# AdobeRGB <-> sRGB



## GarfieldKlon (Nov 2, 2013)

Hi 

When I pass a NEF from LR 5.2 to PS CS6 a message is shown with the hint "The embedded color space is Adobe RGB 1998 which doesn't correspond with the actual workspace color space sRGB".
But why? In my camera I've chosen sRGB. Why is PS CS6 thinking my NEF is in AdobeRGB? And where can I see this information in LR?


greez
GarfieldKlon


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## Jim Wilde (Nov 2, 2013)

Go and check the settings on the External Editing tab of the Lightroom Preferences, it's probable that you've got AdobeRGB selected as the colour space for the rendered file (Tiff or PSD) that you pass to Photoshop when you use the "Edit In..." command.

It also sounds as though you have your Photoshop working colour space as sRGB....it's more typical to have the working space the same as the colour space of the files coming from Lightroom. So check your Color Settings in Photoshop and either make sure you have selected the same profile as you are using in your Lightroom Settings, and/or you select "Preserve Embedded Profiles" in the RGB section of the Color Management Policies panel.

Because Lightroom's working colour space is a form of ProPhotoRGB, it's generally advised to use this colour space in the Lightroom External Editing settings, and in the Photoshop Color Settings.


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## clee01l (Nov 2, 2013)

GarfieldKlon said:


> ...In my camera I've chosen sRGB. Why is PS CS6 thinking my NEF is in AdobeRGB...


To add to what Jim has already said, NEFs have no color space and are not RGB when written in the camera. The setting sRGB in the camera is only for any JPEGs created by the camera and any JPEG thumbnails embedded in the NEF header.  Colorspace is assigned first when ACR demosaic's the RAW image and converts it to RGB.  In LR this color space is ProPhotoRGB  and it should be for any TIFF passed to PS so that PS can have the larger gamut to work with.


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## bobrobert (Nov 3, 2013)

Setting the camera to Adobe RGB will mean a better histogram.


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## GarfieldKlon (Nov 3, 2013)

Ok, so I should choose ProPhotoRGB in LR "editing in..." and in PS? But this only make sense if I'm editing NEFs? But what should I do with the JPGs which I want to edit in PS? Change the color space evertime? 
And is it not totally useless to use ProPhotoRGB because the printing services almost always use the smaller sRGB?


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## bobrobert (Nov 3, 2013)

I have LR & PS set up for Prophoto and when I am finished editing an image I press f7 on my keyboard - part of an action - and the file is converted - note not assigned - to Adobe RGB. If you open a jpeg in PS there will be a mismatch pop up warning you the colour space is Prophoto. Also some might question why you are editing jpegs when you know how to edit Nef's?


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## clee01l (Nov 3, 2013)

GarfieldKlon said:


> Ok, so I should choose ProPhotoRGB in LR "editing in..." and in PS? But this only make sense if I'm editing NEFs? But what should I do with the JPGs which I want to edit in PS? Change the color space evertime?
> And is it not totally useless to use ProPhotoRGB because the printing services almost always use the smaller sRGB?


 Use PorPhotoRGB for ALL processing since it preserves more of the colors during processing,  Consider ProPhotoRBG as the largest envelope of the colorspaces mentioned.   Export JPEGs can be converted to a smaller envelop (sRGB) and the colors outside that envelop get converted to another color inside the sRGB envelope.  This is OK for your printer requirements.  Some Print shops do specify specific color profiles for their printers.  A good print shop will convert the file that you send them to the color profile matching their printer and paper before printing.  A better print shop will request a 16 bit TIFF and specify the color profile to be used.  Limiting the print input to a sRGB JPEG is dumbing down the image to the lowest common denominator that everyone can generate for their submissions.


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## GarfieldKlon (Nov 3, 2013)

Ok, but using ProPhotoRGB is totally useless if I don't have a monitor that can't display the full spectrum of this color space, right? And if my printing service only supports sRGB, then its again useless to work with a bigger color space. Or what do I misunderstand?


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## sizzlingbadger (Nov 3, 2013)

You misunderstand. Working in a large colour space will give you better results even if the final image is eventually exported to sRGB


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## clee01l (Nov 3, 2013)

GarfieldKlon said:


> Ok, but using ProPhotoRGB is totally useless if I don't have a monitor that can't display the full spectrum of this color space, right? And if my printing service only supports sRGB, then its again useless to work with a bigger color space. Or what do I misunderstand?


 You shoot RAW, because it preserves 12-14 bit color in the camera.  JPEGs throw away nearly half of the color detail captured by the RAW sensor.  For the same reason that you want the best image quality in your final sRGB JPEG, you shoot and process the original image in the highest fidelity possible. No color monitor displays a full color spectrum Some don't even fill up the sRGB envelope.   So, just because your equipment is sub standard why would you let that dictate preserving sub standard low fidelity image data?   LR and PS are capable of generating high fidelity color images.  Higher fidelity than you can see, your monitor can display or your printer can print.  Because none of theses envelopes nest precisely inside each other, you want to pick an envelope that is bigger than all of them combined.  This is why you should always use  ProPhotoRGB.  Using ProPhotoRGB throughout your processing does not penalize you in anyway. Processing JPEGs, or using sRGB or AdobeRGB colorspaces does come with a penalty. That penalty shows up when you want to use a color profile that falls outside the bounds of the colorspace you used for processing your image file.


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## Bryan Conner (Nov 3, 2013)

GarfieldKlon said:


> Ok, but using ProPhotoRGB is totally useless if I don't have a monitor that can't display the full spectrum of this color space, right? And if my printing service only supports sRGB, then its again useless to work with a bigger color space. Or what do I misunderstand?



In the future, you may have a monitor that can display much more than our current technology.  Printers May one day be able to print more colors than AdobeRGB.  Many can today.  So, the idea is to not throw away any of the information that your camera captures in a raw file.  ProPhotoRGB can contain all of the color info in your raw files.  sRGB and AdobeRGB can not.


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## Selwin (Nov 3, 2013)

bobrobert said:


> Setting the camera to Adobe RGB will mean a better histogram.


Setting your camera to AdobeRGB has zero effect on RAW files. It's really for SOOC JPEGs only.


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## Selwin (Nov 3, 2013)

GarfieldKlon said:


> Ok, but using ProPhotoRGB is totally useless if I don't have a monitor that can't display the full spectrum of this color space, right? And if my printing service only supports sRGB, then its again useless to work with a bigger color space. Or what do I misunderstand?


Think of it this way: even if you wouldn't be interested in processing in ProPhotoRGB to be ready for future equipment improvements, you still want to process in the highest possible colour space. Why? While you are tweaking your colours, all pixels that you work on will change their colour from their start value (the value they have on import) to a new value that you set when changing contrast, white balance, saturation and such. In sRGB, LR has a limited number of colours to choose from so it won't be able to work your pixels into the subtlest shades. In ProphotoRGB, LR does a much better job of maintaining colour accuracy in shifted colours. Then when after you're done post processing, and you export the file to sRGB, you will still have a better image than if editing would have taken place in sRGB.


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