Changing Colorspaces

[LeftyRodriguez]

Okay, for a long time (and I'm not sure why), I've been shooting in sRGB. Now, lets say that I move to AdobeRGB. How will this change my workflow? For instance, I use Lightroom and PS CS2. Right now, I just download my photos to LR, do some adjusting there, maybe edit in PS a bit, then save back to LR. So say that I start shooting in AdobeRGB, I set this as my colorspace in both LR and PS, correct? And what happens to my pics that are already in sRGB? Will this mess up their colors? Or do I have to change my colorspace manually each time I edit an older pic? Anyone have any feedback/help on changing colorspaces midstream?

Thanks,
Lefty

 

[*Mike*]

You're existing work really shouldn't be affected. (Unless there's some LR quirk I'm unaware of.) But, you will find that any app that's not colorspace aware will start showing your Adobe RGB images with horrendous color. So, you would most likely end up having to create a web file in sRGB in addition to your existing file.

 

[RyanLilly]

Also most places I have printed want sRGB with 8-bit color depth.

 

[Alpha]

Your workflow will change provided you have a monitor capable of accurately displaying the full gamut and a printer capable of printing it.

 

[Garbz]

Your workflow has to change regardless of the printer and the display. You won't get any benefits unless you have a printer or a display that can display the corrected gamut.

If you're colour managed any any step of the way you need you colour manage the entire work flow. For instance.

You start by importing your raw files in adobeRGB. You make your edits. Now you think I want to display this on the web. So you setup your proof to be sRGB and have a look at what colours are visibly clipped (if you have a wide gamut monitor it'll be painfully visible otherwise you need to use the gamut warning). Then you play with things to prevent channels clipping i.e. greens turning yellow because they are so saturated that the sRGB colour space can't display them as green anymore. Finally you have to export the photo and in the process convert to the sRGB colourspace.

Now every time you forget to do this all your images will look outright dreadful and you can join the scores of other posters on this forum asking why their images look like crap when viewed in internet explorer on flickr but look fine in windows picture viewer.

Suppose you want to print so you repeat the process, this time proofing with the profile of your printer. When you print do take extra care to ensure colour management is disabled in the printer driver or the image will get converted to sRGB and then to the printer profile.

Also if you save in the adobeRGB profile just remember that anytime you send the picture to someone there's no guarantee that they have colour management and can view it correctly so you need to convert it again.


In short. Unless you have either a wide gamut monitor, a very very expensive printer, or you print files in a professional lab that request adobeRGB avoid it like the plague. The extra benefits of the wider colour gamut that your camera captures requires a very very disproportional amount of extra effort to use correctly.