Color Management Part 3... sRGB? Adobe RGB? ProPhotoRGB

[@johngavin1085]

Thank you, Wayne, for putting together these very informative videos. I have been away from photography since the beginning of the covid pandemic but have moved back to the Oregon coast with a "new to me" camera (Canon 5d Mark IV), so I can continue where I left off. At the time, I was getting a good handle on color management, but when I started to set up my computer and printer again, I realized that a lot of what I had learned needed to be explored again. Your series is giving me a great review and so far I have learned a heck of a lot more!! Thanks and I look forward to watching the remaining videos in the series and your other videos as well.

[@MichaelFlynn0]

outstanding info for me ie color 101 for curious dummies.

[@chilichickSantaFe]

So helpful and you made it easy to understand

[@cwaynefox]

Thanks

[@d.c.sheets2592]

Another great video! Thank you so much.

[@danielvoulkos8274]

Thank you SO much for this excellent explanation of color space Wayne. These have been great knowledge to pick up.Subscribed....lil late but!

[@cwaynefox]

Awesome, thank you!

[@3DAndDigitalArt]

Hello Wayne, fist of all, many thanks for this series. It's been very helpful to figure out this very hard topic. Also, I am not a native speaker of English and hope my comment and a question is clear. I understand we need colour profiles of input devices, so the colours are correctly imported. Similarly, we need colour profiles of output devices s.a. monitors/printers/projectors, so that output devices produce or display correct colours. What I don't understand is why do we even need a colour profile in the system or say in Photoshop. Why do we have to keep ProPhotoRGB assigned to files? ProPhotRGB is very broad but still somehow limited? Can't we just remove it from a file and not to worry about any restrictions at all? The only explanation to that is we may need to manage colours to match monitors with printers. But then, we need a custom colour profile, not a ProPhotoRGB in Photoshop. This is the only bit I have not understood. Cheers!

[@cwaynefox]

One important fact that most miss is that you want to maintain the original colors as close as possible, so later when you convert to an output space you have all the data available for that conversion. If you clip the colors into a monitor space, then you will be missing many colors that might be in your printer space. Output spaces do not have a relationship with each other at all, instead they all have a relationship with a common “storage” color space., referred to a “working” colorpace. That’s the purpose of the theoretical color spaces, ProPhotoRGB, AdobeRGB, and sRGB. Those spaces are not created based on any output device, but are theoretical and based on maintaining the data (although sRGB really isn’t that either but for some reason it gets lumped into working spaces). You have have a “common” space that can contain all the data, so as you output the data to differerent devices you have all the available data to make that conversion with. Only ProPhotoRGB is large enough to contain all the information a modern sensor can capture, which maximizes the ability to map the data into various output spaces. the next video covers that concept pretty well.

[@3DAndDigitalArt]

Thanks for the response. This is quite challenging topic and I was confused about working spaces. The missing bit was the ability to make conversion. I didn't realise we would need to have something to convert from, that is a theoretical colour space. I thought a RAW data would work equally well. Cheers!

[@keithpinn152]

Hi Wayne: Thanks for this video. I must say that your explanation and use of the software to demonstrate the printable areas for the various profiles has been very interesting. That being said, how would a person be able to search for printers that can print within the ProPhoto RGB colour space. I have an Epson R3880 printer and I am very happy with it but what should l be looking at for a home printer? Regards, Keith

[@cwaynefox]

That 3880 is a great printer, with a solid gamut. Yes the current p900 probably has a slightly bigger gamut, but I don't think you would see any difference in your prints between the two. The 3880 might be the best printer Epson has ever manufactured.

[@MichaelAngeloMacias]

Thanks for the incredible knowledge Wayne, much respect! would you agree that the purpose of ProPhotoRGB is not necessarily aimed at printing in that space but to perform a maximized translation when It came to editorial and finally the printing of one's image?

[@cwaynefox]

ProPhotoRGB is a storage space. All data in storage spaces get converted to output spaces, you never see them in the space. If you use a storage space that doesn't have colors that are in your output space, then you limit the colors of your output space because your storage space cannot store those colors. All current photo quality inkjet printers have some colors outside of AdobeRGB, and a lot of color outside of sRGB. ProPhotoRGB is the only space designed with digital photograph in mind, and the only space that won't result in some color clipping somewhere in the chain before you get to your printer.

[@MichaelAngeloMacias]

@@cwaynefox good point, thanks Wayne!