PS CS5 "Embed Color Profile: Adobe RGB 1998" when saving?

Hey guys; I recently upgraded from CS4 to CS5 and just noticed that when I am saving my flattened, edited images as jpegs, there is a little box checked beside this (embed Color Profile, etc)? My camera setting are set to sRGB. thanks!

Did you have a question in there somewhere?

Images should always have the color profile embedded.

tim wrote in post #13226065
Did you have a question in there somewhere?

Images should always have the color profile embedded.

Obviously I am confused, I thought the sRGB was the color profile; these are two different things?

Are you saying that Photoshop is set to Adobe RGB? If you are, then you will want to convert to sRGB if you are preparing an image for the Web or most outside print servers.

In your Photoshop Color settings, you can set up the working color profile if you wish.

If you are shooting Raw, you can change the default conversion profile in Camera Raw as well.

It can be advisable to have everything in sRGB, although, for some things aRGB can be beneficial, but you need to have your workflow set up to what is best for your needs, and for many people they don't want to have to bother with conversions.

But, you can use Save for the Web and have it do an sRGB conversion automatically...

I think my CS5 is set to sGRB, here is a screen shot:

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Your color space is Photoshop is set to sRgb. Turn on those warning checkboxes in the color profile.

I think the issue here is you don't seem to understand anything about color management. You should read this book, but it's kinda hard going.

For now, set everything to sRgb, never use another color space, and embed profiles anywhere it lets you.

Michelle, are you shooting jpegs or Raw? If Raw, what are you using to convert?

I shoot RAW. What do you mean about whatI use to convert? To jpeg? Or to bring into CS5?

tim wrote in post #13226156
Your color space is Photoshop is set to sRgb. Turn on those warning checkboxes in the color profile.

I think the issue here is you don't seem to understand anything about color management. You should read this book, but it's kinda hard going.

For now, set everything to sRgb, never use another color space, and embed profiles anywhere it lets you.

Wasn't ignoring this, Tim, just saw the other post first. Thanks for the link, I WILL read it.

Michelle Brooks Photography wrote in post #13226194
I shoot RAW. What do you mean about whatI use to convert? To jpeg? Or to bring into CS5?

What Raw converter are you using to bring the image into Photoshop? The fact that Photoshop shows the "embed Adobe RGB" message makes me suspect that your Raw converter is set to convert the image into aRGB.

Realize that your in-camera color space setting will not matter with your Raw converter.

So, if you are using Camera Raw, open a Raw file in it and look at the link below the image preview. It will show what color space is being used and that is also the color space it will set when opening the file in Photoshop.

Now, in the color settings dialog you showed us, Tim pointed out something important -- even though Photoshop is set to the sRGB color space, no "Warning" settings are checked. What this means is that if your Raw converter is set to hand off an aRGB file, Photoshop will go along with this without alerting you. So, a way of being "double-safe" is to set at least a warning to happen or, if you want, to set Photoshop to automatically convert an image to sRGB, or both -- it's up to you. Some folks don't want to automatically convert but do want the warning.

I recall you are setting up your new Mac, right? Are you using Aperture for your Raw converter, or Camera Raw, or Lightroom...? Aperture and Lightroom will have a different approach to the color space thing.

I am using ACR. And when I opened an image in it & looked at the bottom, it did show the Adobe 1998 color setting at the bottom. So I clicked on that & changed it to sGRB. I'm going to look at these other things too & make sure I have the right things selected.

This led to another question for me; when I changed the color setting to sGRB it also had a choice of 8 or 16 bit channel. This is probably answered in the info Tim gave me to read, but for a fast answer, how is the best choice determined on that?

Thanks for your help. I feel like I'll never learn all this. :roll eyes:

tonylong wrote in post #13226258
What Raw converter are you using to bring the image into Photoshop? The fact that Photoshop shows the "embed Adobe RGB" message makes me suspect that your Raw converter is set to convert the image into aRGB.

Realize that your in-camera color space setting will not matter with your Raw converter.

