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sRGB, Adobe RGB, ProPhoto RGB – Which you should use, when and why

by 3 Comments

Colour space is one of the most confusing topics in digital photography. Every day I see questions popping up on social media about them. The most common one being something along the lines of “Why does the colour on Facebook not look like it did in Photoshop?”

Well, here to demystify colour spaces and talk about LAB, Adobe RGB 1998, ProPhotoRGB and sRGB is Aaron Nace from Phlearn. He breaks down the differences between them, tips on how to choose which colour space to work in and which to use when exporting your final images.

  • 0:57 Brief Background on Colour Spaces
  • 1:37 Common Colour Spaces
  • 3:04 Colour Space Uses
  • 4:32 Colour Settings in Photoshop
  • 9:32 Assigning Colour Profiles to RAW
  • 12:50 Colour Settings from Lightroom to Photoshop
  • 14:08 Colour Settings for Export from Lightroom

Aaron begins by offering some basic background on colour spaces and how much we can see with our eyes – which is somewhere between 2-8 million colours. He then quickly moves onto LAB colour, and how the popular colour spaces (sRGB, Adobe RGB and ProPhoto RGB) fit within it.

But why do we have different colour spaces? Well, it all boils down to how many and which colours different devices can display. Not all screen technology is created equally, as we’re reminded each time a new TV, monitor, phone or tablet is released. So colour profiles allow some level of consistency (in theory, at least – the reality is often quite different) to display the most natural range of colours to the viewer.

Despite being the smallest colour profile, sRGB is typically the profile of choice for most devices. Because there are fewer colours, it’s easier to display the results properly. It’s the profile that web browsers use (at least by default) as well as most mobile device operating systems and apps.

So, if you just want to see consistency throughout devices and a basic answer to “Which one should I use?” without delving too deep into it, then the answer is sRGB. Just keep it simple and use sRGB for everything.

But if you want to know why you might want to choose Adobe RGB, ProPhoto RGB or one of the many other colours spaces out there, then you’ll have to watch the video above.

Aaron shows some demonstrations, dispels some myths, and talks about how to set up different colour spaces as well as how to convert them.

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  • Tj Ó Seamállaigh

    IMHO Adobe RGB is now almost like the new standard. I work in ProPhoto and save my main file in TIFF 16bit. From that file I make out JPEGs (original size or smaller ones for the web with watermark and all) and when I do that I do “convert” the space to Adobe RGB. Actually, so far so good! I didn’t see any change in colors in all my photos I uploaded to the stock websites or other galleries online. All are in Adobe 1998. Some professionals prefer and would advise you to use sRGB because it is the safest but as I said, I think Adobe RGB is now like a standard. HP printers drivers now even do offer this space before printing your images.
    Some points on the video here though:
    1. Instead of checking what space is currently in use from the menu, you can simply click in the status bar below (where it shows the document size) and click on “Document Profile” (I use this menu a lot also when I work with HDR slides).
    2. The video didn’t explain the difference between “convert” and “assign” in PS. The difference between these two is critical (and I learned it the hard way).

  • Roy Bridgewood

    I am working on a video which will help get the most from Micro four thirds cameras. I was shocked at the Jpeg produced straight out of the box and set about trying to produce a better jpeg. In camera only the jpeg will use the pre assigned colour space and mine came preset to sRGB. To change the profile means drilling down into the menu to change this setting to Adobe RGB

    Now I dont use the jpeg for anything other than referencing and I edit my images from raw opening them into Photoshop as Pro Photo RGB editing non distructively for a much as I can

    So why is it so important for me?
    I print my images and having a profile with a wider gamut allows me to get the best from my prints
    One tip is to change the Gamut warning colour in Photoshop from grey to something vivid. When you are working with different papers this will help you keep within the colour limits your oaper can handle

  • Krav Maga

    Always edit/process in the largest color space available then export to the color space needed for the intended target.

    Always.

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