Setting the Colour Space in Lightroom & Photoshop CC

[Brownbear]

I have my camera set to the sRGB colour space.

I was certain that I also had my colour space in Lightroom and Photoshop CC set to sRGB however it has been brought to my attention that the images I'm posting are Adobe RGB. Adobe Photoshop CC is new to me as it came along with Lightroom in the Cloud package. I suspect that my chosen colour space might be changing when I export a file as a PSD from Lightroom but I'm not sure.

Below I have posted some screen shots of my colour settings with the hope that someone might be able to advise/see if I have set the colour space settings correctly, or not.

Thank you.


Lightroom







Adobe Photoshop CC

[Manfred M]

First of all Christina - you are looking at two totally different issues; the colour space you are working in and the colour space you are posting in. There is no right and wrong here, just your personal preferences. I have a display that is high gamut, so I never use sRGB for any in-processs work. My camera (and your camera) produce 14-bit images; so why would I cripple my work by effectively using the 8-bit sRGB colour space?

I do all my work in a high gamut workspace (usually AdobeRGB but I have been playing around in ProPhoto lately) and then convert to sRGB only when posting for display on the internet. This is my final step and I generally throw out the image after posting. As I show my images on a high gamut screen and do all my prints out of Photoshop files, I have no need to sRGB except for that one use.

[DanK]

There is no option that I know of to set a color working space in Lightroom. It's native color space is Melissa, a variant of prophoto RGB. If you import a raw file, that is what it will use. It automatically translates that to make the display reasonable when you work on the image, but it doesn't actually change the color space until you export the file as a jpg or TIFF. At that point, if you are going to display on the web, specify sRGB in the export dialog. It is sticky, so you only have to do it once. for any export setting or preset.

[Brownbear]

Thank you Manfred.

How do I know what colour space I am working in? Is that the same as the external editing in Lightroom... Which I should change to 16 bit in the 2nd box?

And in Photoshop CC... ?

Thank you.

First of all Christina - you are looking at two totally different issues; the colour space you are working in and the colour space you are posting in. There is no right and wrong here, just your personal preferences. I have a display that is high gamut, so I never use sRGB for any in-processs work. My camera (and your camera) produce 14-bit images; so why would I cripple my work by effectively using the 8-bit sRGB colour space?

I do all my work in a high gamut workspace (usually AdobeRGB but I have been playing around in ProPhoto lately) and then convert to sRGB only when posting for display on the internet. This is my final step and I generally throw out the image after posting. As I show my images on a high gamut screen and do all my prints out of Photoshop files, I have no need to sRGB except for that one use.

[Brownbear]

Thank you Dan. Appreciated!

I have double checked LR and I believe I now have the correct settings for exporting files.

There is no option that I know of to set a color working space in Lightroom. It's native color space is Melissa, a variant of prophoto RGB. If you import a raw file, that is what it will use. It automatically translates that to make the display reasonable when you work on the image, but it doesn't actually change the color space until you export the file as a jpg or TIFF. At that point, if you are going to display on the web, specify sRGB in the export dialog. It is sticky, so you only have to do it once. for any export setting or preset.

[bnnrcn]

Hi Manfred, may I ask how you convert to sRGB in photoshop part of PS CC. I know how to do it in ACR because there is an option for it. But if I open my raw image in photoshop part of PS CC, I save it as psd first and only option is AdobeRGB, then after editing I save it as JPG and only option is AdobeRGB again. If I open a JPG image which was taken by my camera in photoshop part and if I save it after my edit, then the option is sRGB. So how can I convert my edited raw image to sRGBin photoshop part?

First of all Christina - you are looking at two totally different issues; the colour space you are working in and the colour space you are posting in. There is no right and wrong here, just your personal preferences. I have a display that is high gamut, so I never use sRGB for any in-processs work. My camera (and your camera) produce 14-bit images; so why would I cripple my work by effectively using the 8-bit sRGB colour space?

I do all my work in a high gamut workspace (usually AdobeRGB but I have been playing around in ProPhoto lately) and then convert to sRGB only when posting for display on the internet. This is my final step and I generally throw out the image after posting. As I show my images on a high gamut screen and do all my prints out of Photoshop files, I have no need to sRGB except for that one use.

[Manfred M]

Hi Manfred, may I ask how you convert to sRGB in photoshop part of PS CC. I know how to do it in ACR because there is an option for it. But if I open my raw image in photoshop part of PS CC, I save it as psd first and only option is AdobeRGB, then after editing I save it as JPG and only option is AdobeRGB again. If I open a JPG image which was taken by my camera in photoshop part and if I save it after my edit, then the option is sRGB. So how can I convert my edited raw image to sRGBin photoshop part?

Under the Edit menu select "Convert to Profile"; it's near the bottom of the list and select sRGB ICE61966-2.1

[Manfred M]

Thank you Manfred.

How do I know what colour space I am working in? Is that the same as the external editing in Lightroom... Which I should change to 16 bit in the 2nd box?

And in Photoshop CC... ?

Thank you.

I think you have it in the screenshots that you have posted, and yes, use 16-bit. Dan is right, so far as I understand how Lightroom is set up.

[pnodrog]

Christina I noticed in your last screen shot you have all the colour management policy set to preserve embedded profiles and that seems to be what Photoshop is obediently doing. You should set them to use your preferred colour space and set the profile mismatch option to your preference. I have it set it to ask on opening - that way if I ever edit someone else's image I will be asked what colour space I wish to use.

P.S. I would never work in sRGB for my own photographs - export in sRGB yes - work in it no.

[Brownbear]

Hi Paul,

Thank you so much for sharing and advising. I will figure it out how to change the settings. I think I have also been working on 8bit images, but only sometimes. It is the confusion of having Photoshop CC along with Lightroom.

Christina I noticed in your last screen shot you have all the colour management policy set to preserve embedded profiles and that seems to be what Photoshop is obediently doing. You should set them to use your preferred colour space and set the profile mismatch option to your preference. I have it set it to ask on opening - that way if I ever edit someone else's image I will be asked what colour space I wish to use.

P.S. I would never work in sRGB for my own photographs - export in sRGB yes - work in it no.

[Colin Southern]

There is no option that I know of to set a color working space in Lightroom. It's native color space is Melissa, a variant of prophoto RGB.

Hi Dan,

No - Melissa RGB (a Gamma 2.2 varient of linear pro-photo) is only used for the percentages and histogram displays; internally it's all linear gamma / pro-photo.

[Colin Southern]

PS: Christina, if you're shooting RAW then it doesn't matter what colourspace the camera is set to - it's ignored (because a RAW file doesn't have a colourspace -- it has to be converted first).

[Brownbear]

Hi Colin,

Thank you for sharing... For some reason it seems that the images I've been posting lately are in aRGB but I just checked the images I just posted and the exif say sRGB so I think I managed to change my settings to what they should be.

PS: Christina, if you're shooting RAW then it doesn't matter what colourspace the camera is set to - it's ignored (because a RAW file doesn't have a colourspace -- it has to be converted first).

[Colin Southern]

Hi Colin,

Thank you for sharing... For some reason it seems that the images I've been posting lately are in aRGB but I just checked the images I just posted and the exif say sRGB so I think I managed to change my settings to what they should be.

Well done!

Personally, I work in a wider space and then just click on a button that runs an action that converts an image to sRGB before saving a JPEG copy for the web.