Color spaces

Cameras, all monitors, and most printers can display only a limited range of colors – this is called the color space. The industry-standard space is called sRGB color (standard, red, green, and blue), but there are many other spaces such as Adobe RGB (1998) and ProPhoto RGB, to name just two.

Most color spaces correctly claim to encompass a broader range of color than sRGB. While this is certainly true, actually being able to see an increase in the range of colors on both a computer screen and in print is a characteristic that's hard to evaluate because most screens and printers cannot recreate the number of colors captured by the camera.

Most consumer cameras can be set to capture only one of two different spaces: sRGB or Adobe RGB (1998). The best practice for amateur photographers is to choose sRGB. This matches the range of colors that most monitors can display, plus it matches the gamut, or range, of most consumer photo inkjet printers. That said, some commercial lithographic print businesses now require files to be Adobe RGB (1998) in order to match the high-end print machines they use. If you are considering a move to commercial photography, then Adobe RGB (1998) is the best color space setting. That said, a good color pre-press business should also be able to make these space conversions for you, for a fee. Camera menus tend to be very different – refer to the manual to find the all-important option of color space. The following image shows the Canon screen with my preference for the sRGB color space:

While Photoshop Elements was initially designed as a pixel-based editor for the JPEG file format some 15 years ago, it's now fully compatible with most RAW file formats.

Let's take a closer look at how different file formats work in the editing process.