Camera setting for Color Space sRGB or AdobeRGB?

[susan_winn]

<p>I use a Nikon and CS5 and photograph mostly in RAW. I was wondering should I set my color space on my camera to sRGB or AdobeRGB? and what is the difference?<br>

I do print and post for web.<br>

Once I have my camera set to one of this should I configure adobe to the same color space?<br>

I have never put must thought into this and think maybe I should!<br>

Also a question about Photoshop Camera in the RAW.<br>

In the workflow options in Camera in the RAW what is the differences for the space (ProPhoto RGB, ColorMatch RGB etc)? and I have my space set to 16bit ProPhoto RGB. I read somewhere that is a good setting but I don't know why. any thoughts?</p>

[mark_sirota1]

<p>If you're shooting raw, the in-camera color space is irrelevant. It applies to the in-camera JPEG converter, which you're not using.</p>

<p>The exception to this is that the in-camera rendering is shown on the back of the camera, and is used to calculate the in-camera histogram. Other than that, it doesn't matter.</p>

[JDMvW]

<p>Mark is right.</p>

<p>In general terms when you take your RAW files to something else, the dominant and mostly largest color space is Adobe RGB. sRGB is restricted for internet display. Most 'pros' use Adobe RGB for their own files, converting to sRGB using something like "Save for Web and Devices" for web display.</p>

<p>There are other color spaces such as CMYK and LAB (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_space ).</p>

[steve_dunn2]

<p>Colour management is a big, hairy issue that makes your head hurt while you're trying to figure it out. There are a number of tutorials out there that will provide you with more detail than I can. Here's a little bit of information that will hopefully get you a bit further down the road in the right direction for now. Let me also warn you that there is no single right answer to the question "What colour space?"</p>

 

<cite>I have my space set to 16bit ProPhoto RGB. I read somewhere that is a good setting but I don't know why.</cite>

 

<p>ProPhoto RGB is a wide-gamut colour space, which means it can represent colours which narrower gamuts like sRGB or Adobe RGB cannot. The Wikipedia page linked to in the second answer above includes a diagram comparing all three of these colour spaces, so you can get some idea of how much of the range of all possible colours fits within each colour space.</p>

 

<p>Imagine two people editing the same file and doing the same things to it, but one is doing it in something like ProPhoto RGB while the other is using sRGB. Some actions (e.g. adjusting saturation) may cause the image to have a wider range of colours than sRGB can represent. The person using ProPhoto RGB can do this without problems; the person using sRGB ends up having some of the bolder colours clipped. This is why you've seen recommendations to use something like ProPhoto RGB as your working colour space*.</p>

 

<p>As for 8 vs. 16 bits, it's a good idea to go with 16 where possible, even for a narrower space, but it's pretty much essential for a wider space. Here's an analogy: imagine trying to give someone the coordinates of a spot on a map. If your map is a map of Chicago (that's sRGB) and it's divided into a 10x10 grid (that's 8-bit), you can probably get them to the right neighbourhood; if it's a 100x100 grid (16-bit), you can probably get them to within a block or two. Now repeat this with a map of Illinois (that's ProPhoto RGB); you can see that as the map has to represent a larger area, having more lines in the grid becomes more important.</p>

 

<p>You'll note that I mentioned a <em>working</em> colour space above. When it comes time to produce an output file, you typically want to use sRGB (for Web, email, and your local one-hour-photo lab), Adobe RGB (for your inkjet photo printer), or a profile for a specific output device (for a professional photo lab). That's a simplified list, but the point is that for a specific use, you typically are best off using the colour space that is the closest match to that use. This may involve using a colour space that's narrower than the actual collection of colours in your image, but a good image editor like Photoshop lets you control how it deals with that problem at the time you convert; for instance, you can configure it to maintain absolute colour accuracy for colours that are within gamut (at the expense of clipping colours that are outside), or you can configure it to make subtle adjustments to the colours to make room to bring some of those out-of-gamut colours into gamut.</p>

 

<p>Like I said, that's a very brief and simplified overview, and there are tons of resources out there that expand on it with more detailed info (and are <em>way</em> longer than the several paragraphs of this "brief" answer). Hopefully this at least helps.</p>

 

<p>*: Note that I am <em>not</em> advocating that ProPhoto RGB is necessarily the right space for you. The second answer above suggests Adobe RGB, which is narrower than ProPhoto RGB but wider than sRGB. Adobe RGB is an adequate working space for most uses. ProPhoto RGB is adequate for even more uses, but if Adobe RGB does everything you need, then there's no advantage for you to use ProPhoto RGB. And it's pretty much a given that your computer can't display the entirety of ProPhoto RGB anyway, so you'll be working on an image that may contain colours that don't show up properly on the screen that you're using to decide whether it looks right.</p>

[digitaldog]

<blockquote>

<p>In the workflow options in Camera in the RAW what is the differences for the space (ProPhoto RGB, ColorMatch RGB etc)?</p>

</blockquote>

<p>http://www.adobe.com/digitalimag/pdfs/phscs2ip_colspace.pdf</p>