Use of Adobe RGB on 10D

[peterm1]

Are a lot of people using the Adobe RGB setting in the 10D? Do you get better results than using srgb and then converting to the Adobe RGB workspace in Photoshop (if that is what you use)?

I am very confused about whether to switch to using Adobe RGB in general and just posted the following question on the software forum:

I have searched and read several posts saying that srgb may actually be better than Adobe RGB in some situations (more tonal gradations and better for web). However, the Photoshop books I have (including Real World Adobe Photoshop 7 and other books by well-respected authors) state that using Adobe RGB is better due to the restrictions of srgb (even in some cases for web graphics).

While I do post some photos on pbase and send emails with photos to friends and relatives, I also print at home on my Canon i950 and care more about getting the best print than making sure my emailed photos are perfect. Given this, I am thinking about using the Adobe RGB setting in my Canon 10D and using this as the working space in Photoshop.

Also, I am unsure whether to convert all my photos (which are embedded as srgb) to Adobe rgb. Thoughts?

Has anyone made the switch and if so, what were your experiences?


Finally, I am thinking about working in 16 bit rather than 8 bit (I understand I have to print in 8 bit). While I sometimes shoot RAW and can convert to 16-bit Tiffs with C1LE, if I shoot the highest quality jpegs in Adobe RGB will I wind up with 8 bit images? In other words, how do I work in 16 bit with jpegs taken with the 10D?

Thanks!

-Peter

[Roger_Cavanagh]

Peter,

If you want 16-bit, you have no choice, but to shoot raw. This also means you do not have to worry about colour space and most other camera settings as they can be changed during raw conversion.

If you are using FVU or BB as your converter, I would convert to Adobe RGB, 16-bit TIFF and go from there. Convert to sRGB for web images; use a printer profile for your i950.

There's no point in converting from sRGB to Adobe RGB: you've already lost the extra gamut. Colours outside sRGB will have been clipped and you can't get them back.

I see you have C1LE, which I use. I prefer to convert to ProPhoto RGB to keep the maximum colour information until I have to throw it away.

Regards,

[peterm1]

Roger_Cavanagh wrote:
Peter,

If you want 16-bit, you have no choice, but to shoot raw. This also means you do not have to worry about colour space and most other camera settings as they can be changed during raw conversion.

If you are using FVU or BB as your converter, I would convert to Adobe RGB, 16-bit TIFF and go from there. Convert to sRGB for web images; use a printer profile for your i950.

There's no point in converting from sRGB to Adobe RGB: you've already lost the extra gamut. Colours outside sRGB will have been clipped and you can't get them back.

I see you have C1LE, which I use. I prefer to convert to ProPhoto RGB to keep the maximum colour information until I have to throw it away.

Regards,

Roger, thanks for the reply. I do use C1LE for converting Raw images, and see how I can set it to ProPhoto RGB. However, this does not appear as an option as a color working space in Photoshop 7. Do I just set Photoshop to keep the embedded profile and that will take care of it (because PS7 will use the "document working space)?

This may be a stupid question, but how do I know I can see the wider gamut on my monitor? In other words, how do I calibrate/adjust my monitor? I am using a Planar LCD monitor which I calibrated with Adobe Gamma.

For web photos, I assume people usually keep the original RGB files for printing and then convert copies to srgb for the web and email, right? Between having Raw folders, converted TIFF and JPEG folders, and now RGB and srgb folders, it's going to be difficult keeping track of everything!

[Roger_Cavanagh]

peterm1 wrote:

Roger, thanks for the reply. I do use C1LE for converting Raw images, and see how I can set it to ProPhoto RGB. However, this does not appear as an option as a color working space in Photoshop 7. Do I just set Photoshop to keep the embedded profile and that will take care of it (because PS7 will use the "document working space)?

You can download the ProPhoto profile for free from here:

http://www.kodak.com/global/en/service/software/colorflow/rgbProfileDownload.blind

This may be a stupid question, but how do I know I can see the wider gamut on my monitor? In other words, how do I calibrate/adjust my monitor? I am using a Planar LCD monitor which I calibrated with Adobe Gamma.

You can't do this as such, but you can simulate this by checking the "desaturate minotor colours" in the colour settings dialog. I don't this as part of my set-up: people like Andrew Rodney advise it's "only for experts".

I use ProPhoto for philosophical reasons: I'd rather keep data as long as I can before discarding it. I may not be able to see it, but I know it's there. :) Secondly, although I haven't done any systematic testing, it seemed to me that when I played with ProPhoto initially, some colour adjustments just seemed better-behaved. Thirdly, from a more practical perspective, some profiles I use for my printer, while being, overall, much smaller than Adobe RGB, do have some colours that are outside the aRGB gamut, but not the very large ProPhoto space.

For web photos, I assume people usually keep the original RGB files for printing and then convert copies to srgb for the web and email, right? Between having Raw folders, converted TIFF and JPEG folders, and now RGB and srgb folders, it's going to be difficult keeping track of everything!

That's what I do, but I don't bother to keep every version of a picture: don't keep the TIFFs because Ican always reconvert and don't keep the PSD files unless I done editing that would be difficult to reproduce. I'm more likely to keep PSD files for images that I've printed, esepcially when they involve resizing.

Regards,