What colourspace to save in?

Assuming I worked in prophoto from raw. Is it useful to save in adobergb or srgb? Or should I select 'save as ICC prophoto' in photoshop? First for uploading to flickr, but also printing from regular stores IE costco/walmart/london drugs

For London Drugs . . . sRGB. Black's wanted sRGB. I assume it is the same for Walmart and Costco. Even Vistek wanted sRGB the last time I spoke to them about what colour space they wanted (that was in 2013 . . . might be worth discussing with them again). I actually don't know of any printers that specifically want Adobe RGB. The ones I've spoken to either say sRGB or that they don't know (which is kind of scary).

For the web . . . sRGB. Most monitors and devices don't support the entire sRGB colour space, and I think Adobe RGB compliance is a long way off. sRGB is the lowest common denominator at present.

In a few years things might change and the Adobe RGB colour space might be utilized fully by consumer products. You can tweak and re-export anything that you want to print or display as Adobe RGB then.

Technicare wants AdobeRGB. For brochures and that kind of printing, you convert to CMYK.

neacail wrote in post #17906322
[..]The ones I've spoken to either say sRGB or that they don't know (which is kind of scary). [..]

Yes, definitely scary: I wouldn't like to deal with them, looks like they have absolutely no clue as to what they're doing.

I use a LR->PS->LR->Final output workflow, where the PS stage is 16 bit ProPhotoRGB, but only for about 3% of images. The other 97% stay as LR only. My final output stage is always specific to what the images will be used for. Once the exported file has been used for it's express use it is deleted from my computer.

Everything that will be uploaded to the web will be in sRGB. The same applies for the image files that I supply to the few people that I do product photography for. None of them have very much idea about either photography, or digital imaging, and wouldn't even know that images have a colour space other than maybe RGB/CMYK.

When I print I use a couple of pro labs. I follow their instructions on submission requirements. The lab that I use the most has two main services. One that uses a ROES type system where you can crop for format, adjust contrast/saturation etc, which requires you submit in sRGB, and the pro service, which makes absolutly no changes to the image file. For that service they supply profiles to be used with the uploaded image file, not just for soft proofing. Where a profile is not avilable it's use sRGB time again.

The second lab I only use for monochrome prints on traditional Ilford black and white silverhalide papers. These don't really need a colour profile, so I submit as an 8bit greyscale image with a 2.2 gamma. Again as specified by the lab.

I don't think I would want to use a lab that didn't specify the exact upload requirements for any of their products. I would not expect that everyone who worked there knew this stuff, but they should have tech support who could disscuss it with you.

Alan

Save for what???
I always save ProPhoto on my HD as there is occasion that things may need to be changed, also, I do not flatten my images.
Going into sRGB is reserved when they are to be printed...that shift to sRGB often requires some minor image tweaking.

Alveric wrote in post #17906370
Technicare wants AdobeRGB. For brochures and that kind of printing, you convert to CMYK.

Yes, definitely scary: I wouldn't like to deal with them, looks like they have absolutely no clue as to what they're doing.

What Technicare? I had never heard of them before, but a Google search turned up a "Technicare Imaging" in Calgary.

chauncey wrote in post #17906440
Save for what???
I always save ProPhoto on my HD as there is occasion that things may need to be changed, also, I do not flatten my images.
Going into sRGB is reserved when they are to be printed...that shift to sRGB often requires some minor image tweaking.

The OP stated that his/her query was for web display (Fickr) and budget printing services. It appears the OP is in Western Canada, as "London Drugs" was in the OP's list.

I merely made the assumption that the OP was a photographer rather than a picture taker.

chauncey wrote in post #17906624
I merely made the assumption that the OP was a photographer rather than a picture taker.

Personally, I'm perfectly happy with quick and cheap 10 cent 4x6s of family camping trips, birthday parties, and other high volume printing for our family photo albums. Sometimes there is such a thing as "good enough."

99% of the time someone says "what color space" the answer is sRgb. The reason is that it's the standard, default color space. No point working in ProPhoto if you're going to deliver in sRgb. The only time I work in anything other than my destination color space is when I have multiple outputs - so I work in Adobe RGB as that's what my wedding album vendor wants, and I convert to sRgb for customer file delivery or web upload.

neacail wrote in post #17906596
What Technicare? I had never heard of them before, but a Google search turned up a "Technicare Imaging" in Calgary.

Yup, they've based out of Edmonton I think, but have at least one branch which seems to be in Calgary. I saw your other thread asking for printing services in Canada, but refrained from providing you with the link to Technicare Imaging Ltd because I wasn't sure if they deal with the general public and I wasn't sure if you were a business or a hobbyist with the occasional job. Silly me, they probably deal with the public as well. Myself, I have a dealer account with them and they're my one and only lab for prints, proof books, portfolio books and USB flash drives with my logo on. When I need small time printing I turn to Bird Films in my city.

Alveric wrote in post #17906370
Technicare wants AdobeRGB. For brochures and that kind of printing, you convert to CMYK.

Over the years I have asked on multiple ocasions for anyone to post the names of commercial photo printers who accept aRGB without file conversion to sRGB before printing. Thus far, only TWO labs worldwide had been identified. So I was very interested to hear of a possible third commercial print maker, Technicare.

So I went to the web and looked them up. They actually state NOTHING about a SPECIFIC colorspace on their website. What they say do so on the topic:

"All files should be converted to your working space to ensure continuity in your workflow. When you save your JPEGs out of Photoshop, make sure to check the “Embed Colour Profile” checkbox in the Save dialog box. Without this checked, the colour space will not be saved and resulting in possible unpredictable colour in your prints."

...in other words, "if you embed the color profile information within the file, we can accept the file and (automatically convert if necessary) print the image file you send to us."

...and this itself could easily mean "We accept anything, but convert to Colorspace sRGB before we print", rather than meaning, "We print everyything within the native colorspace of the file that you send us. "

From their web page it is inconclusive that they 'want aRGB' as you stated.
Have you got something from them, not viewable as information on their web page but which is furnished to established customer accounts, which is explicit in their preference for aRGB?

Telephone communications. Once I phoned them regarding settings and that's when and where they told me to use aRGB.

Wilt wrote in post #17907843
Over the years I have asked on multiple ocasions for anyone to post the names of commercial photo printers who accept aRGB without file conversion to sRGB before printing. Thus far, only TWO labs worldwide had been identified. So I was very interested to hear of a possible third commercial print maker, Technicare.

Queensberry.

Alveric wrote in post #17907853
Telephone communications. Once I phoned them regarding settings and that's when and where they told me to use aRGB.

Why does a phone company have to do with color space? That's like asking your dentist for advice on fixing your car...