Srgb v adobe rgb in camera

Unfortunately, not all devices can reproduce all colors the same which is the primary stumbling block amidst all color issues. Every device reads and reproduces color using a different process. While this sounds like a fixable problem, there is a sad and unsolvable reality behind the problem. There are at least three different interpretations of color at play in every capture-display-print cycle. First, cameras capture color by recording intensities of light as electrical signals and interpreting those signals as colors.

Each color is assigned a specific number. Second, these numbers are then sent to the computer. Here, they get translated into another process that interprets those electrical signals into a process that turns on tiny lights called pixels on a backlit screen. And third, those pixels are then sent to a printing machine that instructs those pixel values to spit tiny splatters of colored ink onto paper. Anyway, during this hair-on-fire digital transition, different methods are employed that utilize the various color spaces in a way that transforms the colors from one device to another as accurately as possible.

Science uses charts like this to plot the characteristics of camera color spaces. This is why this strange horseshoe shape is referred to as the Reference Space. Color is a very diverse and dysfunctional family.

Each device speaks a different dialect of a similar language. Each produces colors that cannot be faithfully reproduced on other devices. Color is a very messy topic. Crayola crayon boxes contain varying numbers of colors just as color spaces collect varying amounts of color.

The lightest and darkest color crayons are the same value, but larger boxes contain more colors than smaller ones. Some devices can express color more completely than others. Unfortunately, no device created by humans can reproduce all the colors that can be seen by humans.

Also, the colors captured by one device that fall outside the gamut Crayola box size of other devices, get clipped, lost, or compressed during the handoff. Those colors never come back home. This is the tragic truth about digital color reproduction. This section aims to clear up some of the confusion associated with sRGB and Adobe RGB , and to provide guidance on when to use each working space. A color space is a range of possible colors. Depending on which mode you shoot in, your camera will capture a certain percentage of all visible colors.

Like a lot of people, I started out using sRGB because that is what the camera defaults to using. A color space is a part of the color gamut, which is basically the universe of color tones. So you can assume different color spaces to be planets of different sizes.

Depending on your preferences, you can choose the desired color space and get the best possible result out of it. This is one of the reasons that Adobe RGB monitors are vastly used by photographers — they can display more colors as compared to an sRGB monitor. Adobe RGB monitors are used by a majority of modern day printer operators as well because they are capable of showing what a CMYK cyan magenta yellow and key or black printer color profile can produce. This helps the printer operator to ensure that colors that are being displayed on the Adobe RGB monitor shall be very close to the print that comes out of the CMYK color space printer used for magazines and publications.

So being a photographer it makes sense that you use an Adobe RGB monitor so that you can edit your photos and see the actual colors that will come out in the prints.

Whereas, if you are sure that you will not get your photos printed in the near future then it does not make any sense to use an Adobe RGB monitor. If you only take photos for yourself or to upload them to the web, then an sRGB monitor is ideal for your purposes. But in order to view the actual colors of Adobe RGB or sRGB color space on your monitor, you need to capture the photo in that particular color space in the first place. Shooting photos in the larger Adobe RGB color space allow you to capture more color tones, thus helping you see accurate colors on Adobe RGB monitors and in the prints.

Whereas clicking in sRGB color space allows you to upload images to the web without any change in colors. While shooting in one of these two color spaces each has their own advantages, there are few disadvantages as well.

Left: While exporting photos in Lightroom, you get the option to choose the color space. Right: In Photoshop, you can go to Color Settings and select the required option as your working color space. If you are a photographer who prints your photos often and you want to ensure that the colors are accurate in your prints, then you must shoot in Adobe RGB color space.

Shooting photos in sRGB color space might give you a variation in colors that you see on your monitor and in the final prints. Also if you participate in online photography contests, it is safe to capture and edit photos in Adobe RGB color space.

But if you only capture photos to upload them on the web, then shooting in the sRGB color space is the ideal choice for you. If you upload Adobe RGB color space photos to the web, you will notice that colors get desaturated. Left: This is how your photo gets desaturated when you upload Adobe RGB color space photo to the web. Right: When you upload sRGB color space photos, you get correct colors as seen here.

Nonetheless, to be on the safe side you can shoot photos in the Adobe RGB color space. If needed you can always use the file for prints, and if you wish to upload to the web then you can simply convert the color space using Adobe Photoshop or Lightroom. When you set up your camera, at some point you will have to reach a decision on which color space to use.

Doing so led to some occasional problems when I posted pictures to the web though, so I went back to sRGB. Now, having been asked again which color space one should choose on their camera, I am revisiting this issue. In this article, I will take a look at this option and help you choose which one may be right for you.

What is a Color Space anyway? It is just the range of colors that are available to your camera. That means that all the colors in that space are created by some combination of those three colors. This is a color space jointly created by HP and Microsoft back in Pretty much everything on a computer is built around sRGB.

That means that all the colors in that space are created by some combination of those three colors. This is a color space jointly created by HP and Microsoft back in Pretty much everything on a computer is built around sRGB. Therefore, if you are posting a picture online, it will be sRGB. So using sRGB is a pretty safe option. The other option available in your camera is Adobe RGB. It was created in by Adobe Systems with the idea of encompassing most of the colors achievable with CMYK printers.

Upon learning this, many photographers switch to Adobe RGB. I did, with the simple rationale that bigger must be better.

After a while, however, you might find that you run into occasional problems if you set your camera to Adobe RGB. In particular, sometimes when you post pictures to the internet, the colors will look compressed and strange. In my case, I discovered that sometimes a picture that was supposed to look like the one on the right would get posted to the internet looking like the one on the left:. When that happens, the colors can be compressed, ending up looking like the picture on the left.

I should note that this problem can be corrected. If you convert your photo to sRGB prior to posting to the internet, the problem should disappear. The advantage of the increased size of Adobe RGB is not as clear cut as it might first appear either.

Even when it comes to printing, you may not be able to take advantage of the additional colors of Adobe RGB. Some online printing labs assume you are uploading sRGB files for your prints.