Colour space

[BobT]

This is a tricky question that comes up from time to time and sometimes even emotive. The consensus seems to be that if in doubt, just use sRGB everywhere and you'll be fine. This is essentially what I do for both raw and jpeg, I export in jpeg and yes, all is fine. However, I'm aware that LR actually operates in ProPhoto RGB. Also, my camera, an Olympus E-M1 offers the option to capture images in either sRGB or Adobe RGB. So, my question is, given that I always process in LR, is there any advantage is setting my camera to capture in Adobe RGB rather than sRGB and if I do set it to Adobe RGB, are there any other issues I need to be aware of when exporting?

 

[Gnits]

This camera setting only applies to the jpg. Raw has no colour space until converted by a raw conversion engine. You are better editing using a larger colour space but if you are only generating images for web use out of the camera then srgb is ok. Raw plus jpg can give you the best of both worlds.

 

[clee01l]

Colorspace is described as an envelope of all the colors possible inside the envelope. And color that falls outside the envelop must be mapped to the boundary of the envelope by the the software generating the pixels being printed or displayed and is limited by capabilities of the display or printer/paper. A typical RGB monitor usually fits inside the smallest envelope which is sRGB. You can only control the software displaying images for your monitor. A file that you send me or put on a web page for me to look at won't look exactly the same on my monitor as it does on yours. It is for this reason that you build your exported JPGs using the generic sRGB color profile which will guarantee the colors in the file fit inside the generic sRGB color space.

The color space envelopes nest mostly inside each other. sRGB fits inside of AdobeRGB which fits inside of ProPhotoRGB. There are other color spaces than have similar boundaries but I need not discuss these further other than to note that it is important to know how these other color spaces relate to the main three.

How does AdobeRGB fit in? It is larger than sRGB and is a generic color space for most printers and papers. You might see some richer reds for example if you use Adobe RGB. Some newer monitors are tuned to produce colors that extend beyond the sRGB color space and you will always want to use a color profile that matches your printer & paper if printing. As a fall back, the Generic AdobeRGB color profile can be used with your JPG if you don't know a matching color profile to use.

When to use ProPhotoRGB? It is best employed when computing colors for pixels. The computations may generate colors that fall outside of the sRGB or AdobeRGB color spaces. It is for this computation reason that LR uses ProPhotoRGB. Even if you start with a sRGB JPEG, develop calculations might generate colors beyond the sRGB envelope.

About that Olympus E-M1. When you take a photo, the RAW photo sites have no color space. All you have are pure numerical values that will be converted to RGB pixels. If this is done in the camera, the camera produced JPEG will be tuned to conform to one or the other color spaces sRGB or AdobeRGB depending upon the develop processing parameters that you set before you take the first photo. If you shoot RAW, then the RAW file won't get converted to RGB until it is first processed by Adobe Camera RAW in LR and the ProPhotoRGB will be used. This preserves the largest color envelop of processing in LR. If you have processed a JPEG by your camera, you have tossed away almost half the color bits that were recorded bt the sensor and you have limited the colors in that JPEG to the color space when it was fixed by the camera.

The Bottom line is Shoot RAW and do all of your initial processing in LR and let LR assign the largest color envelope (ProPhotoRGB) when it converts your image to RGB. When You Export, choose a color space appropriate to the expected audience. If that audience is on the web, then use sRGB in your exported JPEG to reach the widest audience with an image that may not express much color distortion on GrandMa's ancient CRT.

 

[BobT]

Thanks Cletus! So, I guess what you are saying is if I'm shooting raw, which I do for normal shots, then the camera colour space setting is irrelevant. However, I do a lot macros using the Olympus in-camera focus stacking. For whatever reason, Olympus offers this in jpeg only. Am I right in thinking it may be advantageous to set the camera to Adobe RGB for the focus stacked macros?

 

[clee01l]

Thanks Cletus! So, I guess what you are saying is if I'm shooting raw, which I do for normal shots, then the camera colour space setting is irrelevant. However, I do a lot macros using the Olympus in-camera focus stacking. For whatever reason, Olympus offers this in jpeg only. Am I right in thinking it may be advantageous to set the camera to Adobe RGB for the focus stacked macros?

Yes, for RAW images, the camera setting is irrelevant. In these cases, the color space only is applied to the JPEG thumbnail generated for the camera back view and embedded in the RAW file header block.
For Focus Stacks, I recommend Zerene Stacker. If has a lot of flexibility as to which of the images get included in the stack and which of two methods are used for stacking and producing the final stacked image. You can shoot RAW, process the images in LR and a Zerene Stacker plugin generates temporary TIFF images which are stacked and the composite image file can be automatically imported into your LR catalog.

 

[Replytoken]

For Focus Stacks, I recommend Zerene Stacker. If has a lot of flexibility as to which of the images get included in the stack and which of two methods are used for stacking and producing the final stacked image. You can shoot RAW, process the images in LR and a Zerene Stacker plugin generates temporary TIFF images which are stacked and the composite image file can be automatically imported into your LR catalog.

While I have no doubt that this method produces a better quality image, it does negate the automation that the E-M1 provides in stacking (albeit at the expense of working with raw files). The OP would need to either switch to focus bracketing, or see if the raw files used for the stack are still available for Zerene Stacker.

--Ken

 

[Johan Elzenga]

I would also consider Helicon Focus for focus stacking. It can stack raw images into a 'raw' DNG, just like Lightroom does with panorama and/or HDR.

 

[BobT]

Let me clarify, if had to earn a living by photography, yes, I would shoot raw, use third party photo stacking software (I've used Helicon), use a focussing rail in a studio with studio lighting and I would spend hours in PP. However, I shoot simply for pleasure. I shoot mostly macros out of doors in natural light where things don't conveniently say still nor is lighting consistent. For me, fast in camera focus stacking is a quantum leaf in photographic pleasure. I do use a rail but it's a simple nodal rail that I use to help optimally position the camera. I get a composite image out of the camera, albeit a composite of only 8 shots and a jpeg, but it is sufficient to get good DOF plus good bokeh. The image requires no more than the usual PP. My take-away from the above given that I use LR only, is that I may be better off setting the camera to Adobe RGB rather than sRGB.

 

[clee01l]

I may be better off setting the camera to Adobe RGB rather than sRGB.

If you are going to shoot JPEG in the camera, then the answer is Yes.

 

[Hoggy]

Just to expand on Cletus's answer.. For jpeg only modes like that, and especially if you aren't going to immediately share them with viewers that may only be in the sRGB area, setting the camera to AdobeRGB will bake into the jpeg, the best color information for LR to work with as LR does it's own calculations behind the scenes. Then when exporting further-processed images, select either sRGB or aRGB depending on your target audience.