What are color spaces and why should you care?

Simply put, without getting into ICC profiles, they are models that translate the raw data captures from your camera's sensors into colors that can be interpreted by your device (be it a monitor, cellphone or printer). The sensors of digital cameras actually record a large amount of data that include colors that many devices can’t even reproduce. In fact it can even record colors that the human eye is unable to see (such as infrared). There are a couple of standards in use nowadays. On the web sRBG is the standard. But professionals usually work in AdobeRGB and ProPhotoRGB, especially if the image is going to print.

Take a look at the following image. The horseshoe shape is the spectrum of colors that the human eye can see. The little triangle inside is sRGB, the colorspace that is by far the most used on the web.

sRGB

It is the standard colorspace that all non-color managed applications use to display their interfaces. So what happens when you look at an image in a non-color managed application? The colors look washed out and what you envisioned on your computer is lost in (color)translation.

Now let’s look at AdobeRGB and ProPhotoRGB

AdobeRGB

ProPhotoRGB

One thing you might notice here it that ProPhoto can actually hold colors outside of the spectrum of the human eye.

8-bit vs 16 bit (or higher)?

What is the difference? Well basically it’s the amount of data each color channel can hold per pixel. This means that more bits is more data (which also means bigger filesize) and as such more control. You will get finer gradients between colors and more control when adjusting curves/levels.

So what does all of this mean for the average person? Working in 8-bit sRGB is definitely the most convenient, it is the default for all digital content and most consumer displays are calibrated for the sRGB colorspace. As such it is less likely to cause problems when sharing your images with others. But keep in mind that future proofing your work is never a bad thing. You might not be thinking about printing your work right now, but if you ever decide to it would be a shame if you had to redo everything from your RAW files (you do keep a backup right?).

Preparing your images for output

So you decided to work in a colorspace other than sRGB. How do you make sure your images display correctly on other people’s devices? It’s actually not that difficult. In photoshop you simply “Edit -> Convert to Profile…” and select sRGB before you save your image for the web. Lightroom and other programs all have export options that allow you to convert to sRGB or already do it by default.