Color space profiles, Adobe vs sRGB

djsilver666666

I have my camera set to save my photos as "Large, Fine" jpgs, and every time I open them in CS3 I get this message:


I believe that the Adobe color space is better, but if the jpgs are already saved with sRGB then I will only lose color by converting. Should I just change my defaults so I don't have to deal with this message every time I open a picture?

arodney

djsilver666666 wrote:

I have my camera set to save my photos as "Large, Fine" jpgs, and every time I open them in CS3 I get this message:


I believe that the Adobe color space is better, but if the jpgs are already saved with sRGB then I will only lose color by converting. Should I just change my defaults so I don't have to deal with this message every time I open a picture?

What's done is done. You're "stuck" with the images in that color space (converting from sRGB to Adobe RGB (1998) buys you nothing). Either shoot Raw or if you must shoot JPEG, set the camera for that in camera processing.

jfriend

djsilver666666 wrote:

I have my camera set to save my photos as "Large, Fine" jpgs, and every time I open them in CS3 I get this message:

I believe that the Adobe color space is better, but if the jpgs are already saved with sRGB then I will only lose color by converting. Should I just change my defaults so I don't have to deal with this message every time I open a picture?

First, you should really decide what color space you really want to use long term for your photos. If you are shooting JPEGs (as opposed to RAW), then you have to set your camera according to your choice so future images will be shot in the desired colorspace. For people that shoot RAW (which is a separate decision for you), the colorspace is not determined at shoot time in the camera, but in the RAW editor when the RAW image is turned into a JPEG or TIFF.

If you understand colorspaces, have a pretty good grasp on when an image can be AdobeRGB and when it must be sRGB and you regularly print on a printer that has more colors than sRGB (most home inkjets, for example), then you may want to shoot in AdobeRGB and may want to change your camera to shoot in that colorspace.

If you don't yet really feel comfortable with colorspaces, aren't really sure when an AdobeRGB image is appropriate and when an image must be sRGB or your images really only end up on the web or printed in an online lab that only takes sRGB (like printed via Smugmug, Costco, Wal-Mart, Longs, Ritz, etc...), then you should continue to shoot in sRGB.

Once you've set up your camera the way you really want it for the long term, you can then decide how you want to configure Photoshop. Here you have several choices - you can decide what you want Photoshop's default working space to be and you can decide whether you want it to bother/nag/warn you when it encounters an image that isn't in that working space. Whatever you pick as your long term image color space for future photos is probably what you should set the default working space in Photoshop to. Go to Edit/Color Settings to set them.



The top "RGB" setting is what you would set to either sRGB or AdobeRGB. At the bottom of this dialog are three checkboxes where you can decide whether you want Photoshop to inform/bother/nag you when an image you are opening meets one of these conditions.

I strongly suggest that you check Missing Profiles: [X] Ask When Opening. This will inform you that a document has not color profile and ask you which one you want to assign and even let you see a preview while you look at the different choices. Since an image you care about is rarely supposed to be without a profile, I find it an important thing to know if the image has no profile. It's either a mistake in somebody's workflow or something you need to fix on this image with care or both.

The Profile Mismatches: [X] Ask When Opening option is really up to you. I have it on so that it tells me anytime I edit an image that isn't in my normal working space. This just reminds me to pay attention in case I might need to convert it for my use of the image. It's quick to dismiss if you don't need to do anything.

If you decide to switch to AdobeRGB for future images and set Photoshop that way, but all your existing images are sRGB, that's really no big deal. You will either just get a warning whenenver you open an sRGB image (which you can dutifully ignore and leave them in sRGB) or you can turn the warning off in Photoshop so it won't nag you. As Andrew said, there's really no reason to go converting sRGB images to AdobeRGB at this point as the images have already been restricted to the colors in sRGB.

djsilver666666

Thanks for the informative replies!
I almost only print from Smugmug, so I guess I will stick with sRGB