Which Colourspace?

danny_bhoy

danny_bhoy

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Just switched to Mac and I'm editing my first batch of images. I've exported from Lightroom to Photoshop after a few minor tweaks and now I'm saving the images as JPEGs. Trouble is when I save them as sRGB, as I seem to remember I've always done, the colours are miles out when previewing on the default Mac photoviewer (really desaturated). The default colourspace of ProPhoto RGB looks spot on but I seem to remember that shouldn't be used for web use as the images/colours won't display correctly on most browsers.

So what colourspace should I be using? Seem to remember this was an issue when I first started editing on my PC......just wish I could remember how I fixed it!! :(

Thanks in advance!
 
Is your Mac colour calibrated using professional device? If not, then it really should be.

You always want to edit in the broadest colour space (proPhoto most of the time), then proof for and save as the output colour space. Normally that is sRGB for web, consumers and most cheap printers however aRGB is also used in the pro design market (you would be told to use this one specifically).

sRGB is a horrible, lacking colour space. For some unknown reason everyone is still using it, so until that changes just hang on to your RAW files so that one day they may be saved as something else more reasonable.
 
Not too clear what you are aiming for as the end result, print or web or?
If you are using a standard iMac 27inch screen, calibrated or not, it won't display even 75% of the Adobe RGB gamut. If you are aiming just for the web, IMHO don't worry too much as most of the recipient viewers will be no better off as regards their screen capabilities.
 
LongLensPhotography said:
Is your Mac colour calibrated using professional device? If not, then it really should be.

You always want to edit in the broadest colour space (proPhoto most of the time), then proof for and save as the output colour space. Normally that is sRGB for web, consumers and most cheap printers however aRGB is also used in the pro design market (you would be told to use this one specifically).

sRGB is a horrible, lacking colour space. For some unknown reason everyone is still using it, so until that changes just hang on to your RAW files so that one day they may be saved as something else more reasonable.
Click to expand...

BrynBoru said:
Not too clear what you are aiming for as the end result, print or web or?
If you are using a standard iMac 27inch screen, calibrated or not, it won't display even 75% of the Adobe RGB gamut. If you are aiming just for the web, IMHO don't worry too much as most of the recipient viewers will be no better off as regards their screen capabilities.
Click to expand...

Yeah sorry I guess my late night ramblings weren't the most succinct.

The end game is to save images for web use. I was under the impression that had to be done in sRGB to suit the masses without fancy, calibrated display equipment. But my beef is that sRGB looks great in PS but once saved is a horrible, desaturated version of what I see in PS. Hope that makes sense......I'll revisit in the morning after caffein :)

Oh and, yes, the screen is calibrated and it's a 27" 5K iMac.
 
ProPhoto is a huge colour space. It's really useful for preserving colour information especially from RAW files . Only problem is there is no monitor that can reproduce that full colour range. So it's best to convert to something a bit more "Reall World" . Now I don't know exactly what Mac you are using so it's difficult to say what the machine is capable of. The latest 5K iMacs can support the P3 colour space which is similar to aRGB. MacBooks are more limited and are probably nearer sRGB.

Not sure what photo app you are using, but Apples "Photos" app is fully colour managed and shouldn't give a problem.. Also the default viewer Preview is also fully colour managed ( in fact you can soft proof from it !)

ProPhoto is not a colour space that you should really use for output. It's too big for outputting to real world environments. Try opting for sRGB to start with. Most devices will work well with that even if they aren't colour managed. I'd also have a look at what profile you Mac is using as the monitor profile Go to System Preferences, and click on MONITOR. choose color from the two options available and you'll see the current monitor profile highlighted.
 
danny_bhoy said:
Oh and, yes, the screen is calibrated and it's a 27" 5K iMac.
Click to expand...
Well that's certainly a much superior machine to the older standard 27inch! However is there any point in working in ProPhoto if your machine's screen cannot display more than 86% AdobeRGB?
As others above have suggested, work in Adobe RGB and export sRGB for the web.
 
How are you saving the jpegs? from photoshop or Lightroom and where are you converting them to srgb?
 
You need to describe your exact workflow before you can be helped ...
 
idigitize said:
How are you saving the jpegs? from photoshop or Lightroom and where are you converting them to srgb?
Click to expand...

droj said:
You need to describe your exact workflow before you can be helped ...
Click to expand...

Sorry if I'm being too vague. My usual workflow consists of editing in LR and exporting as JPEG. Job done and no problems. The problem seems to be caused by taking the image into PS.

I've been doing some commercial work and it's involved tweaks in LR > right click 'edit is PS' > make cloning adjustments etc in PS > Save as JPEG to desktop.

So, in my simpleton terms, I just want to edit and export in sRGB, as 99% of my work is for web use.
 
Would it be a better workflow to edit in ps from Lightroom and then just save the psd back to Lightroom and then export jpeg from Lightroom? It sounds like the saving jpeg from photoshop is embedding srgb and not converting to srgb. The above workflow would avoid that even if not fixing the actual issue, but surely would be a better workflow anyway as you would keep the psd/tiff or whatever you have chosen in you edit in ps options in Lightroom
 
Look at all your PS colour settings - eg for working space, file import handling, etc. Then when it comes to saving, and if you're not using a 'save for web' function, convert the file to srgb first if yr working space isn't srgb. Or set up an action to do this.
 
danny_bhoy said:
So, in my simpleton terms, I just want to edit and export in sRGB, as 99% of my work is for web use.
Click to expand...
Here's two articles on the choice of colour space. I'm no expert in this topic and tend to go with the herd. However this did make me think about some of the more fundamental aims of colour space and which choice to make. Although you say 99% of your work is for the web, maybe these will help clarify some aspects of colour choice.

http://www.naturephotographers.net/articles1203/mh1203-1.html
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0bxSD-Xx-Q
 
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