What is Color Space?

I’ve been asked this many, many times and my answer has always been “do you prefer a Volkswagen, an Audi, or a Bentley”?

Color space is a tricky little area that we might not really pay too much attention to until we mix them up and we get the dreaded “my photos look horrible”! The way I look at it, getting color spaces right at the start is the secret to beautiful proofs and prints. It seems to me that this is one area that we often overlook. So what is color space? Why are there so many of them? And most importantly, which one should I use?

First of all, let’s try to figure out what color space really means. Color space is essentially the amount of color contained in the files we save. Think of it as a type of vehicle, hence my first question at the start. There are three common color spaces available to us right now:  sRGB, Adobe RGB, and ProPhoto RGB. The placement of each one is no coincidence either. Think of sRGB as the Volkswagen, the Adobe RGB as an Audi, and the ProPhoto RGB as the Bentley.

• sRGB is the standard RGB color space developed by HP and Microsoft. It provides the standard color working space available for all types of displays. sRGB is arguably the best working space for digital images and photographs to be viewed on computer screens but it is not the best for print and reproduction.
• Adobe RGB carries most of the colors our printers can print but it does not carry every color that the printer can print. Developed by Adobe Systems, Adobe RGB has a wider color gamut compared to sRGB. Adobe RGB was designed specifically for photographers.  
• ProPhoto carries a lot of colors – more than a typical printer can print but make no mistake that each color in it’s range can be printed. Developed by Kodak, ProPhoto RGB provides a wider spectrum of colors, a bigger playground for photographers to get true, rich colors.

Are you confused even further? It took me a while to understand the concept but as long as you know the basics, you’ll be fine. So at the end of the day, which color space should I use? Once again, I defer back to my original question. What car do you want to drive? Undoubtedly, working in either Adobe RGB or ProPhoto RGB allows us to reproduce the image as we see them, which true, rich, and vivid colors. Different people will answer you differently, if you care to ask for their advice. The best way to figure it out is to know the basics. once the basics are solid, then you can go either one of the two. Want to be on the safe side? Shoot in RAW and make the conversion during post.

One word of caution though if you decide to use ProPhoto RGB. If you don’t soft proof*, then it’s not worth using this color space. “Soft proofing” is simply a method that allows the photographer to view on your monitor or display  what your print will look like when it is on a specific type of paper. Oh and you need to use 16 bits all the time or risk pixelization.

In the end, it’s your decision on which path to take. Be aware of the differences and make your choice based on this. All I recommend is consistency.

*Soft proofing is available on Aperture. When I beta tested Lightroom 3, I was disappointed to find that soft proofing was not available at the time, and even after the launch. If you process in Lightroom 3, you’ll need to bring the photo into Photoshop to be able to soft proof. However, there are plugins available to use in LR3 should you choose to soft proof.

Do I soft proof? Not anymore. I used to but the technology is so good these days that soft proofing has almost come to it’s own demise.

I personally use Adobe RGB. How about you? Feel free to chime in and let’s see where most people land on this issue.