Comments on: Video - Lightroom, Photoshop, and Color Spaces

By: Scott Jones

Scott Jones — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 18:10:37 +0000

Hi Matt,

You mention that you and others could see some “quality” differences in, I assume< prints between the two color spaces. But you do not define at all what those “quality” differences were. What are you and others seeing?

Thanks,

Scott

By: Kevin

Kevin — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 13:43:04 +0000

Great video on color spaces I just think it could have used a few minutes more to discuss what color space to use when outputting the finished file. Adobe1998 or prophoto are best used on high end ink jet printers. However, when outputting to the web or to a traditional photo lab which will be printing on light based printers, such like the fuji frontier, which is what most online print houses use, it is best to output the finished file to sRGB. Otherwise, you either get a significant color shift or you must submit your photo, and all the work you put into it, to the will of the lab tech. This is why mpex, whcc, and any other number of online print houses tell you to submit sRGB files.

By: Jami

Jami — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 07:07:47 +0000

Hi Matt-
Thanks for the info. I love your site!
Question: if I am shooting in RAW and doing the majority of my post-process in Lightroom, which color profile should my camera be set to? I assume the same profile should also be assigned at the time of export from Lightoom? I need to optimize my JPEG files for print (I shoot mostly portraits), but also need my images to look good on my website. I keep hearing mixed reviews between AdobeRGB and sRGB. Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

By: Markus Koljonen

Markus Koljonen — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 06:12:50 +0000

Hi Matt, thanks for this enlightening piece. It seems color spaces are complex enough to allow for some controversy!

By: Rodney Gracia

Rodney Gracia — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 23:17:28 +0000

Matt. Like some commenters here, I have had a few issues with Adobe RGB 1998 vs sRGB. Especially with the way certain browsers handle the images exported with those. I use Flickr and once I got hooked with Lightroom I started exporting my RAW images to JPEG for web using Adobe RGB 1998. All was well until I started to heavily use Safari for web browsing, and noticed my images would lose saturation once exported and uploaded to Flickr. At first I thought it was a Flickr processing byproduct by further investigation and some forum questioning led to the answer and the cause being the profile in use for exporting to JPG. Once I started using sRGB my images looked just as colorful on any browser as they did inside Lightroom. I know different profiles will be used for different purposes, but to keep the most compatibility on the web, across the main browsers at least, sRGB offered the best results.

By: B Jaber

B Jaber — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 03:14:43 +0000

Great stuff as usual. How about a preset for “That 70’s Look”? One which mimcs old 70’s film look. That would be great!

By: Matt Kloskowski

Matt Kloskowski — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 22:15:34 +0000

Patrick - Thanks. I will!

Amit - Nope. Don’t use Screenflow yet. I’ve been happy with ishowu

Saundra - I only export to 16-bit if I have a large exposure or color correction I need to make where that extra loss of info actually makes a difference. Otherwise, for simple retouching all 16 bit does for me is give me twice the file size and a slower Photoshop.

Daniel - Nope. No loss of quality happening.

Thanks all.
Matt K

By: Daniel Gomes

Daniel Gomes — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 19:22:08 +0000

Hi there!
I have a question that has nothing to do with color spaces but I really didn’t know here else to ask this question…
Basically I’m interested in the DNG format, after seeing you talk about it in Photoshop User TV I converted my RAW pictures to DNG but did not erase the originals and after comparing file sizes I saw that some of the DNG files are half the size (in Mb) compared to the originals! (I converted using the option compressed (lossless) option from Lightroom)

Does this size decrease mean that I’m losing image quality? or control over the recovery of shadows and/or highlights? I need to know if there is any compromise between the quality and the file sizes.

Thank you for your time

By: Saundra

Saundra — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 16:28:59 +0000

Matt,

What a wonderful site. I just had a friend send me this link and am starting to explore all the wonderful info.Of course I started w/ this tut. I noticed you exported in 8 bit instead of 16 bit and I am wondering why. My understanding is that you are then loosing some with the photo conversion.

By: Paulo Jordao

Paulo Jordao — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 15:55:56 +0000

Hi Matt.
I see great comments here.
I am a Photographer in Fort Lauderdale - Miami area, and I noticed that The color of my pictures in LightRoom are different than the color of them on my Photoshop.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t opend your video (I don’t know the reason)
Thanks
Paulo