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|| SportsShooter.com: Member Message Board
Choice of Color Space for Final Photo Edits
Alan Herzberg, Photographer
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Elm Grove | WI | USA | Posted: 9:36 AM on 02.04.11 |
->> Lightroom allows (and, I think, recommends) the use of pro color space.
1. Am I correct that the choice of color space in-camera assigns a color profile to a photo that will affect how it displays or prints, but has nothing to do with what the camera captures? So, assigning the pro color space to an image originally shot in srgb would display a wider gamut of color, right?
2. Most of the labs that I've used (all of them, as far as I can recall) want photos to be uploaded using srgb for printing. Do any of you use labs that make prints using pro color?
3. If your lab wants files with srgb, is there any reason to assign pro color to a file other than it may look a little better on a monitor? |
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Eric Canha, Photographer
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Brockton | MA | United States | Posted: 9:49 AM on 02.04.11 |
->> Are you shooting raw+jpg or just jpg? The space you choose in camera is used to convert what the sensor captured into the gamut specified for the jpeg. So if you shoot jpg with the camera set to srgb the resulting files will have a smaller gamut that you will never be able to really bring back. If you have the raw file all the original data will still be there to play with later, if not all the extra color data will be lost forever.
I shoot everything in Adobe rgb and then convert down to sRGB when needed. My print lab (WHCC.com) uses Adobe rgb and the T&I lab uses sRGB. It's easier to start with a wide space and then clip it to the smaller sRGB than the other way around.
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Butch Miller, Photographer
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Lock Haven | PA | USA | Posted: 10:01 AM on 02.04.11 |
->> LR uses the ProPhoto RGB as the working color space for RAW images ... the settings you can use in-camera have no bearing as LR ignores all the proprietary settings except for "as shot WB" ...
Of all the RGB color spaces available, ProPhoto RGB has the widest gamut and will yield the widest range of colors available from the image data .. often, most printing devices offer a narrower gamut of colors that can be rendered ... you should assign the RGB profile your lab requires for the device in question ... that way you can view the image before submission as it should appear in print ...
If you were to submit the image in the LR native ProPhoto RGB .. it is likely not to reproduce as it appears on your monitor ... and there can be problems if you let it up to the lab to convert the image to the required color space because they would likely be doing so from an 8 bit jpeg file, and not converting from the 16 bit RAW data like LR would accomplish ...
Most labs that make photographic prints request sRGB ... as that is the maximum gamut that the printers and papers used can offer ... other labs that print using inkjet for prints or canvas may request Adobe RGB as those mediums are capable of a wider gamut than sRGB ... |
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David Harpe, Photographer
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Denver | CO | USA | Posted: 10:37 AM on 02.04.11 |
->> sRGB is the most idiot-resistant colorspace. If you give sRGB to an untrained person or to someone who doesn't do color management, they can usually get something out of it that looks good.
AdobeRGB is good if you have a lab that knows what they are doing. For anyone doing web work don't even bother - you'll end up with flat, slightly green images. sRGB is the way to go.
Very high end labs can accept ProPhotoRGB/16-bit photoshop files, but they are few and far between.
I shoot RAW pretty much all the time (except in situations where high frame rate is a factor). I edit and save in 16-bit ProPhotoRGB and downconvert as necessary. |
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Harrison Shull, Photographer
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Fayetteville, WV | Asheville, NC | | Posted: 11:46 AM on 02.04.11 |
->> I have taken two D65 workshops and learned much from Seth and Jamie on this topic. Three things stick out from reading the earlier posts...
1st - sRGB stands for "shitty RGB"
2nd - Never ever "assign" a colorspace. Always "convert" to a colorspace.
3rd - shoot, process, and store at the highest gamut colorspace you have available and then downscale later for whatever output needs you have. |
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Alan Herzberg, Photographer
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Elm Grove | WI | USA | Posted: 11:48 AM on 02.04.11 |
->> I'm shooting RAW. I've been shooting Adobe rgb in-camera, exporting the edited file as adobe rgb, then assigning srgb color space to images that I send in for printing. I guess if I'm saving files to something other than srgb to begin with, I might as well save to the wider gamut of pro photo rgb instead of adobe rgb.
Thanks for the input. |
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Alan Herzberg, Photographer
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Elm Grove | WI | USA | Posted: 11:50 AM on 02.04.11 |
| ->> On the assign/convert color space issue, I actually am converting, not assigning - I misspoke. I've heard the same thing, that converting is definitely preferable to assigning. Thanks. |
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Chuck Steenburgh, Photographer
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Lexington | VA | USA | Posted: 6:47 PM on 02.04.11 |
->> The one and only case of assigning a color space I have encountered was with the original D1. Before anyone really understood color spaces, that camera was recording images in NTSC color but no color space was being assigned. Hacks worked up all sorts of tricks for its washed up colors and lousy red rendition but once people figured out it was using a 1950s television color standard and assigned the correct profile, it turned in very nice colors. So - never say never.
What I recommend to everyone: unless you really understand color spaces, do everything in sRGB. To really understand color, read this book: http://www.colorremedies.com/realworldcolor/ |
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Gregory Greene, Photographer
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Durham | NH | USA | Posted: 6:20 PM on 02.06.11 |
->> Does it matter what color space you have set in your camera
if you shoot RAW only? I left mine at sRGB because I thought
RAW got everything anyways. Am I assuming right? |
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Daniel Malmberg, Photographer
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Huskvarna | Sweden | Sweden | Posted: 7:23 PM on 02.06.11 |
->> @Gregory!
You got it just right.
That setting only applies to Jpeg files. |
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