True Tone On or Off when editing photos

[kgphotos]

Hi. Just curious as to what people do regarding True Tone when editing photos on the iPad Pro. Do you leave it on if you have it on or turn it off when editing photos? I have True Tone on when I am not using my iPad to edit with and I turn it off when I do. I use Affinity Photo and RAW Power as my main photo apps. I do notice that my photos take on a more cooler look when True Tone is off...wondering if I should leave it on?

Thanks!

 

[IPadNParadise]

I edit with Affinity Photo on my iPad Pro and have always left Tru Tone on, it doesn’t bother me. I am a hobbyist photographer not a professional.

 

[Alexander.Of.Oz]

If you want better colour accuracy, turn it off when editing and viewing images. True Tone is designed to make reading easier on the eyes by warming the background whites, it has nothing to do with colour accuracy when viewing images or movies.

I have seen it argued that it makes whites whiter in other threads, which is not actually the case, it warms the tones considerably and adapts the amount of warming according to the ambient light. It does not try and create accurate colours according to ambient light, it tries to make the whites of the backgrounds easier for the eye to deal with when reading.

Some people report that when they are in Photos it turns off, but I have never found that to be the case. Images are still considerably warmer when held next to my calibrated monitor, so both devices are under the same ambient light for comparison. As soon as True Tone is turned off, the images are much closer in appearance to the calibrated monitor.

 

[kgphotos]

If you want better colour accuracy, turn it off when editing and viewing images. True Tone is designed to make reading easier on the eyes by warming the background whites, it has nothing to do with colour accuracy when viewing images or movies.

I have seen it argued that it makes whites whiter in other threads, which is not actually the case, it warms the tones considerably and adapts the amount of warming according to the ambient light. It does not try and create accurate colours according to ambient light, it tries to make the whites of the backgrounds easier for the eye to deal with when reading.

Some people report that when they are in Photos it turns off, but I have never found that to be the case. Images are still considerably warmer when held next to my calibrated monitor, so both devices are under the same ambient light for comparison. As soon as True Tone is turned off, the images are much closer in appearance to the calibrated monitor.

I've read the same thing it seems you have which is why I asked. I was working on editing a white milk bottle when I realized the milk bottle wasn't white...is was warmer. So I turned off True Tone and it went back to white. Thanks for clearing this up for me.

 

[GumaRodak]

Anything what is altering the monitor parameters ”automatically” is bad for picture/movie editing, as you dont have control over it …

 

[mackmgg]

On my iPad and previous laptops, I've always just left True Tone on. On the new 16" M1 MBP there's "Photography P3-D65" and "Internet & Web (sRGB)" color profiles that you can easily switch to from the menu bar, so I do that any time I care enough about the colors.

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

This thread is over 4 years old!

 

[mackmgg]

This thread is over 4 years old!

That's true, I didn't notice that! I'm not sure what led to it's revival all of a sudden.

But the one thing that has changed since 2018 is that the new Apple displays have a "Photography" setting which automatically disables everything you'd want off for photography, and then a single setting to bring everything back to where it was (True Tone, Night Shift, brightness, etc)

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

I've never disabled TrueTone when editing. Maybe that's a no-no, but I don't really adjust color on any of my images. Maybe change saturation or vibrance, but that's not going to matter with TT on or off.

 

[Analog Kid]

It depends on how the image is going to be used, I'd imagine. If the image will be shown on a monitor, then I'd guess turning TrueTone off is the right idea-- you want to start with the assumption that the screen displaying your image hasn't been adjusted.

For print, I'd think it might be a little more complicated. The whole point of TrueTone is to make your screen look like a printed page would, by adjusting the color output according to the color temp of the room. It seems this would have two advantages: it would ideally look more realistically like a print under your current lighting, and your eyes wouldn't be forced to adjust to the room color and the screen color making it easier for your brain to understand what the colors are it is seeing (your brain does it's own white balance adjustment).

What I don't know is how well the display holds calibration as it shifts color temp-- that is, how accurate the colors are at any given whitepoint beyond the native whitepoint of the display.

I'd think the best option, though, is to control the light in your room so TrueTone never needs to kick in. If your room lighting is shifting, then your perception of your screen is shifting too.

NightShift, on the other hand, will always be a problem because its purpose it to sap the blue out of the image so your melatonin levels don't go wonky.

This thread is over 4 years old!

Yeah, I love when something ancient gets dug back up and the conversation kicks off all over again. I'm guessing someone found this with a web search?

 

[kgphotos]

This thread is over 4 years old!

OMG!!? I can’t believe it’s been 4 years since I posted this… That white milk bottle was the iconic Hood Milk bottle in Boston. I love it when old threads get dug up. Thanks for the flashback and the added replies.