So, if you are using Camera Raw, open a Raw file in it and look at the link below the image preview. It will show what color space is being used and that is also the color space it will set when opening the file in Photoshop.

Now, in the color settings dialog you showed us, Tim pointed out something important -- even though Photoshop is set to the sRGB color space, no "Warning" settings are checked. What this means is that if your Raw converter is set to hand off an aRGB file, Photoshop will go along with this without alerting you. So, a way of being "double-safe" is to set at least a warning to happen or, if you want, to set Photoshop to automatically convert an image to sRGB, or both -- it's up to you. Some folks don't want to automatically convert but do want the warning.

I recall you are setting up your new Mac, right? Are you using Aperture for your Raw converter, or Camera Raw, or Lightroom...? Aperture and Lightroom will have a different approach to the color space thing.

sRgb 8 bit at the camera native resolution.

Michelle Brooks Photography wrote in post #13226782
I am using ACR. And when I opened an image in it & looked at the bottom, it did show the Adobe 1998 color setting at the bottom. So I clicked on that & changed it to sGRB. I'm going to look at these other things too & make sure I have the right things selected.

This led to another question for me; when I changed the color setting to sGRB it also had a choice of 8 or 16 bit channel. This is probably answered in the info Tim gave me to read, but for a fast answer, how is the best choice determined on that?

Thanks for your help. I feel like I'll never learn all this. :roll eyes:

Michelle, glad to see we're making progress!

The 8 bit/16 bit topic is something that goes quite a ways back! The "old school" thinking has been to use 16 bits as much as possible, because it gives you more latitude in your processing. We are talking 16 bits-per-channel of image data compared to 8 bits-per-channel, so yeah, there is a ton more data...and, in theory, it "makes sense" to retain that data!

Realize, though, that 16-bit files are huge, both in your memory/processing use and then when saved to your hard drive.

However, this topic has spurred some interesting conversations here recently that have gotten me thinking. I've been of that "old school" way of thinking...

But, when Lightroom and the CS3 Camera Raw came out, they breathed some new life into Raw processing, and, since then, my workflow has become almost totally a Raw-only workflow, and I only occasionally venture into Photoshop. I'd do it for just Photoshop-specific tasks, and just went ahead with the 16-bit stuff, well, just "because"...

But, in these recent discussions, we talked about how much we can do with our Raw processors, which use the 16-bit bit depth and the fact that the things that 16 bits can handle best are often completely done in the Raw processor -- things like significant color/tonal adjustments, if you are getting the most out of your Raw processor, can get handled there, whereas your Photoshop-specific tasks can often, most of the time, or all of the time, be done just fine with an 8 bit image.

Now, I admit that this is "new thinking" for me because like I said, I no longer spend much time in Photoshop.

But, it's funny, it got "brought home" to me with a recent project, "focus stacking" a series of macro shots of a little spider. So, I did the Raw stuff, then opened 5 images layered together in Photoshop, did the basic "stuff" to blend them then I saved a 16-bit tiff with the layers intact before "moving on".

Well, it was a successful project, I was happy, but when I looked at that tiff I saw that it was 348 MegaBytes! Wow!

And, since all I needed to do with those 5 files was to blend the in-focus parts together, well, I really didn't need the 16 bits! I flattened the layers and applied some Smart Sharpening in the end for fun, but for that I didn't need 16 bits...

So, the question is, do you need 16-bit files for the work you will do in Photoshop, or will it be overkill?

I don't think there's a "one size fits all" answer, and I'm not even sure what in PS would benefit and what would not, and so I figure it's up to us to decide for ourselves, unless there is a definitive study out there that I'm not aware of that really lays it on the line...

Well, I hope that doesn't confuse you too much! Let's say that you could take one of a few possible approaches -- if, for example, disk space and speed of processing are a concern, 8-bit files are "good", but if you might need to preserve the utmost image qualities, well, then there is a case for 16-bit images, although at some point, our images tend to all end up as 8-bit jpegs!

That's not really a fast answer Tony

tim wrote in post #13226956
That's not really a fast answer Tony

Heh! I'm not very good on giving "fast" answers for some things, am I?