Benefits of AdobeRGB over sRGB?

growse · 24 Jul 2006 at 20:51

Following on from the calibration thread, I've a few quesitons. Actually, I lie, I'm going to waffle for a bit, and someone can correct me.

I currently have my camera set to sRGB. Does this mean that every picture I take when printed on a printer with the same profile will match the colours correctly? If so, I'm assuming that if I have my monitor set on sRGB as well, then the colours will match properly between what I see on the monitor and what the camera recorded. Therefore, is there any reason to set my monitor to anything other than sRGB? Why do monitor manufacturers produce their own monitor profiles?

At a guess, if I have my monitor set to my_special_profile, then an sRGB image will look different until it is converted to use the same profile as my monitor. But, then no-one else will see it as the same colours on, say, the web, because they're all using a different profile? Is the best option to set the monitor to sRGB and be done with it?

Finally, when i go to print my photo, I should convert my photo to the colourspace used by the printer. That will, I assume, show me the colours that the printer will print it as, translated into whatever profile my screen is using? Does that mean I save two files, one adjusted for web display and one for printing?

Apologies for this, I've read a few articles and never quite got this one figure it out. If someone could explain using short words, that would be fab.

Thanks

nomore · 24 Jul 2006 at 21:59

I believe that AdobeRGB has a wider/larger gamut, therefore you can produce subtler graduations with a wider reach in in hue...

...but I better leave it to the experts.

Here's a great article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absolute_color_space

and more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colour_space

growse · 25 Jul 2006 at 00:22

Ok, so I've calibrated my monitor using the manufacturer profile as a base. I'm assuming that Adobe Gamma when it's run will colour manage everything I see on my screen specifically for the screen. So now, I'm guessing when I save RAW images out as JPEG, I should save it in the sRGB colourspace, and then set sRGB to be my working colourspace in photoshop. Then, if I ever come to print anything, I should change the working space to that of the printer, and make any adjustments for printing from that.

Seem correct?

nomore · 25 Jul 2006 at 00:35

Yes, seems correct. You don't have to change the colour space though, Photoshop has a Proofing system where you can select a profile, and it will show you what the image will look like with that profile without having to convert anything.

growse · 25 Jul 2006 at 00:36

Sure, just that if I wanted to adjust the levels differently for printing, then working in that colourspace seems easiest