The most recent updates to the operating systems for Apple’s iPhone and Mac computers included new “filters” for their “Photos” application on both devices. I just ran a test of one of the filters on the exact same image on both my iPhone and my iMac and … they do not produce identical images.
I took a photograph I made with my Canon 5D Mark IV and downloaded the RAW file to both my iPhone and my iMac. I then opened the file on the iPhone’s Photos app, clicked “edit” and then selected the “Silvertone” filter. I did the same with the file on the iMac, opening it in Photos and applying the same filter.
Different results – the differences are subtle, but real. The same photo editing program, applying the same filter, produces a slightly lighter and yellower version on the iMac compared to the iPhone.
I would think that the results should be no different. I have no technical explanation for why the program would generate different results with the same image and same filter on different devices. Similar tests using other images resulted in the same dissimilar results, however I have only run this test using the “Silvertone” filter so I don’t know if the discrepancy is limited to Silvertone or affects the entire program.
Here are the two images:
iMac-edited version
iPhone-edited version