Why do my photos look too red in some apps on a wide-gamut monitor?
Asked 10/12/2021
5 views
2 answers
0
I use an ASUS ProArt PA329 wide-gamut monitor on Windows 10. In Lightroom Classic, my photos look correct, and exported JPEGs tagged/exported as sRGB also look right in Windows Photos/Photo Viewer. But the same files appear very red/oversaturated in some other places, including Facebook in certain browsers and when opened in GIMP. If I switch the monitor itself to sRGB mode, those apps look closer to what I expected, but Lightroom and Windows Photos then look dull.
It seems like some applications are displaying the same image differently on the same monitor. Is this a color-management issue with a wide-gamut display, and is there something wrong with my workflow or monitor/profile setup?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
4y ago
2 Answers
2
You have a wide-gamut display. Natively, it approximately covers AdobeRGB rather than the "international standard" sRGB. Having such a monitor is, in a sense, a liability: you must set up and use colour management correctly in order to see even "standard" colours correctly. Alas, even today, not all applications do it, or set up to do it by default, in Windows. You need to examine each, as well as your Windows settings.
In practice, having a red or magenta cast (as well as oversaturated colours, which people tend to notice less) on photos viewed on a wide-gamut monitor points to an sRGB-exported image being viewed witout colour management. This naively stretches the narrow gamut of the image to the wide gamut of the display, resulting in a colour cast and oversaturation.
Alternatively, they may believe that your display is native sRGB (which is often the assumption lacking any other settings), resulting in 1:1 conversion and the same physical stretching.
Now, I'm not exactly sure what you mean by "monitor’s profile is set to...", as opposed to "“Device profile” on the computer". Do you mean a setting in the display itself? If so, the problem is likely the profile mismatch, resulting in the second scenario.
The general approach should be this.
Set your display to your desired mode. Ideally, it will be its native mode, whatever it's called.
In Windows, set the display device profile to match the mode you've chosen. Ideally, you would use a colorimeter to measure the actual result of (1) and automatically create the profile. Lacking that, you need to ensure that you are using a matching profile. If you selected the native display mode, you need to find the manufacturer-supplied profile created for that mode. The name like "ASUS PA329 ColorProfile" suggests something like that.
For your work, you also need to select your working profile. In a properly managed environment, this is largely independent from the above. Instead, it depends on your goals. Normally, this is one of the standard profiles such as sRGB or ProPhoto. If you only intend to share your image on FB, and generally for maximum compatibility, it is reasonable to select sRGB (thereby underutilising your display). If you have a good camera and want to enjoy its capabilities to the maximum extent your equipment allows, select a standard profile closest to your monitor (i.e. AdobeRGB in your case) or even wider.
You select your working profile in the settings of each individual editing application (such as Lightroom).
Finally, you select a profile when you export/save an image. For your own archive, it often matches the working profile you've chosen at (3), so nothing extra to do. For sharing with others, you might want to convert it to the "lowest common denominator" sRGB.
Whatever you do, you should ensure that all your saved images are tagged with the profile they are saved with, or the profile is attached to the image. (Standard profiles don't take much space). Usually there is a setting for it in the Save dialog. Theoretically, even if you don't convert the image on export, the reading app should read the tag and convert accordingly during display. Alas, this is not always happening.
For your situation, the important takeaway from (1) and (2) is that there always must be a match between what is set in the physical display settings and in the Windows device settings. And I should reiterate that a colorimeter is exactly the device that ensures that. You have a good monitor with accurate built-in LUTs, and it's a pity not to use it. For this display, a colorimeter is a small fraction of the cost.
(Note: because your display supports hardware calibration, you will need to use their (ASUS) software/methods instead of the colorimeter-supplied software. Because of this, you might get away with buying the cheapest colorimeter in a given range (e.g. Spyder 5 Express/Pro/Elite), which often differ only in the supplied software. But you need to use a colorimeter that ASUS specfies as compatible).
Without colorimeter, and without exactly knowing what is the "native" profile, one solution is to set both the device profile and the display setting to a common standard, such as sRGB. As you already discovered, this should work reasonably well. But of course, it underutilises the capabilities of your display, and still relies on a factory calibration, which degrades over time.
Finally, you need to check each relevant application (including browsers) and ensure that it supports colour management and that it is enabled. (This may be particularly problematic for video). Some applications don't use Windows settings, and for them you may need to specify the display device profile separately (and redo it every time you change display mode or recalibrate).
Originally by user74236. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user74236
4y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
This is most likely a color-management issue, not a Lightroom export problem.
Your ASUS ProArt is a wide-gamut display, so if an app does not fully use color management, an sRGB image can be shown as if it were stretched to the monitor’s larger gamut. The result is often oversaturation plus a red/magenta cast. That matches what you’re seeing in Facebook/GIMP, while Lightroom and Windows Photos appear correct because they are handling color more properly.
So your workflow is probably fine if you’re editing normally and exporting in sRGB for web use. The main issue is that not every app/browser on Windows handles monitor profiles and color-managed display the same way.
What to do:
- Keep exporting web images as sRGB.
- Use color-managed applications/browsers where possible.
- Make sure Windows is using the correct monitor ICC profile.
- If needed, use the monitor’s sRGB mode when viewing in apps that are not color managed, though that’s a workaround rather than the ideal fix.
In short: the red shift is a classic symptom of viewing sRGB images without proper color management on a wide-gamut monitor.
Recommended products
UniqueBot
AI4y ago
Your Answer
Related Questions
Why do my sRGB JPEGs still look oversaturated on some monitors?
Do I need a different ICC profile when switching a wide-gamut monitor into sRGB emulation mode?
Why do colors look oversaturated on a wide-gamut monitor in some photo viewers?
How can I make Firefox display web images correctly on a wide-gamut monitor?
How can I get accurate sRGB color from a wide-gamut monitor, and is an sRGB-only monitor better for non-color-managed apps?