Colours not the same after uploading?

[ErikUngerPhotography]

Originally Posted by OsmosisStudios

Did in my first post: sRGB

Just curious, why sRGB?

[OsmosisStudios]

Originally Posted by ErikUngerPhotography

Just curious, why sRGB?

sRGB is the standard. That's what the "S" stands for. It's what manufacturer's and programmers and printers use as a base reference so that they can all talk to eachother without things all looking WAY out of wack.

By using sRGB, youre sure to keep your files along the same lines as everyone else's "stuff" (monitors, printers, software, etc). It might not be perfect (spoiler: it wont), but at least things have a common reference point to work from.

[ErikUngerPhotography]

I've just always heard to work in the widest color gamut and then convert for what you are exporting the image for.

Jerry Courvoisier

When determining which color space is preferred, ask yourself what the output of the file exported for external editing will be. I normally pick the native color space in which Lightroom predominantly processes raw images, which is ProPhoto RGB. ProPhoto RGB is a very large source color space supporting the most potential colors for processing images for today’s 6-, 8-, and 12-color inkjet printers. Adobe 1998 is certainly a good choice as well, with the color space supporting a wide range of color outputs in the inkjet and 4-color offset press area (books, brochures, and so forth). sRGB is the smallest color space, designed for working primarily with digital slide show projection and the Web. The color management discussion can become confusing with all the choices, but Lightroom does most of the color management internally and only allows the user to make decisions about which space to use when exporting the image(s) out of the application. If an image already has a color space profile, Lightroom honors the profile when importing.

http://lightroomsecrets.com

Three color spaces are available in the Color Space drop-down: ProPhoto RGB, AdobeRGB (1998), and sRGB. ProPhoto RGB is a larger color space then AdobeRGB (1998). sRGB is even smaller. Depending on what your final destination is for the image, you should choose a color space that will preserve the image’s color quality. I believe it’s best to preserve as much data as possible until you are ready for your final output.

Jerry Courvoisier was a consultant to Adobe and was involved in working with LR3. I worked with him over the summer and he was a strong proponent of working in the widest gamut throughout your workflow and only converting for what the final product needed.

[OsmosisStudios]

Sorry, but Jerry seems to be living in the past.

Using the largest colour space is all well and good, but when you have to re-edit the image (when you convert to sRGB, CMYK, or whatever else), its a complete waste of time.

[ErikUngerPhotography]

I think I will take Jerry's word over your yours. Not sure what re-editing you are talking about? There is no noticeable difference unless you keep constantly changing the color space of the master file over and over. Are you sure you aren't referring to assigning a profile?

Every professional I have worked with will always tell you to work in the maximum color space to preserve as much info as you can. Why make a master file sRGB when you may want to print it at its best quality?

Now I can understand if the only thing you are going to do with your photos is to put them up on the web, or print them with a very basic printer that isn't meant for photographic prints, then sure, do everything in sRGB. But if you have the intent of printing your images at their best quality, you will want your entire workflow to be in the widest gamut you know you need.

[teaking]

Crom what I have discovered over time working with raw files means a higher bit depth which means no gamma correction and no colour space so if we render the image into a wide gamut ie pro photo the graduations between colours are preserved better. When your happy with the raw converting perceptually to an rgb colour space which has gamma correction means you keeo a better relationship between tones as its a smaller colour space and less bit depth this stops the banding issue of larger colour spaces when pushing tones too far.

If you are going to use larger colour spaces use higher bit depths and be aware of colour management. If your not sure stick with srgb.

And thats all I have learnt up to now

[JudiRose]

Erik, I'm so glad to see you write this. I'm very new to photography and just as new to post processing. Virtually all of our photos are sent to family members via e-mail and to online forums. I was really concerned about this because I process on a laptop and my sister sometimes gets my photos and they look very different from how they look on my computer. I was concerned about this, but didn't know what to do.

Judi