Adobe RGB vs sRGB

[antonroland]

I know this has been talked about lots but, forgetting for now the old idea of web and screen vs print output I would like to hear you r opinions on these colour spaces.

It would seem that sRGB gives higher saturation and contrast than identical shots in Adobe RGB...

Unfortunately I have no examples to post straight away but if this thread draws some discussion I will make and post some images to illustrate.

Your thoughts?

Cheers all and thanks for helping me out here...

 

[Chappers]

AdobeRGB is a larger colour space than sRGB , so in absolute terms you should get more saturated colours in Adobe RGB. However most monitors and printers are unable to reproduce the full Adobe RGB gamut. Most work around sRGB.

However what happens in a non colour managed system is that data gets misinterpreted and colours that are referenced to Adobe RGB look less saturated than those in sRGB. Using a correctly CM system, a colour that is within the sRGB Gamut will look the similar in either sRGB or Adobe RGB. The CM software will "Translate" one to another.

Unless you have a real need to usea extended colour space, then sRGB is probably best for most people, especially if you system is not colour managed

Rather than go into details here have a look at the Colour management Primer at Ian Lyons's Computer Darkroom site

http://www.computer-darkroom.com/ps8_colour/ps8_1.htm

Hope this helps

 

[antonroland]

Thanks!!

That makes sense and thanks for the link.

It clearly goes further than this for A and that one for B...

Also, I never thought about the fact that few monitors are capable of the Adobe RGB gamut unless properly calibrated.

Cheers!

 

[tdodd]

If you shoot raw then the colour space you choose in the camera makes no odds because raw data is raw data and has no colour space. That only gets sorted out when your raw processor converts and outputs the image.

If you shoot to JPEG then at only 8 bits per channel per pixel you really want those bits to be dedicated to holding useful information that is within gamut and not irrelevant information that cannot be reproduced. Thus if you shoot to Adobe RGB you are holding data about colours that are not reproducible on most systems - data that essentially has no use/value to the image. If you shoot to sRGB then you know those precious few bits of data are at least dedicated to describing useful colours that are within gamut. Thus you will get more accurate rendering of those useful colours and finer tonal gradation. In other words, if you shoot to JPEG, only shoot to Adobe RGB if Adobe RGB is actually what you are going to use/need. Otherwise, it's sRGB all the way.