Has this ever happened to you: You just edited and fine tuned your photos and sent them to the printer (either in your home or to a online printing store such as Snapfish). You get your printed photos back and the colors do not match what you saw in the camera or even on your computer screen.
More than likely your digital camera is working in one color space, while your monitor is running in another color space which is different than the color space of your printer. And none of these can see all the colors that our eyes see.
Are you still with me?
To put it simply, color space is the range of colors available on any given device for the sake of this tutorial.
Illustration courtesy Jeff Schewe
from A Color Managed Workflow
which is found on the Adobe Web site.
Let’s begin with the color space of the human eye. In the diagram above, the color space is represented by the horseshoe of color beneath the triangles. Obviously we can see the full spectrum of visible color unless you are color blind.
Next we have ProPhoto RGB which has the largest range of colors. Some colors are not actually in the visible spectrum of color as shown above by the triangle going outside the horseshoe realm of color space. And although this color space will produce vivid photographs, those colors will not translate onto paper.
Adobe RGB has a pretty wide range of colors available. And most printers you can buy today can produce prints in this color space.
sRGB has the smallest range of colors of the spaces I am discussing today but has been the default color space for many years.
Why you should be concerned with Color Space.
To have image consistency, your digital camera, your computer monitor, your photo editing software and your printer will all need to be working in the same color space. Otherwise you are going to be disappointed time after time with your images.
First you will need to take a look at all four devices I have mentioned to see what color space options are available to you. Ideally you will want to choose the best color space you have. In most cases that will be Adobe RGB. Three of these four devices will make it easy for you to choose the best color space. Your computer monitor will be the most challenging as it will not have a menu option like the other devices do. For accurate monitor coloring, it is recommended that you purchase a monitor calibration kit (like these available from Amazon’ target=_blank>Amazon – affiliate link) and perform a calibration weekly.
Once you have all your devices presenting your images in the same color space, I promise you that you will be happier with your final images whether you feature them on the web, hanging on your wall, or printed in a digital scrapbook.
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