sRGB, aRGB more like

WHAT R G B YOU TALKING ABOUT!

In all my years of life I have never come across something that equals the complexity, misinformation and confusion that color spaces do even though they are extremely easy to understand.

So in total lightenupandshoot style we are going to iron it out for you guys and gals once and for all.

To do this we will have to start at the beginning.

We begin with ICC. ICC is short for INTERNATIONAL COLOR CONVENTION. ICC’S where invented because of the absurd amount of different equipment that is available on the market today. Just think about it for a moment, how many different printers, monitors, cameras, scanners are available today. Not only are there a bazillion brands, each brand has a bazillion models. So how on earth are we going to be able to have balance or communication between all of these since they are all different….YES, you got it, with good o’le ICC’S.

An ICC is just a standard that maintains each device communicating well with each other. So that they are not playing broken telephone and messing up your images.

It is a way for your image to talk to your monitor, printer, scanner and so on. These profiles or ICC’S make sure that when your image says this is RED, your monitor displays red, your printer prints RED and your TV shows RED. The ICC is basically the instructions in a big paint by numbers game. The ICC is going to take your image and translate it to the correct language your monitor, printer, camera, scanner and so on are speaking.

Ok, so what language is your camera, printer, monitor and scanner talking. Well in short the language is called Color Profiles. There are a ton of color profiles, but in Photography the two most popular Color Profiles are called sRGB and Adobe RGB 1998. Yes, we know there are a million more you’ve heard about, ProPhoto RGB, APPLE RGB, HASSELBLAD RGB, but let’s not worry about those right now since all it will do is confuse this topic even more.

sRGB and Adobe RGB are it!

The Color space is your color capturing ability, your color displaying ability and your color printing ability. When you set your cameras color space you are basically saying, please only capture these colors that are available in this color space. So obviously we want the biggest color space available. Why on earth would we want to miss out on beautiful colors. But the biggest is NOT always the answer.

Yeah your heard me ladies, bigger is not always better!

Well, this is where the confusion starts but do not worry my lads, this is lightenupandshoot.

So what color space do you choose, well it comes down to one simple question "how are your images are going to be used but most importantly reproduced?"

sRGB is the smaller color space. The “s” really stands for Serial (some people say Standard, but it’s scientifically incorrect but I see why they say standard, it just makes more sense), but you know we like to change stuff around here so it matches our mentalities a little better. So lightenupandshoot style, the “s” stands for SMALLER! This way you can remember it easier.

sRGB is technically the inferior color space simply because of its size (stop grinning ladies) but it doesn’t mean it’s not the right choice for you!

First of all, sRGB is going to give you the best results directly from the camera. So if you are NOT into post processing or don’t feel like post processing, sRGB is the one for you. The colors in the sRGB are more punchy and saturated. +1 sRGB

ROLL YOUR MOUSE OVER THE IMAGE TO SEE THE DIFFERENCE WITH ADOBERGB

Second, sRGB is going to give you the best results on your computer monitor or TV. If you are taking photos that are not going to be printed and only shown on the web or a dvd, sRGB is for you since most computer monitors and TV’s are defaulted to the sRGB Color Profile. +1 sRGB

Third, printing. I know I just said that they are the best for web or dvd so why printing. Well this is a fork in the road. If you are printing at home or a commercial lab, sRGB is for you. sRGB is the standard for most commercial labs and home printers, so if you don’t have the labs color space and so on. Using sRGB will mean that your results will be consistent and that your image will communicate perfectly with your printer. +1 sRGB

Are you convinced yet? Well hold on a minute because here are the downsides of using sRGB.

Since it is a smaller color space you are capturing less colors so this can be very bad, especially when we bring it into the computer and start manipulating colors. Since we have less colors to play with, the image might suffer (MIGHT SHOULD BE CAPITALIZED).

So know that you know about sRGB let’s get into the larger color space called Adobe RGB 1998

As stated Adobe RGB 1998 is the larger color space. Although it is the larger color space, the difference is barely visible to the human eye. But it is the standard for commercial publishers and users. Since it captures the most amount of colors, for commercial projects it is the best. +1 aRGB

If you are a RAW shooter (although RAW doesn't actually have a color space), Adobe RGB is going to provide you with the best results since RAW images require post processing. When your images are captured in Adobe RGB you will be able to manipulate your images more heavily in post without suffering image quality unlike sRGB. More colors, the harder to break! +1 aRGB

Alright, now the downside of this wonderful and large color space.

Images captured in aRGB require post processing, just like RAW. If you try to view or print without manipulation your images can look flat and boring. Wait, if your shot is boring it’s not the profiles fault!

If you capture your images in aRGB then you shouldn’t publish them on the web or tv without converting to sRGB first. Most monitors, TV’s and web browsers can not display aRGB colors which will result in flat images!

Finally, the most detrimental aRGB aspect, is the fact that if you are moving out of the “standard” realm. If you are printing, you must make sure that your lab knows you are using aRGB. The idiota behind the Walmart counter is probably not going to be able to help you here (No offence to Walmart employees). You need to make sure you’re the communication line between your images and the printer are not broken and unfortunately shooting aRGB can often complicate things.

So which one should you use? Check out this list:

Shoot sRGB if:

• You want the best results directly from the camera
• You print at home or at a somewhat unprofessional lab
• You are shooting for the web or anything that is going to be shown on a monitor or TV.

Shoot aRGB if:

• You shoot RAW and you manipulate all of your images (remember RAW doesn't actually have a colorspace, but it's good to have a consistent workflow)
• You are shooting for a commercial project
• You just like having a bigger space
• You want the best and nothing but the best.

Just remember, the key to all of this is consistency! Know what you shoot, where you are showing it and how you are printing and it’s a piece of cake.

SGTEST