This disclosure is directed to improving a user experience when operating a mobile device that includes a display. In one example, a mobile device is configured to render an image via a display of the mobile device. The image includes one or more properties. The mobile device may identify, using one or more sensors, one or more characteristics of a relationship between the mobile device and an optical environment of the mobile device. One or more indications of the identified characteristics may be provided to a graphics processing pipeline of the mobile device configured to present images via the display. The graphics processing pipeline may modify the one or more properties of the image to reflect the identified characteristic.