sRGB vs Adobe RGB

Today we’re talking about color spaces. There isn’t a good general understanding of color spaces and their limits, and because of that – there is a lot of confusion and bickering about what to use. These are shark infested waters we’re wading into. If we’re not back in 30 minutes, call the authorities.

While there are plenty of color spaces available out there, the two that are most often available on digital SLR’s are Adobe and sRGB. While you can convert these to any other space in post processing, there’s typically not much benefit, so the question is – sRGB versus RGB (or Adobe RGB)… what’s better? What are they?

If you were a painter, the color space would be your palette. It’s the choice of color your camera has to choose from when recording an image. sRGB is a smaller palette than RGB… it has fewer colors. It may, however, have access to colors that RGB does not, depending on how the sRGB space is skewed.

JPEG is an 8-bit file, and as such, should always use sRGB because it won’t benefit from the enhanced choice of color offered by RGB. It doesn’t have the space to store that kind of information. With an 8-bit file you are restricted to 255 levels on each color channel (Red, Green, and Blue).

With a RAW file, you can convert it to 16-bit on your computer and it will then have thousands of levels of color. A definite advantage, if you have the equipment to utilize it. Many screens and printers won’t be able to reproduce those extra colors provided by Adobe RGB – and even with it’s narrower color gamut however, sRGB is still considered wide enough for most applications.

So what to choose?

Because the spectrum of color is restricted somewhat is sRGB (in some ends of the spectrum) these images will typically “pop” a little more without any editing consideration. That’s because the color is not spread out over as wide an area. Also, if you work with 8-bit JPG’s, you’ll want to choose sRGB.

If you’re working with 16-bit files, you should likely choose Adobe RGB. Your printer or screen may not utilize all the extra color provided by this color mode, but you likely don’t want to eliminate them as an option without knowing if they’ll be used or not.