# Colours look wrong after converting

> Washed-out reds and flat skies after conversion are almost never compression. They are a colour space mismatch between Display P3 and sRGB.

Source: https://jpg-heic.com/fix/heic-color-shift-after-conversion | Section: Troubleshooting | Updated: 2026-08-31

## Display P3 versus sRGB

Modern iPhones capture in **Display P3**, a colour space roughly 25% wider than sRGB, particularly
 in reds and greens. The HEIC file carries an ICC profile saying so. A viewer that reads the profile
 maps those colours correctly to your screen. A viewer that ignores it interprets P3 numbers as though
 they were sRGB, and everything shifts.

The direction of the shift tells you what happened:

| What you see | What happened |
|---|---|
| Colours look dull and flat | P3 was assigned sRGB instead of converted |
| Colours look oversaturated and harsh | An sRGB image was interpreted as P3 |
| Skin tones look sunburnt or greenish | Profile stripped during conversion |
| Looks right on the phone, wrong in a browser | The browser is not colour-managed for that image |

## Convert, do not assign

This distinction is the whole problem, and image software is bad at explaining it.

 - **Convert to profile** recalculates every pixel value so the colour looks the same in the new
 space. The numbers change; the appearance is preserved. This is what you want.

 - **Assign profile** leaves the numbers alone and changes the label. The appearance shifts,
 usually towards flat and desaturated. This is almost never what you want.

In Photoshop the correct action is **Edit → Convert to Profile**, target sRGB, Relative
 Colorimetric, with black point compensation on. In Lightroom, set the export colour space to sRGB and
 it converts correctly by default.

## Which colour space to export to

 - **sRGB for anything going out into the world**
 Email, social media, printing services, upload forms, older software. It is the lowest common
 denominator and it is the right default.

 - **Display P3 when the destination supports it**
 Apple devices, colour-managed browsers, and modern photo apps all handle it. Keep the wider gamut
 if the image stays inside that ecosystem.

 - **Always embed the profile**
 An untagged file is guesswork for the viewer, and most viewers guess sRGB. If your image is P3
 and untagged, it will look wrong nearly everywhere.

 **How the converters here behave.** The browser decodes the HEIC and draws it to a canvas, which
 operates in the display's colour space, then writes the output without an embedded ICC profile. For
 ordinary photos on ordinary screens the result matches what you saw. For heavily saturated P3
 images that must reproduce exactly — product photography, artwork — use Lightroom or Photoshop and
 convert to sRGB deliberately.

## Frequently asked questions

**Why do my photos look duller after converting from HEIC?**

The image was captured in Display P3 and the sRGB profile was assigned rather than converted, so the colour numbers were reinterpreted instead of translated. Wide-gamut reds and greens are pulled in towards grey.

**What is the difference between converting and assigning a colour profile?**

Converting recalculates pixel values so the appearance stays the same in the new space. Assigning keeps the values and changes the label, which shifts the appearance. Convert is nearly always the correct choice.

**Should I export photos in sRGB or Display P3?**

sRGB for anything leaving your control — email, web, print services, upload forms. Display P3 only when you know the destination is colour-managed and supports the wider gamut.

**Does compression cause colour shifts?**

Not meaningfully at reasonable quality settings. Visible colour changes after conversion are almost always a colour space handling problem rather than a compression artefact.