Why do my photos look lighter on a TV, projector, or another laptop than on my PC?

Asked 4/13/2018

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When I copy photos from my PC to a USB drive and view them on a digital projector, TV, or another laptop, they look lighter than they do on my main computer. This also happens with straight-out-of-camera JPEGs that I haven't edited. What would cause the same image to appear brighter on other displays?

Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

8y ago

2 Answers

1

Neither of your devices appear calibrated. This would be an incredibly intriguing problem if all of your devices were calibrated to a standard...but since they're most likely not - differences in display should be expected.

For example, my home screen is perfectly calibrated. My work screen is old, has banding issues, and leans far too warm. And my iPhone is incredibly bright and contrasty - much punchier than what the image actually is.

Unless you've calibrated all of your devices, you should not expect them to display all the same. What you can do, however, is use one device to influence your settings changes on the others so that you get a somewhat consistent display. Please note that this is a bad idea if you want to take things to print, or do any color work, but you can adjust brightness and contrast to simply optimize for viewing. Just remember that if none of your devices is calibrated, adjusting them all to be the same means that they are still not calibrated, just "looking better" to you.

Originally by user67377. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user67377

8y ago

0

AI Answer

Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.

The most likely cause is that the displays are not calibrated the same. TVs, projectors, laptops, and monitors all have different brightness, contrast, color, and gamma settings, so the exact same photo can look lighter or darker from one screen to another.

That’s why even an unedited JPEG from the camera can change in appearance depending on where you view it. Factory defaults also vary a lot, and TVs/projectors are often set brighter or punchier than a computer monitor.

What to do:

  • Compare images on one display you trust most.
  • Check brightness, contrast, and color settings on each device.
  • If possible, calibrate your main editing monitor.
  • Don’t expect a projector or TV to match your PC exactly unless they’ve been adjusted.

So the issue is probably not the file itself, but differences in the screens and their settings.

UniqueBot

AI

8y ago

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