Image editing advice

[Spinal Tap]

Hello, hope someone can help.

I use simple editing software on my laptop on my pics and try to get the image colours etc to look like the actual object.

The pictures look exactly the same as the painted image but when I view them on a mobile device they look over saturated and gaudy.

Given that many, if not most, people view on mobiles should I aim to make them look realistic on mobiles but dowdy and dull on my laptop, aim for somewhere in between so neither image is over/under saturated but neither realistic or is there some other option?

Rather poor picture from another phone attached.

received_975431859804267 by markndebs, on Flickr

[Ray Rivers]

Not to be an arse or anything, but personally I just use my camera.

Having said that, if the image you are getting doesn't show the correct colors, it is probably a problem with lighting.

[modelwarrior]

I am no expert but I believe this has something to do with colour management and SRGB files ? Basically when importing files from one device to another ensure they are imported to the same SRGB colour space. Adobe/Photoshop/Apple etc and all the other well known brands convert automatically but some of the lesser known software are not recognised so when you convert it basically makes a guess at the colours.
 So its possible your phone is not recognising your editing software and making the wrong colour management decision ? So convert to SRGB before moving to your phone.

 Hope this helps ?

[Spinal Tap]

Thanks for the responses, I don't think I've explained myself very well.

When viewing my Flickr page on laptop and mobile phone, the laptop pictures are pretty much the colour of the actual models once I've processed them.

But viewing the same Flickr page on mobile phones makes them look really oversaturated.

I suspect I'll either have to live with it or make them look undersaturated on laptops to look OK on mobiles.

[Thargor]

You should be able to change the screen settings on your phone...or your laptop...

[Battle Brush Sigur]

Yeah, I think smartphones automatically display things to look very weird (oversaturated and so on). I very much distrust these devices. There probably are ways to have your phone display the picture properly, but I guess it's a general problem. When I look at pictures I post on twitter they look much more saturated as well. Just one of the way these devices mess with our perception of reality, I suppose.

[2010sunburst]

Might be worth looking through your laptop screen settings as well.  It’s unlikely, but it could be that the screen settings are “off”.  You could therefore be editing so the pictures look good on your screen, but the other devices are showing them as they really are….it’s probably the phone displays, but that is worth a minute or two of your time. 

[Spinal Tap]

Thanks, plenty of food for thought.

I'd never even considered it might be the laptop display thats off.

[Fitz]

The advice above about using sRGB is good, but I have bad news for you when it comes to getting colour consistency across a variety of devices, or even on different machines of the same general type. Every time a manufacturer includes their own little "improvements", they'll break colour calibration for everyone and everything else.

You can minimise issues as far as is possible by calibrating the monitor you use for your primary image editing. Most graphics drivers these days include some kind of basic calibration system, but a better and more reliable method is to use a piece of hardware called a Spyder, which will detect the actual colours your monitor produces and it creates a software colour profile that image editing apps can use to adjust what you see.

They're not cheap though, and unless you're using the monitor in a professional context, you'd be better off trying to borrow or hire one.

Things are better now, but when I was using a CRT monitor I had to recalibrate it every week. Modern LCD monitors are much more stable, but they do still drift out of calibration over time.

[Battle Brush Sigur]

Yup, that's the thing - and as far as I know mobile devices are among the worst offenders when it comes to altering images in various ways, depening on manufacturer. And somehow my assumption is that as long as people equate "high contrast, high saturation" with a pretty picture that won't get much better.

I have the same problem. I post a photo on twitter or elsewhere, go out, have a look at the the thread on my phone (yes, I'm using the twitter app. I don't have any other apps installed apart from the stuff they force you to, but I really should get an alternative for old twitski. Anyway.) I'm taken aback with how different the picture looks.