

Dave

[AniLaFom]

Thank you for your answer. But when I check photos of other photographers, they look good when I check them from the phone. So does it mean I edit pictures badly or that they calibrate their moitors on PC?

[davescm]

Photoshop is colour managed so it will be using your monitor profile. If that profile does not describe your monitor with your monitor settings then you could indeed be misadjusting your images. They may look good on your monitor but not good elsewhere. That is why we use hardware devices to calibrate and profile our monitors.

As a check you can download test images, such as those linked below on Neil Barstow's site,  and see what they look like on your system (and phone) but don't expect a profiled monitor and a non colour managed phone to match.

https://www.colourmanagement.net/downloads_listing

Dave

[AniLaFom]

Ok, thank you, I saw the difference with the images of other people too. They look better on my screen, than on my phone.

[NB, colourmanagement]

Dave wrote:

"

As a check you can download test images, such as those linked below on Neil Barstow's site,  and see what they look like on your system (and phone) but don't expect a profiled monitor and a non colour managed phone to match.

https://www.colourmanagement.net/downloads_listing"

So, you got the Adobe RGB image from my site

I diodnt undeerrstnd your reply - does it look better on the phone or on your pc screen? 

that image looks 100% correct on my mac screen and 100% correct on my iphone 7

my mac screen is calibrated of course, could be the issue is with your screen and you are beijg miself into applying erroneous corrections in photoshop, the phone is what it is you can't calibrate it for geteraml web etc viewing , generally nowadays "displayP3" - some older phones are closer to sRGB, some have no colour management. . display P3 and sRGB are pretty close to each other.

I hope this helps

if so, please "like" my reply

thanks

neil barstow, colourmanagement.net :: adobe forum volunteer

[please do not use the reply button on a message in the thread, only use the one at the top of the page, to maintain chronological order]

[AniLaFom]

Hello, thank you for your answer, I downloaded the image, and I can hardly see the difference between my phone and PC. Though the red color seems to be a bit less saturated and this is the issue I notice. If I transfer a photo of a woman to my phone, the red colours on the skin get less vibrant on the phone and in some cases my model looks way too pale. On My PC everything is fine. I.e. photos look worse on my phone.

You can compare my images  on the phone and on the PC. This is my website: http://alinafomenko.com/

I checked also photos of another photographer on my PC and on my phone, and I also notice the difference with reds...

I have a good screen for my PC with IPS panel, it was calibrated by the manufacturer. It is set to sRGB.

[NB, colourmanagement]

I have a suspicion that your PC screen may be at the root of this issue:

Display profile issues on Windows machines

At least once a week on this forum we read about this, or very similar issues of appearance differing between applications.

Unfortunately, with Microsoft hardware: Windows updates, Graphics Card updates and Display manufacturers have a frustratingly growing reputation for installing useless (corrupted) monitor display profiles.

I CAN happen with Macs but with far less likelyhood, it seems.

The issue can affect different applications in different ways, some not at all, some very badly.

The poor monitor display profile issue is hidden by some applications, specifically those that do not use colour management, such as Microsoft Windows "Photos".

Photoshop is correct, it’s the industry standard for viewing images, in my experience it's revealing an issue with the Monitor Display profile rather that causing it. Whatever you do, don't ignore it. As the issue isn’t caused by Photoshop, don’t change your Photoshop ‘color settings’ to try fix it. 

If you want to rule out pretty much the only issue we ever see with Photoshop, you can reset preferences, I never read of a preferences issue causing this problem though:

To reset the preferences in Photoshop: 

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/preferences.html

Note: Make sure that you back up all your custom presets, brushes & actions before restoring Photoshop's preferences. Migrate presets, actions, and settings

To find out if this is the issue, I recommend you to try setting the monitor profile for your own monitor display under “Device” in your Windows ‘color management’ control panel to sRGB. You can ADD sRGB if its not already listed. 

And be sure to check “Use my settings for this device”.

(OR, if you have a wide gamut monitor display (check the spec online) it’s better to try Adobe RGB instead).

Quit and relaunch Photoshop after the control panel change, to ensure the new settings are applied.

If this change fixes the issue, it is recommended that you should now calibrate and profile the monitor properly using a calibration sensor like i1display pro, which will create and install it's own custom monitor profile. The software should install it’s profile correctly so there should be no need to manual set the control panel once you are doing this right. 

Depending on the characteristics of your monitor display and your requirements, using sRGB or Adobe RGB here may be good enough - but custom calibration is a superior approach.

I hope this helps

if so, please "like" my reply and if you're OK now, please mark it as "correct", so that others who have similar issues can see the solution

thanks

neil barstow, colourmanagement.net :: adobe forum volunteer

[please do not use the reply button on a message in the thread, only use the one at the top of the page, to maintain chronological order]