RAW mode and color space

[perfectpixel]

Hi All,
I shot an indoor recital and decided to go RAW just incase my exposures and white balance were off. Boy I'm glad I did. Ofcourse the CF filled up a lot faster than I expected. I also set the color space to Adobe RGB.
It's obvious to me that I have a lot of learning to do with RAW.
Here's my question:
When shooting jpg (which is what I'll stick to for now) is there an advantage to use AdobeRGB color space instead of the the default sRGB?
Will print labs have an easier time with one over the other?
Cheers!

[cecilc]

Will print labs have an easier time with one over the other?

That's a good question ....

The color lab I use demands that all my submittals be in sRGB color space.

Now,....with that in mind ..... if I do shoot RAW for some event in AdobeRGB and process them. If I then decide I want to submit some to my color lab for prints, how do I go about getting the image from AdobeRGB to sRGB for my color lab to use ?

I'm using PS 7 in Win XP Pro.

My apologies, perfectpixel, if I've stepped on your question - but I feel your's and mine are related in a fashion .....

[slin100]

In general, only pro labs can deal with images that are tagged with or otherwise use a colorspace other than sRGB. Your basic drugstore/Costco and most consumer-oriented online labs (Shutterfly, Ofoto, etc.) only accept sRGB images. Technically, they'll probably accept anything but their printers will usually ignore the profile and assume the image is sRGB! This will tend to make AdobeRGB images look flat and unsaturated.

Given that, that doesn't necessarily imply that you should only use sRGB. If you have the appropriate software (e.g. Photoshop CS), you can still choose to shoot in AdobeRGB and convert the image to sRGB before printing. This affords you the possibility of taking your best shots to a pro lab that can handle the wider gamut.

Of course, nothing beats the flexibility of RAW, but personally, when I shoot jpeg, I just use sRGB.

[scottbergerphoto]

When you shoot RAW, no color space is applied to the file untill you decide which one in post processing. You can keep the original CRW(Raw) file and apply the different color spaces to the RAW numbers in PSCS or which ever conversion engine you use. That's one of the advantages to shooting Raw and saving the original Raw file. So even if you have selected AdobeRGB or sRGB in the camera, when shooting Raw, you don't have to use that color space. When you shoot JPEG however, the numbers are permanently altered in the camera by your choice of AdobeRGB or sRGB. If you shoot sRGB JPEG, you gain nothing in color gamut by then converting to Adobe RGB.
With regards to lab printing, shoot raw, save the original, and convert a copy to the color space they want. That way you always have the original data.
To answer your question about shooting JPEG, AdobeRGB vs. sRGB, Adobe RGB has a larger color gamut(can record/display a larger number of colors) then sRGB. The better inkjet printers (Epson 2200, Canon S9000) can display a larger gamut then sRGB. So if you are doing your own printing as I do, Adobe RGB is a better way to go.
Regards,
Scott

[cecilc]

Thanks for that explanation, Scott ....

Well done - and it's given me a bit of a "push" to go out and experiment with shooting RAW images .....