(Color) Space ... The Final Frontier ~

There are few subjects in photography less well-understood by the average shooter. Color Space. Or Gamut. It's an understanding of the range of colors a given device, like a camera, can "see" and record, or what a printer may be able to produce. Obviously you don't need to be an expert on color (I certainly don't claim to be) to be a good photographer, but since our digital cameras want us to make a decision on which color space to shoot in, we should try to distill down a few of the essentials here to better understand what we're doing.

In other words, what on earth is the difference between using sRGB and Adobe RGB??

Most of what we shoot will be viewed on a monitor, either as we share our photos or post them to a website. This world sees in sRGB; shooting in this mode generally reproduces better saturation, particularly in the reds (at one end of the spectrum) and the deep violets (at the other). But why? Isn't Adobe RGB a larger color space?
Technically yes, it is, but it doesn't actually make more colors, it spreads those colors over a wider area. Since our monitor "sees" these colors in the smaller, more compressed sRGB space, those reds and violets get "cut off" and the program we're viewing the image in has to figure out on its own what those colors are. As a result, you end up with images that, by comparison, looked a bit washed-out. The reds don't pop, everything can look a little flat.

Alright, so when do we use Adobe RGB? I have usually recommended this to dentists who were shooting for high-quality shade matching, and working with labs that were using software which took advantage of this color gamut. It's also preferred when you're making custom prints and likewise are familiar with the imaging and printing software involved; typically you'd be shooting RAW files to fully take advantage of this. (A topic for a new blog post!). So, as I've always said, there's no more effective tool than communication. Work with your lab to see how they would prefer the image files you send them.

Are you getting the color quality you want in all your shots? You might not be, and maybe it's because you're not shooting in the appropriate color space. Check it out.

And let me know. I'd love to hear what's been working for you!

later, amigos!         Dave                      dhutt@dmddigitalphoto.com