The Answer to Color Spaces

sRGB, AdobeRGB, which one? And what about ProPhotoRGB?

The answer is directly relative to what you want to accomplish.

For many of us emailing occasional photos is a way of sharing life's activities with friends and relatives easily. Even for uploading to online sources, even assuming printing will be part of the goal, using sRGB for both of these situations works admirably.

Now let's take printing for a wall hanging, as opposed to a 4x6" or 5x7" photo. In this case most photographers have historically used AdobeRGB (aRGB) for a number of years and done so with very goods results. Even when printing for a customer Adobe RGB does a fine job of interpreting the color ranges within that space. So for the most part using aRGB is a valid space to continue using. It certainly has a wider gamut to utilize from the data your camera sends along for conversion to a particular Color Space. And all but Pro bodies use sRGB or aRGB, so unless you are currently using a Pro body DSLR, you won't have to read any further.

However it is when one begins selling prints that reach what is referred to as Fine Art that aRGB really begins to show its limitations. And unless you are using an ICC profile along with a Calibration Tool, and a Pro Body DSLR. you will most likely not be able to see the difference. However if the exact same print is set side-by-side, one utilizing aRGB, the other using ProPhotoRGB, then assuming the light is equivalent, the difference can be astonishing. This difference is often called Pop. A particular print which has Pop vs a print which does not, is usually quite obvious.

There are two reasons which, in my humble and simple interpretation, allow for this difference; saturation and a wider gamut of colors available. What allows for a wider gamut is partly due to the ability to convert to 16bit vs 8 bit when using ProPhotoRGB. This in itself gains, in all but the blue range, a much larger color space to print from the original Raw data sent from your Pro camera.

If you'd like to read further there is much more to this and here's a link to outbackphoto get started with. Otherwise keep shooting and enjoy. Or if you have any questions I'd be happy to help so long as you are willing to allow for the time it takes me to respond. Thanks for visiting.