SRGB vs. Adobe RGB: What’s Best for YOUR Style of Photos? (VIDEO)

Accurate Colors are an essential component of every image you capture unless, of course, monochrome is your thing. To get everything right it’s important to understand the Color Space settings that are available, and how they impact your work.

Like with most things in photography there’s no “right” option  for every image you make, because the “correct” choice depends upon how you intend to display and share the photo(s) in question. This seven-minute tutorial from the Photo Feaver YouTube channel clears up all the confusion in barely seven minutes.

Instructor James is a passionate landscape photographer and post-processing expert whose shooting and editing lessons cover a wide range of topics geared toward beginning and intermediate shooters. He kicks off today’s episode with this: “What defines the colors of your photos is the Color Space you shoot in,” and there are more options than you may know.

SRGB and Adobe RGB are the most commonly used settings, but there’s also ProPhoto RGB and CMYK. James explains what this terminology means, how it matters, and why a firm grasp of the differences is super important.

James explains that “a Color Space is like a box that includes the range of colors your image can contain—otherwise referred to as “color gamut.” Some of these boxes are small, while others are “massive.” And as you’ll see, “choosing the right Color Space is critical to how your images will look on the screen and appear in print.”

The term SRGB is an abbreviation for “standard red, green and blue” introduced in 1998 by HP and Microsoft to work with the Web, computer monitors, and color printers. This very small color profile has both benefits and drawbacks, but it became the global go-to choice—at least for a while.

Of course imaging technology has changed significantly since the 90’s, which is why James walks you through newer Color Space options, explains what they represent, and the pros and cons of each.

So which setting should use when? After watching the video you’ll be able to delete this question from your list of unexplained photo mysteries. Then head over to the Photo Feaver YouTube channel where there’s much more to learn.

And on a related note, don’t miss the tutorial we featured earlier from another top expert who explains in-camera techniques for capturing winter photographs with accurate colors when snow covers the landscape.