sRGB vs Adobe RGB ...... aargh!

[jojo]

Hello everyone,
Please can somebody help unscramble my brain

Autumn's thread, "A Breath of Spring" has prompted me to post this (didn't know whether to put it in Colour Management or Printer Probs - so here it is in General Disc !

If you shoot in sRGB then this produces the best colours for viewing on the web/email ?

Now, if you shoot in Adobe RGB you get a wider colour gamut (of the greens/blues) and I understand that this is better for printing(?) but colours in general look flatter when viewed on the web/email? (So if shooting in Adobe RGB how do get around the post-production editing if what you see on the monitor is not what gets printed?)

Is there a way you can exploit both?

I am having terrible trouble trying to get my home prints to look anything like they do on my calibrated monitor unless I let the printer manage all aspects of the colour handling/print management and even then I think it could be better. Also, am I correct in thinking that on-line printers, eg Photobox only print using the sRGB profile, so there's no point in using Adobe RGB if you get your prints from them. I'm using CS3 and my printer is a HP PSC 2355.

If anyone can shed some light on it in a not too high techie manner I would be eternally grateful.

Ta very much,

jo

[Ian]

Re: sRGB vs Adobe RGB ...... aargh!

First of all, it's important that the colour space your image is set to is the same as the colour space your editing program is set to and your printer too.

Photoshop should normally be set to warn you if there is a mismatch between the colour space of the image and the working space in the program.

If your printer doesn't support Adobe RGB specifically, you may either get it profiled to support it or get your editing program to convert the image profile from Adobe to sRGB. In Photoshop, that's File > Edit > Convert to Profile...

Ian

[jojo]

Re: sRGB vs Adobe RGB ...... aargh!

Thanks Ian, however on the Edit drop down menu, what do I set "Colour Setting" and "Assign Profile" to, and on the "Convert to Profile" what should the "Destination Space" be I'm going to leave the camera in set to sRGB (at least for the time being!)

Cheers,
jo

[Ian]

Re: sRGB vs Adobe RGB ...... aargh!

If you are shooting RAW, you can switch to either Adobe or sRGB at the time you process your image in your RAW software. If you are only shooting JPEG, I'd probably shoot in Adobe space and then, if you aren't sure your printer can deal with Adobe space, convert to sRGB (that's the destination space) before printing and for producing email or web graphics.

Ian

[DTD]

Re: sRGB vs Adobe RGB ...... aargh!

I usually shoot in RAW.

It's normal to have to produce several versions of the same image for different uses such as printing, website and submitting to magazines.
As jojo says online printers such as PhotoBox want sRGB jpgs, magazines want Adobe RGB TIFFs.

Applications such as Apple Aperture make producing several versions of the same image easier to manage.

[Stephen]

Re: sRGB vs Adobe RGB ...... aargh!

Thanks Ian, however on the Edit drop down menu, what do I set "Colour Setting" and "Assign Profile" to, and on the "Convert to Profile" what should the "Destination Space" be I'm going to leave the camera in set to sRGB (at least for the time being!)

Cheers,
jo

Personally and for simplicity's sake I keep things in the sRGB space to be begin with. In the colour settings dialogue set sRGB and this becomes the Working colour space in the Assign Profile dialogue. You can put Adobe 1998 as the Profile drop down menu if you want so you can easily change if you want. If you are already using Adobe 1998 colour space and you want the picture for the web, then in the Convert to Profile change to sRGB and it retains the the more vibrant colours

[peter]

Re: sRGB vs Adobe RGB ...... aargh!

I have been reading a book over the last few days about colour management and must admit a lot of it went straight over the top of my head . The way I see it is I should have the camera,photoshop set to Adobe RGB and when I want to print The printer should let photoshop set the colours. Also if I just want to post on the web I should change the files to sRGB. I think that is right. Now for the hard bit in photoshop what should all the colour setting be set to .

[jojo]

Re: sRGB vs Adobe RGB ...... aargh!

Thank you everybody - I'll trial some of the suggestions. Oh, and Peter, if you can work out the PS colour settings, that would be mighty fine too! (so glad it's not just me!)

Cheers,
Jo

[Pol]

Re: sRGB vs Adobe RGB ...... aargh!

Thank you everybody - I'll trial some of the suggestions. Oh, and Peter, if you can work out the PS colour settings, that would be mighty fine too! (so glad it's not just me!)

Cheers,
Jo

I've taken some screenshots of my own CS3 colour settings so I hope that might help.

I keep the cameras set for sRGB, also do almost everything else sRGB, which makes life more simple. However - you can easily assign Adobe RGB to any RAW file or jpeg by simply using the "convert to profile" settings at a later date.

I'm attaching grabs of my colour setting and also the profile windows.

Pol

[jojo]

Re: sRGB vs Adobe RGB ...... aargh!

Thanks for those Pol - seeing it in "black & white" really helps clarify things (I'll definitely be printing hard copies for future reference!)

Cheers,
Jo

[DTD]

Re: sRGB vs Adobe RGB ...... aargh!

This tutorial might help:

http://www.computer-darkroom.com/ps10_print/ps10_print_1.htm

[peter]

Re: sRGB vs Adobe RGB ...... aargh!

Ok so this really is a minefield. I pick up a mag this morning which has a two page article on printing. The settings in this just do not seem to match what pol or dtd have put forward. This is the way its set up in the mag.

colour settings

work space

RGB/ Adobe RGB(199

CMYK/ coated FORGA27(ISO 12647-2:2004)

Gray/ Dot Gain 15%

Spot/ Dot Gain 15%

Colour Management policies

RGB/ Preserve Embedded Profiles

CMYK/ Preserve Embedded Profiles

Gray/ Preserve Embedded Profiles

Now this is where it all seems to get mixed up to me. Like the CMYK setting it seems you have so many choices how do you know which is right or not.

[jojo]

Re: sRGB vs Adobe RGB ...... aargh!

.... and do you know what the HP techie man at Focus 2008 told me today? (having shown him some example prints I took up with me) "I think the printer is perhaps not sophisticated enough to deal with files that have been through PS CS3" (or words to that effect). Now, I really don't think he was trying do a sales jobbie on me, but surely, all things being equal, sRGB is sRGB whether it's been through PS or MS Digital Suite Should I give up now and take up flower arranging instead Sorry, I'm getting all tired and emotional now - it's been a long day and only a 6" Subway to keep me going

jo

[himmelblau]

Re: sRGB vs Adobe RGB ...... aargh!

I have limited experience on this subject and know that the following is going to complicate things further. However, I have just found out about ProPhoto RGB; to simplify matters read Understanding ProPhoto RGB from The Luminous Landscape website.


Brian

[19ninety]

Re: sRGB vs Adobe RGB ...... aargh!

Now that actually helped me alot. Since getting my 400D I have wondered about the sRGB and Adobe RGB option on the settings. I also wondered about some areas of some images, when I was messing round with RAW files, came our solid blue or red - gamut clipping.