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My home monitor (which is not a cheap TN, by the way) is "perfectly" calibrated and the Huey is configured to correct by the ambient light every few minutes. I develop my raws, they look good, and then at the office or on my phone the "perfect" pink face of the girl in one of the pictures is mostly blown out.

Hoping this will not turn into a opinion based question...is there some study around about the average calibration of user devices? Some kind of guide line? I never print my photo, I just share them on Flickr, and it's depressing that they are never the way I intended them!

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  • \$\begingroup\$ I am sure most serious manufacturers do their "best" (cost friendly of course) to have a decent calibration. But that calibration vary on the user settings each one has... Bright screen, dark screen, etc. BUt besides that each can choose a "style", contrasted photos, warmer tones, etc. \$\endgroup\$
    – Rafael
    Apr 12, 2016 at 20:24
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    \$\begingroup\$ You're not uploading AdobeRGB images to a place that expects sRGB, are you? \$\endgroup\$ Apr 13, 2016 at 11:33

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If you want your web based image to look good on a variety of calibrated and uncalibrated devices, export the images in sRGB and make sure they look good in sRGB (check the result of the conversion or soft proof).

You can't make the image look accurate on non-calibrated displays, but if somebody is using such display, their brain adapts to it and they perceive the colors as correct.

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You calibrate what you use and you are happy with it. What you cannot do is influence the way everyone else on the web calibrates their own screen. At the end of 2015, ICC colour profiles could not be read by the majority of web browsers. As far as I can tell, the only web browser which is colour aware is Apple's Safari web browser.

Probably the only colour gamut that is widely understood is sRGB which is the very smallest colour space. This ensures that the images which you look at on your own screen at home (maybe in Adobe RGB or ProPhoto RGB) cannot be correctly displayed anywhere else. Embedding the colour space in your image will ensure that your professional print house will produce a print that is similar to the image on your home screen.

Effectively, you are wasting your time in trying to get everyone else to calibrate their screens as you do. Their operating systems and web browsers are not colour aware and you could usefully spend your time enjoying your leisure.

Screen calibration and print harmonisation to your own screen, may not be a trivial undertaking. The science of colour is complex. Start here for an overview:

http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/color-management1.htm

Hope this helps

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