VIDEO: What Color Profile Should I Assign in Photoshop?
Assigning an RGB color profile in Photoshop will have a great effect to how your images are displayed and printed.
There is a big difference between sRGB and Adobe RGB color gamuts. Adobe RGB has a larger color gamut than sRGB and will produce more saturated color. However, it’s not meant for all RGB images.
This VIDEO tutorial will step through the confusion of which RGB color profile to use with your images in Adobe Photoshop CS.
Most digital cameras save images with sRGB color profile. sRGB color gamut is smaller than Adobe RGB. While the RGB color values stay the same, the resulting color that is displayed is significantly different. For higher color saturation, choose Adobe RGB color profile. While not for every image, Adobe RGB is a preferred color profile to assign to your images.
All RGB profiles are not the same and will produce different color when printed even though the RGB values are the same.
Note: Try this FREE Photoshop Hi-Def Color Action Script and forget about assigning any profiles in Photoshop. Use this script and automate your workflow with InDesign by placing these images and bypass converting any of your images to CMYK!
Recommended usage of Adobe RGB profile:
- Architectural
- Landscapes
- Animals
- Nature
- Sports
- Science
- Food
Recommended usage of sRGB:
- Portraits-People
In conclusion, I prefer to use Adobe RGB on most everything except portrait photography. Try both and see which one works best for you.
Have you had profile challenges before? Please leave a comment below…
Image: LM Studios
15 Comments
The purpose of the video is to explain how to Assign an RGB profile to your images and to show what happens to your image when different RGB profiles are applied. Yes, sRGB is preferred for web publishing as current browsers do not support color management and will default to displaying sRGB color. Adobe RGB is a larger RGB gamut and will be used more in the future and monitors and printers become more advanced.
Does this help you?
Is this video for print or for publishing to the web? Because I have read that the sRGB profile is best for publishing to the web. And if you use other profiles it will not look good. Thanks!
so many questions to be answered?
Thank you! What would you like to see next?
exactly what I needed! Thanks. Keep em coming.
No problem. Are there other videos of color reproduction that you would like to see in the future?
thanks
you make me stress-less and you just give me accurate answer 
very impressive very motivated i love fell like ma in the right track on to the next level in photography
I have iDisplay that balances and builds a colour profile for my monitor. If I use any other colour setting than the monitor profile (so I have setting don’t manage this document) then everything will be wrong. It may look great in PH but it won’t print right and will look bad if sent to another computer because the colour space is contained in PH so there is a clash between PH’s colour space and my monitor profile.
not sure i completely understand the question, but we can figure it out. are you referring to saving the final image for web? besides portraits, you can assign the Adobe RGB profile for an instant color correction. it adds much punch to the color. i think your asking about web images as most web browsers do not support profiles and resort to sRGB, therefore losing your color you had in Adobe. use ‘save for web’ and make sure the ‘convert to sRGB’ is checked
but if you edit in aRGB when you save for the final image, the image wont look the same. you have to do your editing is sRGB and make it look like aRGB (if you prefer that punch color/saturation look) or they wont come out the same. yes?
yes you should keep your color settings consistent. i like to use Adobe RGB for all images other than images with skin tones. skin tones tend to be over saturated in Adobe RGB.
let me know if you need more information from me.
Glad i could help you out! Share it with your friends…
Thank you so much for this, I just upgraded to CS5 and was going crazy looking how to change color spaces.
This is very informative. I would like to know, if I should be consistent with my color settings in photoshop exporting from lightroom?