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Thread: sRGB or Adobe RGB?

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    BPN Member Paul Lagasi's Avatar
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    Default sRGB or Adobe RGB?

    Which do you use? What are the pros and cons of each?
    I have always used sRGB no reason, just never changed it.
    Which is better for CS5 6-bit and Lightroom 3.41 64-bit?

    Thanks in Advance

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    Lifetime Member Doug Brown's Avatar
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    I prefer Adobe RGB for serious editing and printing. sRGB is what I use for the web. Here's a decent comparison of the two color spaces.
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    Paul- sRGB has a smaller colour gamut than Adobe RGB so I've always understood that it's better to edit in the bigger colour space. However, I strongly suspect that in the double-blind experiment with prints no one could reliably tell the difference!

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    BPN Member Don Lacy's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by John Chardine View Post
    Paul- sRGB has a smaller colour gamut than Adobe RGB so I've always understood that it's better to edit in the bigger colour space. However, I strongly suspect that in the double-blind experiment with prints no one could reliably tell the difference!
    That depends on the colors in the print or file there is a reason why fine art professional photographers and printers use the Pro photo space over both sRGB and Adobe RGB.
    Don Lacy
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    BPN Viewer Charles Glatzer's Avatar
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    I maintain the Pro Photo space converting to Adode RGB for (most) printing and sRGB for web.

    Chas

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    Quote Originally Posted by Don Lacy View Post
    That depends on the colors in the print or file there is a reason why fine art professional photographers and printers use the Pro photo space over both sRGB and Adobe RGB.
    OK Don, you have now thrown in Pro photo which has a bigger gamut again than Adobe RGB and sRGB. It may indeed prove itself in a double-blind experiment against Adobe RGB and sRGB but again I frankly doubt it. These urban myths tend to be established out of faith in the theoretical outcomes, but the properly controlled experiments to prove they work (or not) have rarely if ever been done. I use Adobe RGB through most of the post-processing phase because I believe that theoretically it must work better than sRGB. I haven't got the foggiest idea if it actually does so.

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    BPN Member Don Lacy's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by John Chardine View Post
    OK Don, you have now thrown in Pro photo which has a bigger gamut again than Adobe RGB and sRGB. It may indeed prove itself in a double-blind experiment against Adobe RGB and sRGB but again I frankly doubt it. These urban myths tend to be established out of faith in the theoretical outcomes, but the properly controlled experiments to prove they work (or not) have rarely if ever been done. I use Adobe RGB through most of the post-processing phase because I believe that theoretically it must work better than sRGB. I haven't got the foggiest idea if it actually does so.
    John, You have never had to deal with color shifts from switching from Adobe to sRGB for web postings.
    Don Lacy
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    BPN Viewer Charles Glatzer's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by John Chardine View Post
    OK Don, you have now thrown in Pro photo which has a bigger gamut again than Adobe RGB and sRGB. It may indeed prove itself in a double-blind experiment against Adobe RGB and sRGB but again I frankly doubt it. These urban myths tend to be established out of faith in the theoretical outcomes, but the properly controlled experiments to prove they work (or not) have rarely if ever been done. I use Adobe RGB through most of the post-processing phase because I believe that theoretically it must work better than sRGB. I haven't got the foggiest idea if it actually does so.
    John,

    I agree in real world viewing it may be very difficult even for a trained eye to see any variation in color when comparing Pro and Adobe RGB. I maintain Pro Photo as my working space so that I can maitain as much image integrity as possible as long as possible. Hopefully, when printers and monitors catch up I will not have to redo my working images.

    Warm Regards,

    Chas

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    Quote Originally Posted by Charles Glatzer View Post
    John,

    I agree in real world viewing it may be very difficult even for a trained eye to see any variation in color when comparing Pro and Adobe RGB. I maintain Pro Photo as my working space so that I can maitain as much image integrity as possible as long as possible. Hopefully, when printers and monitors catch up I will not have to redo my working images.

    Warm Regards,

    Chas
    Chas,
    If you really want to maintain "as much image integrity as possible" why not store your data in LAB? LAB is the full gamut of the CIE color space.

    Roger

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    Quote Originally Posted by Don Lacy View Post
    John, You have never had to deal with color shifts from switching from Adobe to sRGB for web postings.
    Don,
    Color shifts from Adobe RGB to sRGB should be very minimal. We had a thread about this earlier. If you see significant color shifts with such a conversion, your system may not be properly color managed. See:
    http://www.clarkvision.com/articles/....your.monitor/

    Roger

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    Good discussion. I have assigned Pro to my Light Room conversions, and save the LR edits as Pro Photo. Then in PS I convert to my Adobe RGB color space for final processing for print. Of course for web I convert yet again to sRGB.

