Onedrive photos washed out/desaturated. Why?

[Windows Central Question]

Onedrive photos washed out/desaturated.

Uploaded some photos to OneDrive using the OneDrive folder in file explorer on my pc. Have now signed into OneDrive on another computer and the photos look dull and desaturated. Noticed a "view original" button at top. When clicked it displays the fully saturated version. The size of the de-saturated and the 'original' seem to be the same (2048 x 1365). I want the 'original' version to be the default. The fact that OneDrive has the 'original' version for me to view suggests it hasn't just uploaded the photo and re-sized it. It actually has two versions of the same photo.

 

[Harrie-S]

Re: Onedrive photos washed out/desaturated.

You are right.
If you go to onedrive you actual see a "thumnail" (with the properties of the full size version) so not the original "full" picture.
If they only showed full size pictures would mean that every time you go to onedrive these full size pictures have to be "downloaded" This takes time and if you on a metered connection or limited data plan also a lot of data.
So for "normal" viewing you get the reduced size pictures and the option "view original" is added.

And I do not think the option "view original" as standard is added.

If you see the pictures on your own computer more sharp means that these pictures are also stored on your PC (view offline) so you see the full size pictures on your PC and not the copy in OneDrive.

 

[McMechanism]

Re: Onedrive photos washed out/desaturated.

Ah. Well that explains one part of the problem then. Thank you for that.

Does it figure then that these 'thumbnail versions' would be less saturated? I appreciate the quality is less as I am viewing smaller files but I wouldn't have expected it to affect the saturation.

So when I share an album with family, they are actually seeing the smaller files rather than the originals? It's only a shame as they are greyer and less vibrant than when I click 'view original'.

Thanks so much for your time.

 

[McMechanism]

Re: Onedrive photos washed out/desaturated.


Album view (large thumbnail)


'Original view"

 

[McMechanism]

Re: Onedrive photos washed out/desaturated.

Problem 'sort of' solved. A colleague took a look and suggested: it looks like OneDrive has taken your hi-res, CMYK colour images, and downgraded them to low-res RGB for displaying purposes. So yes, 2 versions, one for displaying on screen, one to use for print (the original).

I didn't think my originals were particularly high res but I experimented: My original JPEGS are 2048 x 1368. I resized one to 1048 x 698 and re-uploaded it. It’s fine now with full colour and the ‘original version’ looks the same. So it solved the problem but means that any larger JPEGS uploaded will not display correctly to me or my shared circles unless they click 'view original' which is not ideal.