Which color profile?

[dragon2 2]

Which color profile are you using? Why?

I have a D70s and currently use Ia sRGB, for no particular reason, and I have the additional options II AdobeRGB and IIIa SRGB.

ciel bleu,
Saskia

[gulaz 1]

If I remember correctly... Adobe RGB will give you closer color to reality, a "bigger color window" or whatever they call it.

You can tell i know lots about color, hey

[Fast 0]

This explains it.


http://www.pcworld.com/howto/article/0,aid,124547,00.asp

~D
Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me.
Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

[dorbie 0]

Different profiles can represent different color ranges/gamuts. Basically your eye can see more colors than a monitor or sRGB format can store. Different printers and methods also have different ranges.

This can appear confusing, for example your display is typically sRGB (approximately), it is often limited to that range. Adobe RGB has a broader gamut, it can store a broader range, however if you display this it can look like it has less color on a monitor or LCD on the camera (unless color correction is happening for example with a callibrated setup) because the software can take the broad gamut and try to show it with the limited display capabilities squeezing the real displayable color into an even narrower range to accomodate the colors that cannot actually be displayed.

Where you win is when you manipulate the images and/or print them, because every printer, and callibrated display has different capabilities to represent color. The gamuts are different and color conversion occurs specific to the device. If you shoot in sRGB you limit the dynamic range of colors stored in the image to those represented by the sRGB color space. Something like Adobe RGB has a broader gamut that can get more color range out of some color printers and some displays for example. If you shoot in sRGB that information is never captured.

So, if you're shooting for a PC display (and/or converting for the web etc.) sRGB will give you the right results with faithful color reproduction to the limits of your PC display. If you are shooting for prints Adobe sRGB will give you a broader gamut that might be used along the way and get more out of your printer. If you want to capture more color and edit curves etc. to get the most from an image then something like Adobe RGB or RAW will be better for you, but you may need to edit to get best results or have a correctly callibrated setup.