Color Space and Raw?

[BobH]

I'm still learning all the subtleties of color space and calibration and printing etc.

I'm using a Nikon D3'' and it offers me the choice of using SRGB or Adobe RGB.

I've got some questions regarding that choice.

1) Does the color space option even apply if I'm shooting raw?

2) If it does apply, would there be a benefit to using Adobe RGB? It suggests using SRGB for typical applications, but switching to ADOBE for pro printing etc.

3) What settings, if any, should I change in LR if I do switch to Adobe RGB?

 

[Mark Sirota]

No, the color space doesn't matter if you're shooting raw. (Exception: the color space is used for the JPEG preview created by the camera, which is embedded in the raw file, displayed on the back of the camera, and used to calculate the histogram shown on the camera.)

You don't need to change anything in LR. Within LR and working with raw files, you're always working in LR's internal color space, which is far larger than sRGB or Adobe RGB. Only when you're exporting out of Lightroom does the color space come into play, and in that case you choose the color space according to what you're going to do with the file -- sRGB if it's going to the web, for example.

 

[BobH]

OK, thanks for the confirmation.

That's how I thought it worked, but I decided I'd better confirm that rather than just assume.

Oddly, nothing I could find in the D3'' manual mentions that Color Space doesn't apply to RAW, even though I was pretty sure that was the case.

Thanks,
Bob