Wingpilot Loc: Wasilla. Ak

My camera gives me a choice of the two. Which is the preferred one, and why? I am currently set to Adobe RGB, but is that the best setting?

rgrenaderphoto Loc: Hollywood, CA

It makes no difference until you print an image. Make sure your printer supports whatever you choose. It is also critical when you use an outside Lab.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

It depends. If you shoot RAW, it doesn't matter as RAW files are colorspace independent. It's the digital editor and subsequent conversion to a viewable image format that adds the colorspace (viewable being TIFF or JPEG or PNG, etc).

If you shoot in JPEG, do you process all your images? If you use Adobe RGB, your JPEG images are not ready for general sharing and will lead to wonky colors wherever the browser / viewer expects the universal default of sRGB. If you always edit your JPEGs before sharing, you'll have a richer colorspace for editing those images.

If you expect to be able to use your JPEGs without editing, use sRGB.

Don't believe in the wonky impact of upon digital images of using a non sRGB colorspace? Look at the pasta on page 1 of this thread and compare to the same image on page two of the same thread: https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-362867-1.html

Wingpilot Loc: Wasilla. Ak

Thank you. I’ll keep that in mind. I only print a few 5x7’s and occasionally an 8x10, but for anything larger I send off to a lab to do the printing for me.

Rongnongno Loc: FL

Always selects the setting that offers the most potential.

Once you lose something from the beginning, in camera, it is gone for ever.

Like everything else it is about potential to achieve the greater end result.

Wingpilot Loc: Wasilla. Ak

Thank you for your comments here. This is the place where things get a bit complicated, but this has been helpful.

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

If you are recording only jpegs, you have made the decision to do minimal post processing. To maximize you post processing options, choose Adobe RGB for capture, and set your post processing software to Adobe RGB working space. When you are ready to output, select sRGB as your output color space.

If you are recording raw files, this setting is meaningless. However once you have completed your edits in your raw converter, but wish to "finish" the image (remove stuff, add stuff, locally adjust stuff, merge stuff, etc) - export it as a 16 bit tiff or if you are using Adobe software, 16 bit psd, using the ProPHoto RGB color space. Continue to use this as your working color space, and when you are ready to print or share, export it as an sRGB.

This workflow maintains almost all of the colors and tones the camera captured, and allows you to decide what colors and tones you want to see in your finalized sRGB image. When you start with sRGB, you could be tossing out colors and tones that you may need for an accurate or stylized representation of your image. You can never get those colors and tones back with sRGB, but you have a better chance of including the tones and colors you need if you use a larger working color space and reduce to RGB at the end.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Some interesting links -

https://digital-photography-school.com/adobe-rgb-versus-srgb-which-color-space-why/
http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/adobe-rgb.htm
http://www.slrlounge.com/breakdown-color-spaces-really-grasp/

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

I use sRB, it's most commonly used in various places.

ggab Loc: ?

For what it's worth, if you are posting on line most monitors, phones and tablets use sRGB.

ggab Loc: ?

[quote=jerryc41]Some interesting links -

https://digital-photography-school.com/adobe-rgb-versus-srgb-which-color-space-why/

This links offers over simplification. It states adobe-rgb"Advantages:
You get to capture a wider range of color tones in your photos.
This color space is capable of displaying color tones that come out of a CMYK printer, thus ideal color space if you print your photos".

This statement would be correct if all cmyk printers had the same color gamut, they don't. It is also true if the person printing is well versed in color management and manipulation.
Ideally you would want a printers color space (output) to be larger than the input (camera's) color space. That way all captured colors would print without color management. Alas, they aren't.

Both Adobe-rgb and sRBG color spaces are typically larger than the printers cmyk color space.
Since sRGB is more widely adopted, it is preferred.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

[quote=ggab]

Most people viewing an image wouldn't know, nor care,
only the "detail" photographer would.

camerapapi Loc: Miami, Fl.

It has been discussed already and my tendency is to work my RAW data using Adobe RGB while I use sRGB if I shoot JPEG files.
After I finish editing my RAW images I convert to sRGB for printing, emails or the Internet.

I have never been explained, at least satisfactorily, what happens when and Adobe RGB file is converted to sRGB. We are compressing the colors to a smaller color space and I am sure something has to give.
I do not use ProPhoto. I cannot see all of the colors of a sRGB color space neither can anyone here so imagine the trillions of colors of ProPhoto.

ggab Loc: ?

A best practice in color workflows state that you want to do as little "conversion" as possible.

When you print, you are converting from some "rgb" space, typically, to cmyk. Doing multiple rgb conversions ie, Adobe RGB to sRGB then CMYK is not recommended. The workflow mentioned above goes from a very large color space, to a smaller color space to an even smaller color space with CMYK. Every conversion will introduce error that needs to be addressed. The error is taking a color that is within one color space and trying to find a similar color that is in the new color space.
Sometimes the error is tiny and goes unnoticed, sometimes the error is huge.

Hope this helps.

This is not a complete explanation, however I believe I covered the important parts.

ggab Loc: ?

The max colors you have to contend with are the colors within the color space of the capture device, ie camera. That number is not trillions. However, even if it was and the color you are concerned with is towards the edge of that HUGE color space and the printer can't print that color. Now you have to be concerned. That is what color management does.