Adobe RGB or sRGB

PaulStat · 29 Jul 2010 at 12:56

I'm interested to see what settings people have on their cameras, Adobe RGB or sRGB.

And why use one over the other? Not sure I understand the benefits

rpstewart · 29 Jul 2010 at 13:03

Adobe RGB has a wider colour gamut so should give a more faithful image. A lot of applications can only show the sRGB colour space so can give odd results with other colour spaces.

Generally the advice is to shoot in AdobeRGB and only use sRGB for web display.

Messiah Khan · 29 Jul 2010 at 13:10

Depends on your output. For the screen, stick with sRGB as many monitors are unable to display the gamut of AdobeRGB and you would end up with something called gamut clipping where the images would look flat and desaturated. If it's for print, go with AdobeRGB as most printers have a wider gamut than screens.

sketch145 · 29 Jul 2010 at 13:16

I agree with the above although some printers (DSCL for example) will ask for a sRGB.

If you shoot RAW you can convert to either so I tend to leave it on sRGB.

ChazHurst · 29 Jul 2010 at 14:29

I've always thought:

Adobe RGB was developed in the days of CRT screens, and so uses the levels appropriate for that display medium.

sRGB is a reduced colour gamut suitable for LCD's.

Adrianr · 29 Jul 2010 at 17:26

ChazHurst said:
I've always thought:

Adobe RGB was developed in the days of CRT screens, and so uses the levels appropriate for that display medium.

sRGB is a reduced colour gamut suitable for LCD's.

Not really. Adobe RGB was created to be a colour space that covered all common CMYK press gamuts but for RGB display on screen for proofing. sRGB was made because it's roughly what a standard 8bit workflow would produce if left unchanged.

ChazHurst · 29 Jul 2010 at 18:53

ah ok, makes sense I suppose.

I've always gone sRGB since I got my first LCD. Seemed to sit better on screen, across all apps!

Hank_Marvin · 30 Jul 2010 at 14:47

I get my prints done at photobox and they require sRGB images

this_is_gav · 31 Jul 2010 at 09:20

Loxley like their images in sRGB too.

Adrianr · 31 Jul 2010 at 09:46

An sRGB workflow is a sound plan purely because it's very much the lowest common denominator all things considered. Just means if you can get it looking good in sRGB you can get it looking good in or on pretty much anything.

That said, you should be shooting RAW if your camera allows (which I assume it does if you have a colourspace option), which has it's own gamut. The question should be which should I develop into when processing RAW files.

Personally I work in Adobe RGB, because I have a very accurate wide gamut monitor which pretty much removes all surprises and because almost everything I retouch is destined for print. I also prefer having my master file as the best quality from which I can make lesser copies if needs be.