sRGB and Adobe RGB

holty

holty

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whats the difference sRGB and Adobe RGB ?
what one do use and when ?

thanks
 
These are colour spaces for encoding colour on your pictures. I suggest to google the topic, you'll find many good sites describing the difference.

In a nutshell. sRGB is more common, but AdobeRGB can capture more colour information in some scenes and is more suitable if you plan to do post-processing.

I use neither of them as I shoot in RAW format and process pictures in Lightroom (which internally use even wider colour space than Adobe RGB). Only when sharing pictures I export them to sRGB or to DCI-P3.
 
If you are intending to put pictures on the web then use sRGB.
 
As I understand it's only worth using Adobe RGB if your monitor can display it and most generic screens can't.
 
haggis said:
As I understand it's only worth using Adobe RGB if your monitor can display it and most generic screens can't.
Click to expand...

Actually, if you post-process images or print them on a better printer then you can still benefit from using AdobeRGB.

You can always convert from AdobeRGB to sRGB, but not the opposite.

- if you want to use images just as captured by camera and don't do any post-processing - use sRGB
- if you import them to Lightroom or similar colour managed tool and then export them for web use, it might be better to use AdobeRGB (or even better shoot RAW).
 
mpe said:
Actually, if you post-process images or print them on a better printer then you can still benefit from using AdobeRGB.

You can always convert from AdobeRGB to sRGB, but not the opposite.

- if you want to use images just as captured by camera and don't do any post-processing - use sRGB
- if you import them to Lightroom or similar colour managed tool and then export them for web use, it might be better to use AdobeRGB (or even better shoot RAW).
Click to expand...

OK, so I shoot Raw and if I use Adobe RGB in Lightroom on my Mac or MacBook Pro that can't properly display Adobe RGB will the printed colours look different to my screen?
 
If shooting RAW then your data aren't in any specific colour profile. They are just luminance data and colour is only interpolated during RAW conversion. So the camera setting doesn't matter.

If you export an image to JPEG with AdobeRGB from Lightroom and properly advertise that ("color space" setting in export dialog) then it should be displayed properly supposing that the viewing device is colour managed (is aware of different colour spaces). It doesn't really matter if display is capable of displaying full AdobeRGB. Very few displays can display all colours and it also depends on calibration, ambient light, etc. But even if they support 80% or so it will be better than sRGB at the right scene.

This usually works well Mac/iOS where colour spaces are managed on system level. On Windows/Android there is no such thing and it depends on the app (Adobe apps and other photo-centric apps will show it fine, many other apps won't).

Similarly modern browsers should display tagged images properly, but some just ignore that and always assume sRGB. That's why it is safer to always use sRGB when sharing images with unknown clients. You won't get all colours but at least it will look OK everywhere. So only use AdobeRGB if you know that the recipient will be able to use it.
 
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haggis said:
OK, so I shoot Raw and if I use Adobe RGB in Lightroom on my Mac or MacBook Pro that can't properly display Adobe RGB will the printed colours look different to my screen?
Click to expand...


In short yes. The best advice is if you don't know of a reason for using aRGB the you should probably use sRGB
 
holty said:
whats the difference sRGB and Adobe RGB ?
what one do use and when ?

thanks
Click to expand...

Colour spaces.

sRGB is smaller, Adobe RGB is larger. Prophoto and LAB are even larger.
I always edit my RAW images in the largest colour space available, namely LAB or pro photo since you'll want to use as much as the available DR from your RAW file as possible.
Using sRGB and Adobe RGB when editing will squeeze your DR and will indicate clipping quite often when in fact there is none.
I then save the final edited file as a TIFF with the prophoto colour space.
If I want to post an image to the net, ill convert to sRGB and save a copy, whilst retaining the original file for future use.
 
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haggis said:
OK, so I shoot Raw and if I use Adobe RGB in Lightroom on my Mac or MacBook Pro that can't properly display Adobe RGB will the printed colours look different to my screen?
Click to expand...

You're better off editing in the largest colour space available (LR is Prophoto I believe, ACR is LAB) and converting a copy to the colour space required for what ever your purpose is, ie web, printing etc.
 
mpe said:
These are colour spaces for encoding colour on your pictures. I suggest to google the topic, you'll find many good sites describing the difference.

In a nutshell. sRGB is more common, but AdobeRGB can capture more colour information in some scenes and is more suitable if you plan to do post-processing.

I use neither of them as I shoot in RAW format and process pictures in Lightroom (which internally use even wider colour space than Adobe RGB). Only when sharing pictures I export them to sRGB or to DCI-P3.
Click to expand...
Hi,when u say you use neither,i understand that LR uses its own prophoto but in your camera you have a choice ,what is yours set to and are you saying it makes no difference if you are pp in LR?
 
SsSsSsSsSnake said:
Hi,when u say you use neither,i understand that LR uses its own prophoto but in your camera you have a choice ,what is yours set to and are you saying it makes no difference if you are pp in LR?
Click to expand...

When you shoot raw in a camera, the colour gamut is defined by the exact colours of the red, green and blue filters used in the Bayer Mask on the front of the sensor. This is unlikely to match AdobeRGB or sRGB.
 
Interesting,so camera manufactures could in the menu if you set raw ,grey out the choice to make it clearer?
 
SsSsSsSsSnake said:
Interesting,so camera manufactures could in the menu if you set raw ,grey out the choice to make it clearer?
Click to expand...

RAW files (RAW data) do not have a colour space assigned. You have to do that yourself via PP.
When you use the in camera colour space setting option, Adobe or sRGB, you are assigning a colour space to the 8 bit Jpeg your camera produces.
 
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NeilA1975 said:
RAW files do not have a colour space assigned. You have to do that yourself via PP.
The in-camera colour space setting is for the camera produced Jpeg 8 bit files only.
Click to expand...
Thanks Neil,what I meant was because of that there shouldn't be an option to choose it in the menu if Raw is chosen in camera menu that is
 
SsSsSsSsSnake said:
Thanks Neil,what I meant was because of that there shouldn't be an option to choose it in the menu if Raw is chosen in camera menu that is
Click to expand...
It still produces a jpeg which is embedded in the raw file. This is what you see on the rear view and what the histograms and blinkies are calculated from. tbh I don't know whether the colour space is assigned to these or not (but would guess they are), nor do I know what impact each would have on the associated calculations.
 
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SsSsSsSsSnake said:
It seems quite confusing but that's probably just me lol
Click to expand...

No, colour science is quite complicated.

The change is happening in TV to, going from 709 colours (= sRGB) to 2020 (close to aRGB), so there's lots of stuff appearing in popular literature.
https://www.cnet.com/news/ultra-hd-tv-color-part-ii-the-future/

https://www.ted.com/talks/beau_lotto_optical_illusions_show_how_we_see?language=en
is worth a look

and if you really want to dive deep: http://www.cs.cornell.edu/Courses/cs6640/2012fa/slides/06-Color.pdf
 
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