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View-Profiles

Antolin Agar Soto

I am currently struggling with the different degree of color saturation between my processed Raw and the exported JPG.

In the [View] menu an option [profiles] appears and I don't know which profile of the many that are listed (Profoto, sRGB ... etc) I have to select. Could you tell me which one is correct or where can I read about this option?

Thank you

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  • Brian Lawson Community moderator

    There isn't any one "correct" profile. The profile to choose will depend upon what you intend to do with the image.

    The different profiles define different color spaces (the number of colors available). When editing we want to use the widest color space available which is one of the ProPhoto spaces. All other spaces are smaller than that which would restrict the colors you have to work with while editing. When you choose a different profile some of the colors in the photo will shift if they fall outside of the new, smaller color space. This is why you see the shift when you export your photos to jpeg and most likely the sRBG color space.

    The view menu allows you to see what the photo looks like in the different color spaces. It is most useful when you turn on the Enable Soft Proofing option. This is like the clipping warnings used in conjunction with the histogram—they identify tones that are pure white or pure black where there can no longer be any image detail left. Soft proofing will identify those colors which fall outside the chosen color space. This gives you the ability to make any color corrections to prevent the color shift.

    sRGB is the recommended color space when posting an image to the web as most monitors don't even cover that entire space. That allows your views to see the most accurate colors possible for their systems. For printing you can either have a custom color profile for the paper/ink combination being used or most printers like the Adobe RBG color space. If you are sending your photos out to be printed ask your printer what colorspace is preferred or see if they have profiles for their printers and ink that you can use. If you do your own printing you can create your own profiles if you own a color photo spectrometer and the appropriate profiling software.

    One more factor that needs to be mentioned is the color space being used to display your photos on your monitor. Is your monitor calibrated/profiled? If not there is no way to know how things are going to look in the finished product as you are not seeing accurate colors in the first place.

    The User Guide covers Soft Proofing starting on page 117. However, there are entire books devoted to managing color. It can get complicated quickly.

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  • Antolin Agar Soto

    Thank you very much Brian, very clear and didactic.

    Yes my screen is calibrated.

    I understand that  I must processes the Raw with a wide profile like Prophoto and before exporting to JPG, select an sRGB profile and activate the option to Enable on-screen test to know which colors will suffer more in the export and try to get closer to what is desired.

    Thank you very much again, it has been very useful to me.

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