Photoshop - colour space conversions

[chris26]

Hallo,

A question about sRGB and Adobe RGB. The latter having a gamut closer to inkjet printers whereas the former clips a lot of green and cyan. Therefore my question is the following: My camera does not have the option of shooting in Adobe rgb, only sRGB, and this does not neccessarily represent the colour info in photoshop sRGB, rather it is a generic colour profile from the camera manufacturer which only represents accuratley the colours that are recorded in-camera. I then bring the image into photoshop cs2, I tell photoshop to ignore Exif data and edit image in Adobe RGB colour space. Or I tell photoshop to preserve embedded profile, I then work/edit in adobe RGB colour space and then use the Convert to profile dialogue before printing on my printer.

Am I on the right track, or is it that because the image was captured in sRGB it serves no purpose to give my self a headache over this particular issue.

regards

Chrs

[René Damkot]

I'd just use sRGB.
That being said: If you want to use AdobeRGB, open the file with it's own (sRGB) profile, then convert to AdobeRGB.

You will gain nothing in the process though.

Have a read in the link from my sig.

[tim]

From what I understand the sRgb the camera outputs is the standard sRgb space, or is at least compatible with it. Since you didn't shoot in that space converting to Adobe RGB will gain you nothing. The best way to do it is to shoot RAW then open the image in Adobe RGB - RAW has no color space, but has lots of information, so your RAW converter can assign any profile you choose.

Generally, with this level of knowledge about color profiles, you're going to be best off working in sRgb. sRgb is a standard, do everything in it and things should come out great. Once you start using Adobe RGB or other color spaces you have to really understand what you're doing otherwise it's too easy to mess things up. It's not difficult, but many people mess it up. I doubt there's a massive difference in your printed output, unless a really important part of the image is in colors known to be out of the sRgb gamut. If you want to learn more there's a book thread linked from my sig, that book thread has a great book on color.

What kinda camera you have?