Hey Everyone! Hope your having a great week!  This week I want to talk about Color Space.  What color space is and what you should set your camera to and what you should export to.  This is a subject that can really get you lost in the woods and its very simple to figure out.  There are lots of opinions on this subject.  First of all if you shoot only in RAW you it doesn't really matter what you set your camera at.  Only if your shooting JPEG's.  It does affect your live view a little but not really.  So lets talk about Color Space first.  

SRGB.  SRGB is the most common color space.  It is what your phone , computer screen and all of the devices use for their color.  I like to think of the color spaces as crayons.  SRGB is the pack you got when you were in pre-school.  Maybe 8 Colors and you can mix and match all of them to make other colors.  So all of the colors that you see on your laptop, iPad, phone even TV are SRGB.  Most camera's come factory set at SRGB.

Adobe RGB.  This color space came out after SRGB and has many more colors.  In crayon terms its the 64 crayon box full of colors.  It has 35 times the colors that SRGB has.  The problem is that you have to have a special monitor to see the difference between SRGB and Adobe RBG. So that is the difference between SRGB and Adobe RGB color science.  One Adobe RGB is much more colors than SRGB. So when can I use Adobe RGB?  The only time I think you could use it is when printing.  Some printers can print Adobe RGB and if your entering photo contest they use Adobe RGB monitors to view the photo's.

So for setting your camera if your shooting in RAW which you should it doesn't matter. If your shooting in JPEG you could use either. The real question is how are you going to present this photo? So its really how are you going to export the photo from your photo editing software? Most of us are going to put it on the web or use it as a digital image.  Remember Screens can only see SRGB so if you shoot in Adobe RGB and are outputting for digital use all of the colors won't be used because SRGB space is so small. If your only going to display as a print then Adobe RGB printed on a Adobe RGB printer will work great.  But there aren't many Adobe RGB printers. And they are expensive.  If your going to send it out to be printed check with the company your using on what color space they use. Then choose that one.  The simple answer for all of the questions is SRGB in most cases and Adobe RGB in special occasions.  I hope this has helped and not muddied the water.

The reason I came up with this topic this week is because I was looking at some of the EXIF data on some of my photo's on my web site and saw that some photo's were in SRGB and some were in ADOBE RGB.  So I started researching and thought I would share. So until next week keep learning and get out and shoot!