One of the aspects of photography that we tend to shy away from or procrastinate ad infinitum is to catch up with the color space. When you hear acronyms of the type sRGB, Adobe RGB or CMYK… it seems that a I do not know what for the body that makes you hum a na-na-na and move on to something else butterfly. If total, you continue taking photos as usual and nothing happens, right? Surely you have thought that it should not be so important compared to the effort that must be made to learn about the subject. Well, it’s time to catch up. For two reasons:
- Because it is useful. Haven’t you ever wondered why your photos change color when you print them? Or why on your computer they look different from your friend’s? Here is the reason.
- Because I’m going to explain it to you so easily How I would have liked them to tell me. You will see how the effort is minimal, you will only have to read this brief article.
My purpose is that when you finish reading this it will be very clear to you, otherwise you will always have the comments to solve any small doubt. Do not cut yourself!
But before continuing, and since we are going to talk about monitors, if you are looking for a monitor for photography, in this mega-guide Mario gives you a master class to choose the best one for you. Seriously, he couldn’t have explained it better and in more detail. You won’t have a single doubt.
And now to the topic…
What is color space?
I could talk about the electromagnetic spectrum or the visible light spectrum, and blah blah blah, but then I would just keep postponing your update on this topic. Surely you would not continue reading, right? I would also do the same. I’m more of going easy, #what am I going to do. Better we simplify it, even if someone later pulls my ear, but this is not a physics class, what I want is for you to understand 😉 .
The color space is the range of colors that your computer can represent, it is a standard list of coded colors. When your camera captures an image, on the card, what it is recording is data that your computer program later has to “translate” or decode, and it does so within the range of colors available to it, which is much more limited than the range of colors that exist in reality.
To see it more clearly, our eyes show us colors as a mixture of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet and we see a combination of these seven. While the screens (camera, tv, monitors, etc.), represent it as a mixture of only green, red and blue. On the other hand, printers render it as a combination of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. Do you understand now why sometimes an image changes so much from reality to the screen of your camera and from there to paper? Here’s the kicker… So what do we do to bring some “order” here? So here comes the second part…
What color space to use?
Although in the end each master has his booklet and each one finds his best way of working, at the beginning it is worth knowing some basic notions and some forms of generic use. Once you know this and understand how it works, you will be able to decide how to proceed with your images (which is why they are yours 😉 ).
sRGB. for digital.
This is the most common color space on monitors. It is the one that most cameras use by default to display their images. It is also the one that is most recommended to use when the photos are not going to be printed. In other words, if your idea is to show that photo on any type of screen, use this color space without hesitation.
This is the most recommended option for:
- export JPEG files for use on the web
- to send to a client (if you don’t know what color space they use)
- to send the images by email.
Let’s say that it is the most commonly used and the one used on the Web.
AdobeRGB. Professional prints.
Its color gamut is wider than sRGB and is the one used as a standard in the photographic industry. Let’s say it’s the one used professionally. Most mid-range cameras can capture this range of colors, high-end monitors can render all the colors in this space, and high-end printers can also reproduce it. Yes, you read correctly, high-end, that is, professional level. For user level earthling we return to sRGB ;), remember that it is the one used by most devices.
CMYK. Newspapers and magazines.
This is the color space that is typically used in the printing process of newspapers and magazines, and in almost all printers sold today. It is the one that produces the smallest number of colors of all the color spaces.
ProPhoto RGB. For the most perfectionists.
This color space probably sounds less familiar to you. It is the one that covers the widest range of colors and let’s just say that it is for the most color perfectionists. Only high-end cameras are capable of recording more colors than are recorded with Adobe RGB. Only suitable for high quality printers. Likewise, if you want to work in this color space, you have to make sure you work with programs that support it, otherwise the colors will have a lousy image.
summarizing
To summarize a bit and keep you with the key concepts, I leave you the most important points here:
- The most standard format for displaying digital images is the sRGB. If you are not going to print the photos, or you are going to print them on any photo printer, work from start to finish in this color space.
- If your photos are going to appear in a magazine or newspaper, save them as CYMK. It will allow you to have a file more faithful to what the public will see.
- I recommend, when editing your photos in Photoshop or Lightroom, to use AdobeRGB. And always save the original in this color space (if you think you’ll ever be able to print it) and pass another copy to sRGB to upload to the Web or send by mail.
- When you care about color in a photo, shoot RAW instead.
- Forget for now ProPhotoRGBunless you are a professional for whom color is very important.
- And while we’re at it, maybe you should take a look at this article to get your monitor ready 😉
- Remember that the important thing is to know what the purpose of the photograph will be in order to be clear about which space to work with. It’s not always better to do it with Adobe RGB as you may have read ;).
I hope I have clarified this topic for you and that you see it with different eyes. You already know that if you have any questions you can leave them in the comments. We do the blog together and the comments and questions always enrich the articles.
And if you liked it, do not forget to share it on your favorite social network or give it a “Like”, so we will know that we are right with the content. And other people can benefit from this information. Thanks and see you soon!