sRGB verses Adobe RGB?

[PhotoBuffs]

I've read both sides but unsure as to what's the best. Ken Rockwell doesn't care for Adobe RGB and prefers sRGB.

sRGB vs. Adobe RGB

However, I saw another site that showed various cameras and their settings...and all had "Adobe RBG" selected as the color modes.

Nick Didlick Photography - Camera Set-Up

So....What color mode setting do most of you have set for your camera?

[Trader]

I send quite a bit of my work (via the Internet) to a lab to be printed and they expect the files to be in sRGB format. So like it or not I shoot in and calibrate my monitor to sRGB. I used to use Adobe RGB but every once in a while I would get a print back and the color would be slightly off on something.

Oh! Most labs do expect to get files in sRGB BTW.

[PhotoBuffs]

Originally Posted by Trader

Oh! Most labs do expect to get files in sRGB BTW.

Thanks Trader...I did read this as well. Seems the norm for most labs.

[Taallyn]

I use Adobe RGB in my camera and during processing. It is a bigger color space, thus gives me more information to work with. I will save a copy in sRGB which is what gets posted to the web. sRGB is the colorspace standard for the internet. Anything not in sRGB on the net will get converted to sRGB which may cause odd things to happen with colors and/or brightness. However, my originals always stay in Adobe RGB.

Generally thing of colorspaces and containers. sRGB might be a coffee cup. Adobe RGB would then be soup bowl. Profoto colorspace would then be a large mixing bowl.

Now fill the coffee cup with water. That represents the amount of colors you have captured. Pour that water into the soup bowl. That represents converting to Adobe RGB when opening in Photoshop. The soup bowl contains all of the water (colors) from the coffee cup, but has a lot empty space. That empty space represents colors that you didn't capture as sRGB got filled up with color earlier than the Adobe RGB bowl would have been. If you want to have all of the colors available, then capture with the biggest bowl you have available. In this case Adobe RGB. The color gradients will general be smoother with less posterization in those gradients. This shows up a lot in clear blue skies where there might be perceptible changes in the blues rather than smooth blending of the blue hues.

The difference can be noticeable. However, if all you intend to do with your photographs is print a few 8x10s and post to the web, then sRGB might be all that you need. If you want large prints, then you will need a larger colorspace than sRGB.

[Jim Bryant]

But what do the numbers mean, and what is different between Abode RGB and sRGB?
Here's a link that should set ya straight.
The Great sRGB Versus Adobe RGB Debate - Photo Tips @ Earthbound Light

And I still think the advice of Ken Rockwell is do-do
Like everything else he says, take it with a grain of salt.

[oldwolf]

Originally Posted by Jim Bryant

And I still think the advice of Ken Rockwell is do-do
Like everything else he says, take it with a grain of salt.

Forget the grain of salt, I'll get you a wheelbarrow.

[Gulpa]

interesting topic.

I've set my default monitor color to Adobe RGB 1998, the photoshop color setting is sRGB though, because that's the only format my camera can shoot with.

I've read the articles linked in this thread and understand what happens when you view an Adobe RGB image in sRGB color settings.

What happens the other way around? What if my monitor settings are Adobe RGB and am viewing sRGB images?

[sybren]

I'm shooting in sRGB because it's more precise in the skin tone areas. I like photographing people, so that's quite important to me.

[vsa]

Originally Posted by Taallyn

Anything not in sRGB on the net will get converted to sRGB

That's not true. Modern browsers have support for color profiles and therefor can show Adobe RGB images correctly.

[Doug Pardee]

Originally Posted by Taallyn

I use Adobe RGB in my camera and during processing. It is a bigger color space, thus gives me more information to work with.

Both sRGB and Adobe RGB give you the same number of colors to work with: 16,777,216 to be exact. There is not "more information" in an Adobe RGB file.

There are a few scenes where Adobe RGB will give you more accurate information for parts of the scene, because it has color assignments for some extreme shades of dark green, dark cyan, and bright orange-red that sRGB doesn't. But for most photos, there is actually less information in an Adobe RGB file because there are fewer color assignments available for everyday colors.

In practice, the color differences are rarely worth worrying about.

The wider color range of Adobe RGB isn't needed by very many scenes. When you do photograph such a scene, the color shift introduced by compressing it into sRGB isn't noticeable by most people. And most output devices (monitors, printers, and photo labs) can't produce those colors anyway. You need to be using high-end home inkjet equipment to get those unusual colors to show. The Adobe RGB color space was designed for use with CMYK printing presses, so if your photo's going to appear in Sports Illustrated or a magazine ad or something the additional colors might show up there ("stock" photos are typically Adobe RGB).

On the other hand, you probably won't notice the additional color banding that Adobe RGB introduces compared with sRGB, either.

On a practical rather than theoretical note: some cameras, including some Canon DSLRs, assume that if you're shooting Adobe RGB you're looking for accurate colors and if you're shooting sRGB you're looking for pretty colors. Those cameras may intentionally distort the colors in sRGB to make them more attractive—my Canon XT/350D significantly brightens blues and purples, makes greens and yellows a little bit brighter, and makes reds a little bit deeper in sRGB. This is color processing separate from the actual colorspace rendition.

Personally, I believe that for the vast majority of cases, shooting Adobe RGB JPEG is inappropriate. If you care about convenience, you should shoot sRGB JPEG. If you care about color rendition and image quality, you should shoot Raw. Shooting Adobe RGB JPEG gives you the worst of both worlds: you have to post-process every photo just as if you'd shot Raw, but you still have all of the limitations that come from shooting JPEG.

If there's a time when you'd really rather shoot Raw but can't, then shooting Adobe RGB JPEG might be the choice. But for most of us, most of the time, either sRGB JPEG or Raw is the way to go.