Wide working color space on sRGB displays?

[jlopez_perales]

Hi:

 

Reading on color spaces, color management and all that stuff, I

wonder how can I work on a wider color space (e.g. prophoto) or

Adobe RGB if, on my understanding, computer monitors (LCD and CRT)

have an sRGB gamut which is a narrower color space? I?m sure I?m

missing something because it can be done. My guess is that monitor

are not sRGB, just is an advice to final viewing in MSWindows.

 

Thanks a lot and sorry for this basic question.

[peten]

Having just bought a new tft monitor I wondered about how to do this myself.The monitor settings dont seem to include adobe rgb.Try this,go to control panel-display-settings-advanced-color management-add (this should give a full listing of all color spaces)click on adobe rgb to add it to your list & then click on the set as default button.This is the procedure on windows 98 so if you are running anything else the the procedure may be slightly different.I dont know if this really does anything but its all I could think of to try.

I also would be interested if anyone else has any thoughts on the matter because I'm going nuts trying to get this new monitor calibrated.

Jose,I hope this helps.

Regards Pete.

[william_john_smith]

I can't speak for Windoze but in Macintosh the change is done in the display panel software.

I'm sure its the same thing in Windoze or something close.

[patricklavoie]

Hi, that not gonna answer youre questions, but you should always work in ADOBE 98,

especialy if you not fully understand color management stay away from PRO PHOTO RGB,

that is the widest color space mainly use in 16 bit per channel. Your monitor is capable of

showing ADOBE 98, on Mac to repeat one of the answer you have to set this from a control

panel, it shoul be the same on PC, and you are right, this ADOBE 98 setting its not part of

your monitor.

 

Never be sorry to ask questions, everybody have asked < basic > questions in is life! : )

this forum is full of it as a exemple.

[jlopez_perales]

Thanks to all, but I didn?t express my question in a clear way, it?s most a philosophical question than procedural, the question is that as far I understand, monitors are not capable of displaying a wider gamut than sRGB (?), so how is it possible to work in a wider color space as Prophoto, where some colors won?t display correct in the monitor because of its narrower gamut?

 

Well, anyway, thanks for your advice.

[terrestrikon]

Luminous Landscape has a discussion of this:

 

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/prophoto-rgb.shtml

[erik scanhancer]

When you work in a color space larger than your monitor (there are even only a few

monitors that can represent Adobe RGB; most are indeed sRGB) there are several colors

that you will not be able to see. You will in such cases notice more colors on your print

(Ultrachrome inks have a wider gamut than sRGB for example) than you saw on your

monitor. This will mostly translate in more precise color shades. Your monitor will try to

show the colors closest to those that cannot be represented precisely. That is: when it is

properly profiled.

 

When you prepare images for web viewing only there is no reasonable use in doing that in

Adobe RGB. sRGB would be the right choice in this case. Adobe RGB is optimized for files

that have to be printed in a final CMYK printing process. All these color spaces do exist

because they are for a specific chain of use. There is no such thing as "the best" color

space.

 

What you do when working in a larger color space than your monitor can handle is

balancing your image to an overall neutral (or otherwise "warm" or "cool") tone. This

overall tone will be retained in the final print, but specific colors might come out closer to

the original slide or the real scene. A typical color space for slides is Ektaspace for

example. It reproduces typical slide colors very well, but you won't see much of certain

shades on your monitor. Have a look at the 3D plot hereunder. It shows Ektaspace (the

open wires) compared to sRGB (the solid graph).

[erik scanhancer]

And now Ektaspace vs a typical monitor color space (from a calibrated monitor).

[erik scanhancer]

Allright, just one more. Since it's such fun. Adobe RGB (the wire) vs monitor color space (the

solid).

[Ed_Ingold]

The purpose of a monitor profile is to accurately represent the chosen color space on the screen. The ultimate limits are determined by the color and brightness ratio of the phosphors. Using a 32-bit card doesn't increase the gamut, but does improve the shading of the image.

[nicholas_siebenmorgen]

Sorry to get off the main question, but what happens if you take images that have been worked on in Adobe RGB and switch them to the Prophoto RGB space? I have many images that have had so much digital manipulation done in the Adobe RGB space that I wouldn't want to start all over with the original just to have it in a Prophoto RGB space. thanks

 

Nick

[patricklavoie]

It would be a bad idea anyway....ProPhoto RGB is best use in 16bit. But after you have to have

a printer that can print this wider color gammut.....there is not much around you. I knoiw that

the Epson family can. If you had already start playing a lot with your images in RGB, leave it

that way or restart everithing in 16 bit and ProPhoto.

[victor_yushenko]

Nicholas I think that if you switch to a wider color gamut, then your pictures would look and print exactly the same. It would work kinda like inceasing canvas in Photoshop. Picture itself looks exactly the same but there is more space added. With wider gamut you will be able to increse color saturation (make colors more intense), but the difference will only be visible on the print (and not on the display with their norrow gamut).

[jlopez_perales]

Well, thanks to everybody, specially Erik for taking your time in that complete response. I appreciate that.