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    BPN Viewer Charles Glatzer's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Roger Clark View Post
    Chas,
    If you really want to maintain "as much image integrity as possible" why not store your data in LAB? LAB is the full gamut of the CIE color space.

    Roger
    Roger,

    Agreed, but LAB involves converting from Pro Photo or Color Match and then from LAB back to Adobe or sRGB for use .... as no converter will do so from RAW. Yet another step in the conversion process. And, are these back and forth conversions in LAB really non-destructive?

    Chas
    Last edited by Charles Glatzer; 06-26-2011 at 12:10 PM.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Charles Glatzer View Post
    Roger,

    Agreed, but LAB involves converting from Pro Photo or Color Match and then from LAB back to Adobe or sRGB for use .... as no converter will do so from RAW. Yet another step in the conversion process. And, are these back and forth conversions in LAB really non-destructive?

    Chas
    Any conversion with integer data involves some round-off, so none are technically non-destructive. But with 16 bits/channel (or more), I would bet you could never see the difference, and it would be tough to measure any real destruction.

    The other question, does any digital camera have a larger gamut than Adobe RGB? For example, the 1D mark IV seems to have a color gamut much smaller than LAB:
    http://www.dxomark.com/index.php/Cam...#measuretabs-7
    (not sure where the prophoto gamut boundaries are on this plot.

    Roger

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    Quote Originally Posted by Roger Clark View Post
    Any conversion with integer data involves some round-off, so none are technically non-destructive. But with 16 bits/channel (or more), I would bet you could never see the difference, and it would be tough to measure any real destruction.

    The other question, does any digital camera have a larger gamut than Adobe RGB? For example, the 1D mark IV seems to have a color gamut much smaller than LAB:
    http://www.dxomark.com/index.php/Cam...#measuretabs-7
    (not sure where the prophoto gamut boundaries are on this plot.

    Roger
    Here is an interesting read:
    http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tu...hoto-rgb.shtml

    Roger

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    BPN Viewer Charles Glatzer's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Roger Clark View Post
    This basically confirms my rational for staying with Pro Photo as my work space, converting to the others when necessary for print or web.

    Chas

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    BPN Member Don Lacy's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Roger Clark View Post
    Don,
    Color shifts from Adobe RGB to sRGB should be very minimal. We had a thread about this earlier. If you see significant color shifts with such a conversion, your system may not be properly color managed. See:
    http://www.clarkvision.com/articles/....your.monitor/

    Roger
    Hi Roger, Color shits are minimal but they do happen sometimes I do correct for them when I see it. What I do not correct is clipping in the sRGB color space if no color shift accrued which is much more common when switching from sRGB from Adobe or Pro.
    Don Lacy
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    Macro and Flora Moderator Jonathan Ashton's Avatar
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    Hey Don if I had one of your Color shifts I'd try to correct it too!!
    Last edited by Roger Clark; 07-09-2011 at 08:30 AM. Reason: Corrected the typo!

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jonathan Ashton View Post
    Hey Don if I had one of your Color shifts I'd try to correct it too!!
    Thanks for the laugh, Jonathon!

    Cheers,
    Greg Basco
    Last edited by Roger Clark; 07-09-2011 at 08:30 AM. Reason: Corrected the typo in Jonathan's post

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    BPN Member Don Lacy's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jonathan Ashton View Post
    Hey Don if I had one of your Color shifts I'd try to correct it too!!
    :eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek: :eek::eek:
    Last edited by Roger Clark; 07-09-2011 at 08:32 AM. Reason: Corrected the typo in Jonathan's post. Now everyone will be wondering what that was all about
    Don Lacy
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    There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs - Ansel Adams
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  20. #20
    Susan Candelario
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    Quote Originally Posted by Charles Glatzer View Post
    John,

    I agree in real world viewing it may be very difficult even for a trained eye to see any variation in color when comparing Pro and Adobe RGB. I maintain Pro Photo as my working space so that I can maitain as much image integrity as possible as long as possible. Hopefully, when printers and monitors catch up I will not have to redo my working images.

    Warm Regards,

    Chas
    I agree 100% and the reason I use Pro Photo as my color space as well.

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