 Joan E. Herwig |
Which Color Space to Shoot In? I have a Nikon D700. I have chosen to shoot in 14 bit Raw. Now which color space is the best to shoot in - sRGB or Adobe RGB?
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Kay Beausoleil |
Joan, sRGB is much more limited in colour scope than Adobe RGB. If you're taking the trouble to shoot in RAW, I'd strongly suggest Adobe RGB. You can always save a version of your image in sRGB later in Photoshop (if posting online, for instance), but you can't go from sRGB to Adobe.
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Joan E. Herwig |
Thank you so much, Kay. Then in Raw Conversion would you process in ProPhoto because it is the largest color space? Would you, after the Raw Conversion, then process in Adobe RGB in Photoshop? I think Lightroom processes in ProPhoto doesn't it?
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Christopher R. Gray |
"I have a Nikon D700, I have chosen to shoot in 14 bit RAW" General rule of thumb is if you shoot Raw, then the minimum ought to be Adobe RGB. However, if you use any Adobe products like Photoshop, Lightroom, etc., you should seriously consider ProPhoto. ProPhoto, as stated before, is the largest colour space available. It is also starting to be the colour space of the future meaning it won't be long before you can get printers that with 16 bit can produce the full scope of ProPhoto. ProPhoto also maintains the original Raw file so at any time in the future you can go back the it. There are lots of opinions on the Web regarding ProPhoto. I have yet to find one that says the colour space is not warranted or creditable. Just my comments.
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Joan E. Herwig |
Thanks a lot, Christopher, for your good advice about ProPhoto! I really appreciate your help!
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Pamela Njemanze |
Most printers will require sRGB. So if you have to convert anyway, why not just shoot in sRGB to start? Here is an article given to me by a professional photographer. http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/adobe-rgb.htm hope that helps :)
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Christopher R. Gray |
Pamela With respect, the Rockwell article is 2006 and many things have changed. Go to the printer sites themselves and see what they say. If you print yourself, your processing software should control the colour management. It is not a good idea to to let your printer set the colour management.
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Joan E. Herwig |
Thanks Pam & Christopher!
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Kay Beausoleil |
Joan, you hadn't asked about ProPhoto, so I didn't mention it, but my camera is set to ProPhoto and so is my workspace in PS (I don't use Lightroom). I save copies of my ProPhoto originals in other colour spaces (AbodeRGB, sRGB) if and when needed only. And shooting in Raw allows you to use any format later, whereas JPEG doesn't.
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Koen Van den Beld |
If you shoot RAW the colour space you set in the camera doesn't matter. The information in the RAW file is as the name suggests RAW data and there is not yet a convertion curve applied to the data. This happens when you do the RAW conversion and at that moment you can choose whatever you want or even convert to all of them, whenever you want. So you if you change your mind and you want to use the photo again in a year or so you just convert to another colour space. The difference between AdobeRGB and sRGB is not that big. AdobeRGB is a bit better for landscapes as it has a bigger range of green but for most images there is no visible difference. It is also not true that you cannot convert from sRGB to AdobeRGB. The best colour space is the one that suites the application best. The colour space of ProPhoto is so big that no printer can print it and no monitor can display it. Basically you are wasting a lot of bits for nothing.
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Joan E. Herwig |
Thanks Koen. You confirmed some things I had heard or read from other sources.
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Rainer and Simone Hoffmann |
Hi Koen, you wrote: "Basically you are wasting a lot of bits for nothing." I'm afraid, you are confusing "Color Space" and "Bit Depth" here. These are completely different things. It is possible to assign any color space to a file, no matter what bit depth it has. The file size however depends on the bit depth. Basically a 16 bit file is twice as large as a 8 bit file, regardles of the color space. Of course, you can convert a file with a small color space (e.g. sRGB) into a large color space (e.g. ProPhotoRGB). However, this does not make much sense. The colors that are not in the original color space will not be present in the converted file. Personally I work in the largest possible color space. Only when the file is printed, the conversion into the appropriate target color space takes place. Greetings Rainer
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Joan E. Herwig |
Thanks Rainer! I am choosing to do my photo processing in ProPhoto & then covert to Adobe if I want to save it for printing and to sRGB if I am emailing or posting it on my website. Does this sound right? What color space do you shoot in? I think my camera only offers sRGB or Adobe. So I am shooting in Adobe, but then as you say does going up to a bigger color space such as ProPhoto in my RAW converter make any sense?
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Rainer and Simone Hoffmann |
Hi Joan, your workflow sounds right to me. If you are shooting RAW you don't assign the color space in the camera but in the RAW converter. So it doesn't really matter which color space your camera is set to. That setting affects only the JPGs generated by the camera. The original RAW file has no color space assigned. Only when you convert the file to TIF of JPG or whatever format you should asssign a color space (for color management purposes). So, it does make sense to use ProPhotoRGB in your RAW converter. Greetings Rainer
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Joan E. Herwig |
Thanks Rainer!
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