There's been some discussion on the POTN forum about
colour space, profiles,
colour management etc and whether or not to use
sRGB or
Adobe RGB (I'll refer to it here as aRGB). The forum there is predominantly Canon-based, and I notice that the majority of DSLR users here use Canon also. I don't know enough about other brands like Nikon, Pentax, Sony etc but those users may find this thread useful too.[1]
The advice over there is that if you have to ask the question "What colourspace should I use?", then you should set everything (camera and software) to sRGB. Yes, if you shoot RAW, and you should be, you can change it later.
The reasons for this advice seem to be, in no particular order:
- The Canon manuals suggest this unless you are using printers that are capable of utilising the larger
gamut that aRGB provides.
- If you set everything to the one colour space, you don't have to think about it and make it part of your workflow. Less chance of doing it wrong.
- sRGB is more widely used by printers and software. Unless you know that your lab/printer uses aRGB, they'll likely convert to sRGB anyway.
- Most of us will be processing for web display and standard printers only.
Time to point out that the above discussions are for normal "terrestrial" photography. Many of us here are using modified cameras to catch light outside the visible spectrum. I'm yet to find out whether or not this affects any of the recommendations above. I'll report back when I do.
I did a quick search here on IIS, noticed that some are using aRGB for their workflow, and wondered if there is a reason for it beyond the recommendations above.
So, what colour space do you use? And why?
[1] Disclaimer - I am not an expert on colour management. Just thought I'd share what I've taken away from some reading up on it recently.