sRGB vs. Adobe RGB

[grufh]

Hi everyone,

This is my first post. I have been taking photos ever since I was a kid. I picked up my Dad's old Mamiya camera when I was 12 and was hooked. My second camera was a Canon AE-1. I saved all my money from my summer job to buy it. Since then I have owned a Nikon FM1, a Minolta Maxxum 7000 and 9000 and went digital with a Canon G1.
Now over many hours of research online I decide to buy my first DSLR. I chose the Olympus Evolt 510. There is so much to learn with this camera. From reading the manual I have two color profiles to choose from when shooting, sRGB and Adobe RGB. Does anyone have an opinion on choice? Also I need some help to calibrate my monitor so what I see on my screen is what I get when I send my files to be developed at the printers. Any suggestions?

Thanks Gord


Victoria, British Columbia
Canada

[Greg McCary]

I use Adobe RGB because I process all of my images with Abobe Lightroom and Photoshop 7. But I think you will get more help posting in the Help Forum so I am going to move the post. This really isn't just an Olympus question. Congrats on the 510.

[freygr]

Just remember that all the WEB is sRGB. So if you posting your photos anyplace they will not look correct unless you convert from Adobe RGB to sRGB.

[grufh]

Thanks for the feedback!

[SmartWombat]

Depends entirely what you will be doing with your images.
Either you shoot in Adobe RGB and work with your images in that throughout - and convert to RGB at the end.
Or you shoot in sRGB and convert to Adobe RGB when needed for output.

Printing at local shop quick labs generally requires JPEG sRGB which the majority of P&S use.
Submission to agencies differs, I'm submitting in TIFF Adobe RGB.
Displaying on the web needs sRGB to get the right colours.
Fine art printers can generally accept anything, and will be able to give you a printer output profile, and make proofs before the final artwork ... at a price.

Now if you're using a tool like Lightroom then you can setup the final export step to use the colour space required by your output, while working from camera to final edit in a different colour space.


If you're in a hurry and you want to make prints as quick as possible, then you'll probably shoot in JPEG sRGB and print direct off the card, or even off the camera.

If you're up against a deadline and you know you're going to get it right first time in the camera, and you know where your images are going, then set up the camera for exactly what you need (format, colour space, size). Less flexibility, but saves a lot of time.

If there's no deadline, or you can process automatically, or you have enough time to do the conversion, particularly if you may have multiple uses for the images, then shoot Adobe RGB RAW and convert to whatever you need.
Maximum flexibility for editing, at the expense of time, and you can produce multiple outputs without sacrificing quality.

So the quick answer, as usual is ... "it depends"

[livin4lax09]

it should also be said that the adobe RGB color space has a wider range of colors. If it's not THAT important to you, don't bother with it.

[another view]

Adobe RGB might give you better results if you're making your own prints. If you send them out, almost all printers use sRGB - and if you send them a different color space the prints won't look right. To me, much more important than this would be using a calibrated monitor. Even with that, I wouldn't recommend using something other than sRGB unless you have a specific reason for doing so.

[lmotter]

Glad to see someone else with my same question. I found a good review re this on Amersham Photographic Society.