How do different display devices affect the appearance of smile photos with different color profiles

Okay, so I’m trying to understand how to make my smile photos look consistently good, no matter where they’re viewed. I’ve noticed that the same picture looks completely different on my phone versus my computer monitor, and even different between my older monitor and my newer one.
Specifically, I’m taking photos of people smiling, often with bright teeth and varying skin tones. I’m shooting in RAW, and I’m editing in Lightroom. I’ve been experimenting with different color profiles, like sRGB, Adobe RGB, and ProPhoto RGB, but I’m really struggling to understand which one to use and how it will translate across different displays.
My main questions are:
* How do different display devices (phones, laptops, calibrated monitors, uncalibrated monitors, TVs) interpret different color profiles in a smile photo?
* What happens to the color accuracy and vibrancy of a smile photo when it’s viewed on a device that doesn’t fully support the assigned color profile? Does it just default to sRGB, or does something else happen?
* Given that most people will be viewing my photos on their phones or uncalibrated monitors, what’s the best color profile to use during editing and exporting to ensure that the smiles look natural and pleasing across a wide range of devices? Should I be optimizing for sRGB even if I’m working in a wider color space during editing?
* How does screen calibration of a monitor factor into accurately seeing and editing the color of teeth and skin in smile photos? Is it crucial for maintaining consistency?
* Are there any specific settings I should be aware of (besides color profile) in Lightroom or during export that can help improve color consistency across different devices when dealing with smile photos? For example, rendering intents or file formats?
I’m really just trying to get a handle on the technical aspects of color management so my subjects look their best, regardless of where their friends and family are viewing the pictures. It’s driving me crazy!

Answer

The appearance of smile photos with different color profiles is significantly affected by the display device used. The interplay between the color profile embedded in the image, the color capabilities of the display, and the color management system of the operating system/software determines how accurately and vibrantly the colors are rendered. Here’s a detailed breakdown:

Understanding Color Profiles

A color profile is a set of data that characterizes a color space. It essentially tells a device (like a display or printer) how to interpret the numerical color values in an image file and reproduce those colors accurately. Different color profiles are designed for different purposes and color gamuts (the range of colors a device can reproduce). Common color profiles include:

• sRGB: Designed as a standard for the web and many consumer devices. It has a relatively small color gamut. Most photos intended for general viewing online are saved in sRGB.
• Adobe RGB (1998): Offers a wider color gamut than sRGB, especially in greens and cyans. It’s preferred by photographers and designers working with print or professional color workflows because it can capture and display more colors.
• ProPhoto RGB: An even wider gamut color space, encompassing virtually all colors perceptible to the human eye. It’s typically used as a working space for editing images but requires careful color management to avoid unexpected results on devices with smaller gamuts.
• Display-Specific Profiles: Custom profiles created for individual monitors using a colorimeter or spectrophotometer. These profiles provide the most accurate color representation for a particular display by accounting for its unique characteristics.

Display Device Characteristics

The display device’s characteristics play a crucial role in how smile photos are rendered:

• Color Gamut: A display’s color gamut defines the range of colors it can physically reproduce. A display with a wider gamut (e.g., one that covers a significant portion of Adobe RGB or DCI-P3) can display more vibrant and saturated colors than a display with a smaller gamut (e.g., one that only covers sRGB).
• Color Depth (Bit Depth): The number of bits used to represent each color channel (red, green, blue). Higher bit depths (e.g., 10-bit) allow for more subtle gradations and smoother transitions between colors, reducing banding artifacts. Displays with lower bit depths (e.g., 8-bit) might show posterization, where gradual changes in color appear as distinct steps.
• Panel Technology (LCD, OLED, LED): Different panel technologies have different strengths and weaknesses regarding color accuracy, contrast, and viewing angles.
  • LCD (Liquid Crystal Display): Offers good brightness and energy efficiency. The color accuracy varies greatly based on the panel type (TN, VA, IPS). IPS panels generally have the best color accuracy and viewing angles.
  • OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode): Each pixel emits its own light, resulting in perfect blacks, high contrast ratios, and excellent color accuracy. OLED displays typically have wide color gamuts.
  • LED (Light Emitting Diode): Technically a backlight technology used in LCD displays. LED backlighting can improve brightness and color uniformity compared to older backlight technologies.
• Calibration: Calibration is the process of adjusting a display’s settings to achieve a specific color target. A properly calibrated display will reproduce colors more accurately, regardless of the color profile embedded in the image. Displays that are not calibrated may exhibit color casts or inaccurate color representation.
• Brightness and Contrast: High brightness can wash out colors, while low brightness can make images appear dull. Contrast ratio affects the difference between the darkest and lightest parts of the image.

