LOUIE AGUINALDO PHOTOGRAPHY : PROFESSIONAL PHILIPPINE PHOTOGRAPHER
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    • Adobe RGB vs sRGB
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  • Home
  • About Us
  • Client List
    • Beauty and Cosmetics
    • Corporate
    • Entertainment
    • Fashion
    • Food Companies and Restaurants
    • Jewelers
    • Magazines
    • Places
    • Products and Services
  • Contact Info
  • People Galleries
    • Celebrities
    • Portraits (Black and White)
    • Portraits (In Color)
    • Fashion Gallery
    • Group Portraits
    • Children
  • Corporate Gallery
  • Lifestyle Gallery
  • Beauty Gallery
  • Still Life Galleries (Products)
    • Beauty Products
    • Eyewear Gallery
    • Fashion Products
    • Footwear
    • Electronics
    • Home Products
    • Lifestyle
    • Toys
  • Jewelry Galleries
    • Jewelry
    • Rings
    • Pearls
    • Watches
  • Food Gallery
    • Food
    • Sweets
    • Beverages
  • Places Gallery
  • Ads
  • Covers
  • Miscellaneous
  • Photography Tips
    • Adobe RGB vs sRGB
    • Sizing and Image for Printing
    • Understanding Resolution
    • Gear Talk: Raving over a monitor
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Adobe RGB vs sRGB - what colors space to use?

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The question has often been posted regarding the differences between Adobe RGB and sRGB. To better understand these two color spaces, lets try to see them visually.


 The white diagram represents the sRGB color space. The yellow diagram represents the Adobe RGB color space. Notice that the Adobe RGB color space is much wider. There are more ranges of color, that can be found in the Adobe RGB color space than in sRGB. The advantage is more evident in the blue to green color ranges.

sRGB is the default color space of most digital devices from cameras to scanners to monitors. Although, some devices allow captures to be done using the Adobe RGB color space. This gives you the advantage of being able to capture a wider range (gamut) of color.

To be able to utilize this color advantage, you would have needed to capture your image using the Adobe RGB color space in your DSLR (if your camera is capable of doing so). Or you can achieve this by shooting RAW and converting to Adobe RGB upon post processing. It will not work if you captured an image in sRGB and then convert to Adobe RGB in photoshop. If the colors were not captured to begin with, converting to Adobe RGB will not create those missing colors.

Now the question is when do we use Adobe RGB and sRGB?
The general school of thought is to capture and edit in Adobe RGB, and if necessary, convert to sRGB. Yet, for practical purposes, you might not need to use Adobe RGB in certain situations.

1. If all your images are just to be shown on the web or to be displayed on the computer, Adobe RGB becomes an extra unecessary step. What you see on the web is limited by the color range displayed by monitors. sRGB is a color space based on typical monitors. Thus, if you want colors to be accurately represented, you would need them to be in sRGB. If ever you try to display an Adobe RGB image on the web, you will notice that the colors are very much off.

2. If you are not overly critical about color and will only be printing with Minilabs, then it might be practical to just work within the sRGB color space. Most minilabs are sRGB by default and cannot handle Adobe RGB images. If you try printing an adobe rgb image you will also end up with colors that are off as they will be interpreted as sRGB images.

Let's take a look at the colorspace of a Noritsu Printer, one of the most common among minilab printers.

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The green diagram represents the range of colors a Noritsu Printer is capable of printing on Kodak Royal Silk paper. Take note that it is much smaller than the sRGB color space. Notice also that hardly any uniquely Adobe RGB colors are encompassed by the Noritsu's effective color range. Thus using Adobe RGB for a minilab print would in effect be useless as the color advantage cannot be utilized.

Take note also that since the Noritsu's color gamut is smaller than the sRGB color range, that means that there are many colors that can be captured and viewed on the monitor but cannot be printed. What happens is that the internal color management system of the printer finds a substitute color for these out of gamut colors. This is one important thing that we must take note of when printing our images. Some colors are not capable of being printed.





Using Adobe RGB is advantageous if you are printing with CMYK printers and high end photo printers. Let's take a look at the CMYK color space in relation to Adobe RGB and sRGB color spaces.

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The black diagram represents a standard CMYK color space. In fact, if you check the default color settings in photoshop, the default CMYK color space is what is represented above. Notice that although the CMYK color space is smaller than the sRGB gamut, there are large areas of it that go beyond the color range of sRGB. Yet, the entire CMYK gamut is well within the Adobe RGB range. Thus, when sending an image to be printed via CMYK you can take good advantage of the wider Adobe RGB color space.If you only used sRGB in capturing and editing, then it would have been a waste since there is so much more color that you could have utilized and actually printed.




Although minilabs cannot take advantage of the wider color range of Adobe RGB, professional labs that use Professional printers can do so. Let's take a look at Kodak's top-of-the-line RP 50 LED printer.

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The blue diagram represents the color range that the Kodak Professional RP 50 LED printer is capable of producing on Kodak Professional Brilliance Silk Paper. Notice that the color range is much larger than that of sRGB and even exceeds Adobe RGB in a small area. If you compare it with the earlier image, you will notice that it even has a wider gamut than CMYK. This tells us that such a hi end printer is capable of producing a very wide range of colors. So if you are capturing an image in Adobe RGB, you can actually print more of its colors with such a printer.
Still take note though that it is a smaller color range than Adobe RGB. Thus there are still colors that cannot be printed.

So, if you are critical about colors and plan to have your images sent to the printing press, or printed with high end printers and CMYK printers - stick to Adobe RGB.
If you are just going to display your photos on the web and on your computer, or will just be printing in minilabs, then it might be more practical to stick to sRGB.

One thing that I must caution you when distributing your photos to clients: even if you use Adobe RGB, take care not to give such files to people or clients who don't understand it and would not be able to take advantage of it.
For example: don't give a cd of images all in adobe rgb to your relatives. they will most likely view it on the computer, post it on the web or have it printed in a minilab - they will end up with images with colors that are way off than what you intended.
Convert to sRGB before giving to them.

Take special care if dealing with clients. There are clients who will only use the images for the web or printed only through minilabs. If you give them Adobe RGB images, and they are not familiar with it, expect them to complain why the colors of your images are off. Even worse, they just might not hire you again because your images have bad colors.

I actually had a discussion with someone who was relaying to me a problem they had. They hired a photographer to cover an event. The photographer sent them a CD of images. This client was bothered that the images had not very good colors and asked me to comment on them. I then found out that the reason the colors were off was because they had the photos printed in a minilab. The photographer failed to explain to the client that the files are in Adobe RGB and need special handling. I then tried to explain to this person that the photos had good colors but it was in Adobe RGB. Unfortunately, trying to explain something technical to someone who is only interested in results did not help. She said the bottom line was that the photographer should have delivered a ready to use product. Thus, be careful!


SUMMARY

Use sRGB when
1. photos will be used for the web
2. photo will be printed at minilabs
3. you are not critical about colors 

Use Adobe RGB when you are critical about colors and
1. you are printing with CMYK (printing press)
2. you are printing with inkjet printers
3. you are printing with a professional lab 
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