Lightroom making JPEGs more vibrant

[Kayaker72]

So, I think I have figured this out.

The quick answer: I recalibrated my monitor and things are very close again between what I see in Lightroom and what I see in the "Photos" app in Windows 10.

Long answer: After not drifting at all for 2 years, it looks like my monitor calibration started to drift sometime over the summer. I did the "classic" where when I first got my new monitor (Benq SW2700pt) and new calibration tools (X-rite Display Pro) I checked my monitor's calibration frequently for awhile. It never changed and as a result, I stopped checking it so often. My last calibration was April 2019 and it was again very similar what it had been when I bought it. Over the summer, I started noticing colors of the same photo from different applications (Photo vs Lightroom, etc) on the same monitor where different. I didn't think it could be monitor calibration as these were on the same monitor.

That may have been a bad assumption.

While I do not know this for a fact, I have seen references that many common photo viewing applications, such as Windows "Photos" app DO NOT reference your calibrated colors profile. Lightroom does. So, as my monitor drifted, the colors in Lightroom started being muted and somehow the colors in the un-calibrated Microsoft "Photos" app stayed closer to what I see on Flickr/iPhone/etc. This part still seems odd to me.

By drfiting, my deltaE (measurement of difference from observed vs intended color from monitor) increased, my monitor brightness had decreased and the "panel uniformity" is now also different. So, about 2.5 years into using this monitor, it has started to drift. I'll check its calibration more often and am now set up for monthly reminders.