Digital photography - Which colour space is best?

N

Nyssa ♥

New member
I just got a DSLR and I've been playing around with it a bit. I was wondering which colour space is best. I've always noticed that the photos I take look quite different on the computer monitor than when printed. Is it because of colour space settings?

Adobe RGB
or
sRGB

What is the difference between the two when photographing, viewing on a computer monitor, and printing? Which is better to use?
So in situations where a regular inkjet/laserjet printing method is used, sRGB is best?

I tried an experiment where I took 2 of the same photo, with the different colour space settings. They looked different on my computer but printed the same off my printer - according to Wikipedia, the printer colour space is smaller than both sRGB and Adobe RGB - does this mean that sRGB is simply a better representation of what results you get with average printing process?
 
Design studios and agencies spend a lot of money trying to match their monitors with their printer's out put. And, by their printer's, I also mean their print service bureaus.

It can be done, but it means some relatively expensive hardware and software. And, monitors have to be recalibrated periodically, plus, every time they get a new monitor, it has to be done again. The fact is, that even in a room full of monitors, purchased at the same time, from the same manufacturer, will not all show colors exactly the same. Heck, you can tweak your own monitor's controls and affect what colors you see.

Walk into an appliance store and look at the rows and banks of televisions, all tuned to the same station. You can clearly see the differences in all the sets. Same thing with computer monitors.

Regarding inkjet printing: All inkjet printer drivers will have to convert the RGB images into CMYK gamut. Some split the channels even farther with an extra cyan and an extra magenta channel. Very FEW RGB monitor images make the transition to CMYK 100% intact. You have to expect some gamut drift.

In fact, the RGB color gamut is larger than the CMYK gamut. (It displays more colors than CMYK can print)

If you are strictly working with your own printer, you will, eventually, learn to compensate certain colors so that they come out as you like them off of the printer. If the images are done offsite, by someone else's printer, well, that just adds another variable.
 
Design studios and agencies spend a lot of money trying to match their monitors with their printer's out put. And, by their printer's, I also mean their print service bureaus.

It can be done, but it means some relatively expensive hardware and software. And, monitors have to be recalibrated periodically, plus, every time they get a new monitor, it has to be done again. The fact is, that even in a room full of monitors, purchased at the same time, from the same manufacturer, will not all show colors exactly the same. Heck, you can tweak your own monitor's controls and affect what colors you see.

Walk into an appliance store and look at the rows and banks of televisions, all tuned to the same station. You can clearly see the differences in all the sets. Same thing with computer monitors.

Regarding inkjet printing: All inkjet printer drivers will have to convert the RGB images into CMYK gamut. Some split the channels even farther with an extra cyan and an extra magenta channel. Very FEW RGB monitor images make the transition to CMYK 100% intact. You have to expect some gamut drift.

In fact, the RGB color gamut is larger than the CMYK gamut. (It displays more colors than CMYK can print)

If you are strictly working with your own printer, you will, eventually, learn to compensate certain colors so that they come out as you like them off of the printer. If the images are done offsite, by someone else's printer, well, that just adds another variable.
 
Adobe RGB is what is used for producing images destined for publications or any printed material in which colour separations are used to later be printed using an offset press.

sRGB is what is used when the image is destined for publishing on websites and making photographic prints
 
If you shoot Jpeg you are using sRGB as does your monitor unless you have a very expensive one. The older CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) monitors will be sRGB, most LCD monitors have a norrower colour gamut, but they are improving all the time.

Some of the more up to date R series Epson printers can reproduce the wider colour gamut of Adobe RGB which will give you brighter blues and reds which is why they have the extra cartridges to accommodate it. Adobe RGB will not be the default setting you have to select it from the driver, Epson assume you are using Jpeg which is only 8bit and for Adobe RGB you need 10bit at least.

You can only take advantage of the wider colour palette of Adobe RGB by printing yourself and using Tiff or PSD as your saved format or using a commercial printer that can handle Tiffs, and even here their printers might still be sRGB, but an increasing amount of commercial printers are offering the Adobe colour space.

There are not many things in nature that require the Adobe colour space may be a few bright red flowers. With man made items such as brightly painted objects, bright red or blue anoraks etc. it will make a difference to prints of these.

Chris
 
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