Working Color Spaces In Lightroom

[lostinasia]

Hello everybody,

Hi all,

In the options of the program, at the external editors' section, I have seen two drop-down menus that allow for the choice of the working color spaces, namely Adobe, RGB and Pro Photo RGB.

Reading over the internet I learned that some professionals consider the latter as the new standard to adopt when working with photos.

This prompts my question: does it really make sense to switch to Pro Photo RGB, when my camera can only take photos using RGB and Adobe color spaces?

Shouldn't I try and minimize the number of color profile conversions to preserve the overall quality of the photo or doesn't the conversion affect it?

What in-camera, LR and Photoshop settings should I then adopt?

Thank you in advance for your replies.

[fletch]

Do you shoot RAW? If so then the colour space you set in camera has absolutely no affect on the image at all so you can ignore it. The colour space is applied at the demozaicing stage and Lightroom does this for a RAW file.

Lightrooms working colour space is ProPhoto RGB. This means that all of its RAW algorithums work in this colour space, it is only when you export a photo from Lightroom that another colour space can be applied.

As for what to use in photoshop you will find lots of differing opinions, some will say ProPhoto, some will say Adobe RGB and other will say stick to sRGB as its all your monitor can display anyway. My view is you can't go far wrong with Adobe or ProPhoto, just make sure you use sRGB for any images that are going to be used outside of any colour managed workflow. That means everything you post to the web.

[lostinasia]

Thank you for your reply, Fletch.

So if I understand correctly, as long as I shoot RAW, the in-camera settings related to color space don't matter and when shooting JPEG, Adobe is better than sRGB, being the former a wider gamut than the latter.

During post-processing in Photoshop, either ProPhoto or Adobe color spaces are fine, provided I ultimately convert the photo into sRGB when exporting.

So I assume that as long as I keep the workflow within LR (from RAW to final export) I don't have to worry about the color space at all, save the usual sRGB conversion at the very end.

Thank you again for your clarity =)

JD

[teaking]

Colour space is a confusing area if your main output is going to be sRGB I would say stick with sRGB through the whole process as some colours you achieve in aRGB wont be in the sRGB colour space when you convert it wont look as bright it could look dull. aRGB achieves a wider gamut by spacing out the distance between each colour compared to sRGB so to get its advantages working with RAW is a key factor as is a colour managed workflow and soft proofing, but if done correctly you should get brighter colours well thats the theory. I wouldnt suggest converting back to sRGB though unless its for the web as then you have lost the benefit of working in the wider colour space.

[fletch]

Originally Posted by lostinasia

So if I understand correctly, as long as I shoot RAW, the in-camera settings related to color space don't matter

Correct

Originally Posted by lostinasia

and when shooting JPEG, Adobe is better than sRGB, being the former a wider gamut than the latter.

In basic terms yes. As teaking mentions you do need to be a bit careful when you convert to sRGB though so a completely sRGB workflow is simpler to manage and you have to have very high spec printers and/or monitors to get the most out of AdoveRGB

Originally Posted by lostinasia

During post-processing in Photoshop, either ProPhoto or Adobe color spaces are fine, provided I ultimately convert the photo into sRGB when exporting.

Yep

Originally Posted by lostinasia

So I assume that as long as I keep the workflow within LR (from RAW to final export) I don't have to worry about the color space at all, save the usual sRGB conversion at the very end.

That is how it works. Lightroom doesn't have soft proofing so even if you wanted to worry about it you couldn't!

Originally Posted by lostinasia

Thank you again for your clarity =)

JD

No problem, happy to help.

[lostinasia]

Thank for your reply, Teaking.

If I understand correctly, you suggest I stick to sRGB for the whole process if my final goal is exporting for the web, whereas I should consider aRGB if my purpose is printing.

Another question: if I don't convert the image to sRGB, because let's say I want to archive it and leave it in aRGB, may I appreciate the wider gamut on a normal computer screen by just changing the color profile in the operating system/application, or do I need a different kind of screen?

Thank you again for your insight.

JD

[lostinasia]

Thank you for your reply, Fletch.

If I may, I have another question for you:

Originally Posted by fletch

As teaking mentions you do need to be a bit careful when you convert to sRGB though so a completely sRGB workflow is simpler to manage and you have to have very high spec printers and/or monitors to get the most out of AdobeRGB

Is the profile conversion in Photoshop good enough for this purpose? How should I change its settings for a decent ordinary-screen-oriented conversion (there is relative colorimetric, absolute, perceptual....)?

Thank you again.

JD

[teaking]

No Problems JD,

Yes I would suggest staying with sRGB if your end goal is web or home printing, if you know your printers accept aRGB then I would stay with fletch’s advice it seems sound.

You wont be able to see the wider gamut on your screen properly well not as well as on an expensive monitor for that purpose but you should see brighter colours so if you need accurate colour representation of aRGB then you may want to look at a wider gamut monitor. You would usually have a calibrated monitor profile set in your operating system, and the colour space your working in is set in the application your working in which is a part of a colour managed workflow.

As for conversions I would suggest using perceptual and seeing how the colours convert if not to your liking then try one of the other options. Sometimes you just wont get a perfect representation and you may have to apply a curves adjustment to the original and convert again or further editing and decide if you want a more gradual colour gradient or more contrast and edit the colours with that in mind theres no perfect colour conversion method and some photos just don’t want to work lol Hopefuly fletch can help you on this a bit more than I can.

[fletch]

Originally Posted by teaking

Hopefuly fletch can help you on this a bit more than I can.

No chance - I'm at the limit of my knowledge now. There are lots of usefull resourced linked from the Flickr Lightroom group though as they get questions on colour management all of the time.

Link here: Flickr: Discussing FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) in Adobe Lightroom

[lostinasia]

Thank you Fletch and Teaking (in strictly alphabetical order )

I think I got a good starting point here.

@Fletch: thank you very much for your insight. I wish my knowledge were half as "limited" ! :-)

@teaking: I will follow your suggestion. After a bit of experimenting, I am confident I can find the right workflow.

Thank you both again.

JD