Tech Check RGB colour spaces
You’re likely to have come across these before, but how are they different from one another? What is colour space? Colour space represents the amount of different colour variations that can be displayed. In photography, the colour spaces we are most familiar with are sRGB, Adobe RGB (1998) and ProPhoto RGB. In most cases you can choose between sRGB and Adobe RGB (1998) when setting your shooting Colour Space in the camera. Which one should I choose? As Adobe RGB (1998) is a slightly bigger colour space, it makes sense to select that one, so you capture as much colour detail as possible. You can set this via your camera’s menu, but it’s worth noting that when shooting raw files, you can change the colour space retrospectively. If you shoot JPEG then this isn’t possible. Once I’ve selected Adobe RGB (1998), do I just stick with it throughout my raw processing? If you shoot raw files, you can change your colour space within Lightroom and Photoshop to ProPhoto RGB. ProPhoto RGB offers an even bigger colour space, so you have the maximum data to use in your processing, although it means you have a larger 16 bit file to store. If I switch to ProPhoto RGB for processing, do I output my JPG file with that colour space? No! ProPhoto RGB is your working colour space, giving you the most information across the colour spectrum. When you come to output, in most cases you will need a more restricted colour space: sRGB for computer screens, web browsers etc, or Adobe RGB (1998) for general use. This all sounds a bit complicated to me. Isn’t there just a ‘set it and forget it’ option that I can use? If in doubt, stick with Adobe RGB (1998) in both your camera and post-processing, and you can sleep easy at night!