Testing: Adobe RGB vs. sRGB

I've always been told that it's better to use the sRGB color gamut for digital photography as general rule and for posting photos online in particular. Recently I've been tempted by the wider gamut of Adobe RGB and wanted to see for myself if there was any reason NOT to use it.

Below are three shots taken with my D7100. Each one was shot in 14-bit RAW, opened in Adobe Camera RAW using the Adobe RGB profile and given the exact same processing (basic adjustments, nothing fancy).

Each photo was then exported to Photoshop where it was resized without any further processing and saved as a JPG.

The whole process was repeated but this time the photos had their color profile re-assigned to sRGB immediately prior to saving as JPG.

From what I can tell, photos look much better when using the Adobe RGB gamut.
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^^^ Adobe RGB Saved as Adobe RGB
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^^^ Adobe RGB Saved as sRGB
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^^^ Adobe RGB Saved as Adobe RGB
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^^^ Adobe RGB Saved as sRGB
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^^^ Adobe RGB Saved as Adobe RGB
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^^^ Adobe RGB Saved as sRGB
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There are subtle differences between the pictures. The Adobe RGB versions a little bit more punchy on my (calibrated) screen.

In addition to this, you could shoot a second independent photo set to sRGB in-camera and process it in the same way.

Felisek said:

There are subtle differences between the pictures. The Adobe RGB versions a little bit more punchy on my (calibrated) screen.

Click to expand...

Agreed... Which surprises me because I've always been told to shoot sRGB because computer monitors don't handle the Adobe profile as well. I haven't calibrated my monitor (I know I should) so it's good to hear from someone who has that you are seeing the same "punchier" color in the Adobe RGB shots that I am. The Adobe RGB shots look better in all three browsers, too, from what I can tell.

Felisek said:

In addition to this, you could shoot a second independent photo set to sRGB in-camera and process it in the same way.

Click to expand...

I'm thinking about doing exactly that...

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We would expect to see differences - not better, but different.

My guess why you are seeing no difference is because Photoshop has the menu Edit - Color Settings, where you tell it to convert all images to sRGB for output (because, that is quite important to do). I would expect if you look in your Exif, you will see the converted sRGB profile specified now.

You would not see any enhanced aRGB in the browser anyway, at most a difference that would look worse in the sRGB browser.

Mine is calibrated too and there's a reasonable difference between both. aRGB seems to have somewhat warmer colors. Especially the yellow differs. sRGB is very primary while aRGB feels as if there's a slight tint of orange in it.

I guess what I'm not understanding is why is sRGB considered the "go to" color profile? It appears to me Adobe RGB is clearly better.

What am I missing?

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I checked the same individual pixels for their RGB values in both images for blue/yellow/red. I might have mixed them up but it shows they're clearly different.

Yellow:
223, 185
212, 184

Blue
65, 125, 214
88, 124, 210

Red:
122, 61, 66
139, 59, 64

Horoscope Fish said:

I guess what I'm not understanding is why is sRGB considered the "go to" color profile? It appears to me Adobe RGB is clearly better.

What am I missing?

Click to expand...

Most printing services aren't set up for Adobe RGB. Yes, overall there is a wider gamut of color. But in order to get the most out of Adobe RGB, you have to use it for the entire process from capture to editing to printing. People who print @ home and control the process from start to finish, can squeeze more out of Adobe RGB and have more vivid color as a result.

I said "punchier colours", I didn't say "better". I'd struggle to call any of them better. For example the yellow table with wheels looks fully saturated in Adobe RGB, which might be a problem. I wouldn't worry about less saturated colours, as this is something easy to correct. Oversaturation is a problem.

I'm guessing that viewing a wider Adobe RGB gamut on a sRGB screen puts some of the colours at the edge of sRGB space, making them fully saturated. But I don't really understand this, so this is only a wild guess.

Horoscope Fish said:

I guess what I'm not understanding is why is sRGB considered the "go to" color profile? It appears to me Adobe RGB is clearly better.

What am I missing?

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Click to expand...

https://fstoppers.com/pictures/adobergb-vs-srgb-3167

Good article

Felisek said:

I said "punchier colours", I didn't say "better". I'd struggle to call any of them better. For example the yellow table with wheels looks fully saturated in Adobe RGB, which might be a problem. I wouldn't worry about less saturated colours, as this is something easy to correct. Oversaturation is a problem.

I'm guessing that viewing a wider Adobe RGB gamut on a sRGB screen puts some of the colours at the edge of sRGB space, making them fully saturated. But I don't really understand this, so this is only a wild guess.

Click to expand...

Sorry, I didn't mean to put words in your mouth...

AC016 said:

https://fstoppers.com/pictures/adobergb-vs-srgb-3167

Good article

Click to expand...

Oh I've read it... And several other articles much like it. All of them seem to say that for online posting sRGB is the better gamut. I'm not sure I agree with that.

Browncoat said:

Most printing services aren't set up for Adobe RGB. Yes, overall there is a wider gamut of color. But in order to get the most out of Adobe RGB, you have to use it for the entire process from capture to editing to printing. People who print @ home and control the process from start to finish, can squeeze more out of Adobe RGB and have more vivid color as a result.

Click to expand...

So then the only real drawback would be if my printer (and by that I mean the lab I use since I don't do my own printing typically) was not set up to use Adobe RGB?

I appreciate everyone's input, by the way...

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Horoscope Fish said:

So then the only real drawback would be if my printer (and by that I mean the lab I use since I don't do my own printing typically) was not set up to use Adobe RGB?

Click to expand...

Yeah.

As long as your print lab is set up for it, you're good to go. Just change everything to Adobe RGB:
> Color space in-camera
> Lightroom and Photoshop
> Pay special attention to export/save settings

Go the extra mile and request your lab's ICC Printer Profiles. Then everything will be a dead-on match.