When to convert from Adobe RGB to sRGB?

[humbee]

Hi folks

I normally shoot RAW, and output to Adobe RGB color space, and for JPEGs, I set my camera color space to Adobe RGB. My Photoshop is set to Adobe RGB, and I think my Dell 2408 color gamut should also be Adobe RGB wide.

When outputting to images for Web and Color Labs, I need to convert it to sRGB. Normally, it'll be either using the Relative Colorimetric or Perceptual Intents.

I noticed that after the conversion to sRGB, the colors look different. In some cases, especially when using Perceptual Intent (if I'm not mistaken), colors can looks duller.

My questions are:

1. Should I do my color editing in Adobe RGB mode, and only after all color editing are done, then convert to sRGB mode?

2. Or should I convert the image to sRGB mode first for images destined for the web and color labs before color editing them? In this way, I hope to avoid unexpected color changes. In other words, color edit directly in the intended destination color space.

3. Afterall, who wants to spend so much effort color editing to 'perfection' in Adobe RGB, only to be shocked by color changes after converting over to the sRGB color space.

### By the way, will Dell 2408 wide gamut LCD monitor display sRGB images accurately? I have no idea at all :dunno:. (Mine is calibrated with Spyder 3 Elite.)

Folks, may I know what's the best approach?

 

[Octarine]

Looking at http://monitortest.blogspot.com/ it seems that the Dell is really capabale of showing AdobeRGB.
But if the colours look different after exporting to sRGB then my questions are:
- Where are you seeing the images? Same computer or somewhere else?
- What application(s) are you using to view these images?
- Have you embedded the sRGB colour profile?
More to read and to check your setup: http://www.gballard.net/psd/go_live_page_profile/embeddedJPEGprofiles.html#

 

[btrenkel]

Since you are shooting RAW. Best is actually to do all your edits in Prophoto RGB. Not Adobe RGB. That's the recommendation from Adobe in their own documentation; and is also recommended in Lightroom V2.

And after all is done - export to sRGB and JPG. Last step. Never touch the jpg there after for edits.

Read it all up on adobe.com - they got plenty of PDFs on color & editing. Just google a bit.

 

[humbee]

Hi Btrenkel

Quote from your advice: 'And after all is done - export to sRGB and JPG. Last step. Never touch the jpg there after for edits.'

Do you mean:

1. Perform all color edits in ProPhoto or Adobe RGB mode first.
2. Then, covert into sRGB mode via either the Perceptual or Relative Colorimetric Intent
3. Once converted, DO NOT Edit further.

Have I interpreted correctly?

But, what if the color changes and becomes duller or something else - do we just accept it even if it's not what we really like - is this the usual practice?

 

[tester99]

Since you are shooting RAW. Best is actually to do all your edits in Prophoto RGB. Not Adobe RGB. That's the recommendation from Adobe in their own documentation; and is also recommended in Lightroom V2.

And after all is done - export to sRGB and JPG. Last step. Never touch the jpg there after for edits.

Read it all up on adobe.com - they got plenty of PDFs on color & editing. Just google a bit.

what's the rationale behind this?

i've read one article ( quoted by another forumer here ) on the net, which says it's pointless to use other color space like Adobe RGB because the output comparison has negligible difference compared to sRGB..

 

[btrenkel]

Hi Btrenkel

Quote from your advice: 'And after all is done - export to sRGB and JPG. Last step. Never touch the jpg there after for edits.'

Do you mean:

1. Perform all color edits in ProPhoto or Adobe RGB mode first.
2. Then, covert into sRGB mode via either the Perceptual or Relative Colorimetric Intent
3. Once converted, DO NOT Edit further.

Have I interpreted correctly?

But, what if the color changes and becomes duller or something else - do we just accept it even if it's not what we really like - is this the usual practice?

Yes - that's what I meant. And of course the color might slightly change/become a bit more dull. But that's the problem with sRGB, as it has 'less colorspace'.

Now if your one and only use of the final picture will be on a website, then you can stay in sRGB and try to tweak it to your taste.

The advantage of Adobe RGB or Prophoto comes more into play, when you publish pictures in print or other media that can retain some of the quality.

 

[btrenkel]

what's the rationale behind this?

i've read one article ( quoted by another forumer here ) on the net, which says it's pointless to use other color space like Adobe RGB because the output comparison has negligible difference compared to sRGB..

Read up on adobe.com - they know what they are talking