How Different Displays Affect Different Color Profiles

1. sRGB on sRGB-Calibrated Displays: When an sRGB image is viewed on a display that is accurately calibrated to sRGB, the colors should appear as intended by the photographer. The display is correctly interpreting the numerical color values in the image.

2. sRGB on Wide-Gamut Displays (Unmanaged): If a wide-gamut display (e.g., one that covers a significant portion of Adobe RGB) is not color-managed and the operating system or software doesn’t handle color profiles correctly, the sRGB image can appear oversaturated and overly vibrant. This is because the display is trying to push the colors beyond their intended sRGB range.

3. sRGB on Wide-Gamut Displays (Managed): When color management is enabled (typically through the operating system and/or photo viewing software), a wide-gamut display will attempt to compress the sRGB color space into its native gamut, rendering the colors more accurately. However, the results may still not be identical to an sRGB display because the wide-gamut display is capable of showing a wider range of colors even after color correction.

4. Adobe RGB on sRGB Displays: An Adobe RGB image viewed on an sRGB display will appear duller and less vibrant than intended. The sRGB display simply cannot reproduce the wider range of colors present in the Adobe RGB image. Colors outside of the sRGB gamut are clipped or mapped to the closest available sRGB color, resulting in a loss of color information.

5. Adobe RGB on Adobe RGB-Calibrated Displays: When an Adobe RGB image is viewed on a display that is calibrated to Adobe RGB, the colors will be rendered accurately, assuming the display can cover a significant portion of the Adobe RGB color space. This allows the viewer to see the wider range of colors captured in the image.

6. ProPhoto RGB on Any Display: Due to its exceptionally wide gamut, ProPhoto RGB images require careful color management. Most displays cannot accurately reproduce the full range of colors in ProPhoto RGB. Viewing a ProPhoto RGB image on a display without proper color management will likely result in unpredictable and inaccurate color rendering. In many cases, the colors will be clipped to the display’s gamut, causing a significant loss of color information.

Specific Scenarios and Examples

• A smile photo saved in Adobe RGB viewed on an uncalibrated TN panel laptop display: The colors will likely be inaccurate, dull, and potentially have a color cast (e.g., bluish or yellowish). The narrow color gamut of the TN panel will limit the range of colors displayed, and the lack of calibration will further distort the colors. The smile might appear less genuine due to the inaccurate skin tones.
• A smile photo saved in sRGB viewed on a calibrated OLED monitor: The colors will be rendered accurately, and the high contrast ratio of the OLED display will make the smile stand out. The accurate color reproduction ensures the skin tones are natural, and the vibrancy of the image is maintained.
• A smile photo saved in ProPhoto RGB viewed in a web browser on a standard sRGB monitor (without color management): The colors will likely be significantly distorted and clipped to the sRGB gamut. The smile might look unnatural, with some colors appearing muted and others appearing overly saturated.
• A smile photo saved in sRGB viewed on an iMac (which has a wider than sRGB gamut) with macOS’s color management: macOS’s color management will attempt to render the sRGB image accurately on the iMac’s display. While it will generally produce a pleasing result, the colors may appear slightly more vibrant than they would on a true sRGB display because the display is still capable of reproducing a wider range of colors.

In Conclusion

The appearance of smile photos, and any photo, is heavily influenced by the display device and its color management capabilities in relation to the image’s color profile. Accurate color representation requires a combination of a display with a suitable color gamut, proper calibration, and a color management system that can correctly interpret and render the colors in the image based on its embedded color profile. Without these elements, the colors in the smile photo might appear inaccurate, dull, oversaturated, or otherwise distorted.