baygolf Loc: DMV

I need some feedback on how to use color space. My camera's color space is sRGB ( I only shot RAW), Lightroom color space is AdobesRGB, Photoshop color space is AdobesRGB and other programs I used color space is AdobesRGB. Now a friend of my told I should change everything to color space sRGB since I don't do any high-end printing (send pictures out to printing lab) and most of the pictures I take are printed on a home printer. Now I told him that one can go from AdobesRGB to sRGB, but you can't go from sRGB to AdobesRGB. He countered with they don't look that good when you go from AdobesRGB to sRGB for web posting. I said Interesting. If you look at my current workflow I start w/ sRGB (camera) but do post processing in AdobesRGB.

So my question is what is the color space do you use and why? :?:

Dngallagher Loc: Wilmington De.

If you shoot raw, it does not matter what color space you set the camera to. Color space is only used in camera for the conversion from raw to JPG....

Lightroom defaults to Prophoto as far as I know, there is no place to change that, you can however export using a different color space.

If you send raw files to Photoshop from Lightroom for editing, you send them as TIFF or PSD and the dialog during setup will explain that prophoto is the color space recommended.

FWIW - I shoot raw with my Nikon D7100, edit in Lightroom and Photoshop using ProPhoto and save from Photoshop as TIFF, stacked with my original raw in Lightroom.

Prophoto

(Download)

CaptainC Loc: Colorado, south of Denver

As Dngallagher points out, raw has no color space - it captures all the color that the sensor is capable of capturing. If you work in LR, LR assigns ProPhoto space. A color space no monitor can display and no printer can print.

If you use ACR instead of LR, then the color space is assigned when you open the image FROM ACR. You select that in the link at the bottom of the page (among other things).

In my case, I convert immediately to sRGB since my important work is printed by a pro lab that wants sRGB files. They are gorgeous. There are misguided pixel-peepers that will say sRGB is only for the web. They do not know what they are thing about.

I also print on my Epson 3880 that CAN reproduce the Adobe RGB1998 space,(a lot of it anyway) and then I will convert to Adobe RGB from ACR, but while there is some tiny difference in some of the more saturated colors, the difference is really minor.

baygolf Loc: DMV

Thanks a lot!

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

Keep it simple.

Lightroom uses AdobeRGB for previews and something akin to ProphotoRGB with a gamma of 1 for the more critical develop module.

https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom/help/color-management.html#How%20Lightroom%20manages%20color

ProPhoto exists by design, due to color space mismatches - cameras record the largest amount of color, displays can only show up to AdobeRGB, printers can print more than AdobeRGB, which implies more than your display can show, but closer to what your camera can capture.

So in order to have the most color at the end of your process, use ProPhoto all the way through, until you are ready to export a jpg for printing. If you start editing with sRGB, a compressed and small color space you will likely encounter out of gamut colors sooner than if you used ProPhoto as you perform adjustments.

http://www.naturephotographers.net/articles1203/mh1203-1.html

This article shows how color adjustments can become oversaturated (clipped) and result in banding, even with relatively modest HSL or global saturation adjustments.

http://schewephoto.com/sRGB-VS-PPRGB/

So, if you are fussy about color and final image quality, use ProPhoto during editing, and convert to the highest quality color space accepted by your printer or print lab (sRGB or AdobeRGB).

baygolf Loc: DMV

Thanks for your feedback. Now still a follow-up question: If you post processed your photo using PP and then convert the photo to sRGB or AdonesRGB don't you loose all that image quality you worked on (using PP) when you convert it? So now the photo will look different. But you could have done your post processing in sRGB and what yu see is what you will get. What I'm I missing? Yes, understand that you will be working with a better quality photo (using PP) but at the end of the day to use it on the web or for printing it has to be converted.

I just trying to understand.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

If you read Jeff Schewe's article you'll see that the principal benefit is when you make adjustments - you want to try to avoid clipping a channel whenever possible - the results are pretty ugly.

Rendering intent will handle how colors that are in gamut in ProPhoto but out of gamut for sRGB. The two most popular for photographic use are relative colorimetric and perceptual.

Perceptual compresses the entire color space from the larger to the smaller, with the result looking pretty natural, and without banding.

Relative colorimetric will only affect colors that are out of gamut - not the entire gamut, and can result in clipping. It's best if you preview both, using the destination profile (printer, projector web sRGB, etc) to see how things will turn out. I use perceptual for the most part.

What you don't want to do is convert to sRGB early on in the editing process - better to convert to sRGB at the end, when all of your adjustments have been made - you will be much less likely to have banding and clipping that way. It really doesn't matter if your display can't show all the colors. Many high end printers can show more than what a display can, and cameras definitely capture more than what a display can show. Adobe has thought this out very carefully, given the available technology - and it does make sense if you take the time to understand it.

baygolf Loc: DMV

Thanks