Which colour mode should I be using?

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DazzGreen

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Darren
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I've been using my D80 for a while now and not given much thought to the colour mode I'm using. I don't do a lot of processing on the computer, I'm from the old school film days of 'if it doesn't come off the camera spot on, it's not worth tweaking on the computer for hours with'. I am starting to come round to a bit of editing on the PC now though...slowly!

Having spend the day researching this on the www it looks like I should switch to shooting everything in Adobe RGB and only worry about changing it if the images are for use on the web.

I mostly view pictures off the PC and print only a few images once in a blue moon, but I am in the process of setting up a website (or web based gallery anyway) and am thinking about trying to sell a few images on a Microstock site or similar (this needs loads more research!).

Could someone please explain to me which colour mode is the 'safe bet' so to speak.

I do a tiny bit of editing using Nikon Capture NX (mostly cropping and tweaking the light levels a little). I shoot everything in RAW + JPEG, and use the JPEG's for viewing on my PC. I process the RAW files in Capture NX and output them as best quality JPEGS. Am I right in thinking that I can select the colour mode in Capture NX before saving the RAW files to JPEGS? Does this mean it's not really important what I select on my camera as I can change it afterwards anyway?

Your help is very much appreciated.
 
I use AdobeRGB, even though I show everything on the web, go figure. Still, as my final edit I use 'save for web', which I believe uses the sRGB profile?
 
Unless you're using 16bit files and dealing with proper press printing or a 16bit enabled printer at home forget AdobeRGB. The increase in saturation you get from it is lost as your monitor can't display it and neither can your printer and because you're trying to fit more colour values into 8bit space you get more banding in the gradients too.

Unless you really understand colour management, can output to a device that can cope with the larger colour space and have a need to do so there's no advantage in using AdobeRGB.
 
Really? Hot damn.
 
Agree with Pxl8.

AdobeRGB is really only for proper printshop work as it looks flat on the web, whereas sRGB looks great on web but flat from a printshop.
 
What about if I'm shooting to submit files to a stock library, do they require a certain colour space using?
 
Depends on the library, best check what their requirements are.
 
No, raw files are in the camera's own colour space profile, it's only when they're exported that conversion takes place.
 
pxl8 said:
No, raw files are in the camera's own colour space profile, it's only when they're exported that conversion takes place.
Click to expand...

So does that mean if I shoot everything in RAW anyway then it doesn't really matter as I can choose the correct colour space / change my mind / convert between all of the available modes whenever I feel like?
 
DazzGreen said:
So does that mean if I shoot everything in RAW anyway then it doesn't really matter as I can choose the correct colour space / change my mind / convert between all of the available modes whenever I feel like?
Click to expand...

Yes :thumbs:
 
I didn't realise sRGB had more than one type...

*wanders off to find how to change it in Lightroom, and on the monitors*
 
It doesn't - that's a Nikon thing similar to picture style on Canon
 
depends on which camera to how its interpreted.

On the D40/D80 you get sRGB I, Adobe RGB, and sRGB III.

On the D200 you set to either sRGB or Adobe, then can select Mode I or III.

On the D300 they ommited it and its availabe as an extre pictuire control download called D2XMODEIII

But officially as pxl8 has said, there is only 1 sRGB
 
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