are colour profiles pre-applied in RAW mode?

[jeelan]

hi guys

jst following on from my last post re Aperture and how it is showing colour profile of Adobe 1998 in the exif even though my camera is set to sRGB..

Are colour profiles actually applied when shooting in RAW? or is this something you can change in pp?

just curious.....

cheers
Jeelan

[ricktas]

A RAW file will have the profile including in its data, but in your software you can quite readily change the colour profile from AdobeRGB to sRGB or one of a myriad others. Lightroom uses ProPhoto be default.

Slight issues only occur when you change from a smaller colourspace to a bigger one. Say going from sRGB to AdobeRGB. The adobe colourspace is larger, therefore it will make up some colours to fit, that are not in the sRGB space (and therefore not in your photo) during the conversion process.

You should be able to change the setting in Aperture to match the colourspace your camera is set to.

[jeelan]

hi Rick

thanks for that..

so in view of your comments regarding changing from a smaller colour space to a larger one....

would i be better off selecting Abode RGB in the camera and then changing this to sRGB during exports from Aperture? Aperture is my main PP software at this stage

cheers
Jeelan

[ricktas]

Yes and No..hehe

NO because at present most computer monitors are unable to display the full gamut of colours that AdobeRGB offers. Printers also suffer this issue. Therefore using AdobeRGB is probably overkill under present conditions.

YES because in future this will change and you will be able to revisit your AdobeRGB photos taken today, and view them as they were meant to be viewed and print them will a much wider range of colours on the printers available at that time.

So, setting your camera to AdobeRGB will 'future proof' you in relation to the above. However AdobeRGB photos will look 'flat' on an sRGB system (the web is designed to work with sRGB). Some printers (commercial) also have the same issue if you get prints done direct from AdobeRGB photos, they may look 'flat' due to the printer using the sRGB colourspace.

If you want to set your camera to AdobeRGB (mine are) feel free, but remember to convert to sRGB before uploading those photos to the web, or printing (some printers can deal with the AdobeRGB colourspace).