Tech Support: Color Space Confusion

Question: I don’t print many photos—I enjoy them primarily on my computer and plasma television. I believe my computer monitor supports only sRGB. I know Adobe RGB shows a wider color range than sRGB, but if I shoot in Adobe RGB will it look better on my monitor? What color space should I shoot in?
-- Eric Schurr Via e-mail

Answer: Although the latest TVs and monitors can display more colors than the sRGB color space can hold, the default for most of your devices will most likely be sRBG. Color spaces that have a wider gamut (such as Adobe RGB or ProPhoto RGB) are useful when you’re editing and printing; sRGB is useful when you can’t color manage (e.g., in e-mail and on your TV). Our advice? Shoot RAW + JPEG, and set your JPEGs for sRGB. That way you’ll have JPEGs to display and share immediately, but the RAW images will keep color depth for those times when you decide you want to print.

-- Popular Photography Staff

Got a question? E-mail us at PopPhoto@bonniercorp.com. Also, visit the Tech Support forum at forums.popphoto.com.

Comments

[bluetooth freisprecheinrichtung]

You have provided perfect answer.I get proper definition for the colour space confusion.

[Eric Schurr]

the answer is helpful, but not sufficient (i was the original author of the question). The real question is: will a photo shot in AdobeRGB look worse on an sRGB monitor than a photo shot in sRGB?

[R. Kneschke]

@Eric: In short: Yes, AdobeRGB images in sRGB monitors will look worse than the same image as sRGB version.