sRGB V Abode RGB V ProPhoto

[satans worm]

So, having just purchased a shiny new screen to edit my photos on (decided on a SW2700PT in the end for value) I am trying to learn about the differnt gamuts.

From reading different things i have established the following;

Work in sRGB for internet pictures

sRGB has X amount of colours, Abode RGB has X + colours and ProPhoto has X++ colours, with the differences being in the cyan and green spectrum with vitrualy no extra in the reds.

Hopefully that is correct so far

Now the messy bit

I am working only to print photos, is there a standard that proffesional printers print to?

Paper for print have different colour spectrum capabilities to the above, none of which are fully covered by sRGB or Abode RGB, only ProPhoto can cover, but then it covers more than the paper so again how do you get an accurate view?

Does this mean you can never 100pct print what you see? and im looking to print onto metal, anyone know if this is a different spectrum again to the paper?

Seems strange there is not a standard 'print' spectrum?

Finally, i have a Canon EOS6D, i can chose to capture the raw files in sRGB or Abode RGB, on one site it stated you capture the same info its just a label. On others it states it makes a difference to your result.

I can atest to colour changes in Lightroom between the 2 as i change it, so how do i know which to use in Lightroom? Or can i just use Abode RGB on either and capture the full colour?

I know alot of these differences are small, but i always like to maximise the tools i have, so if you can clear this up for me in basic speak would be great

Thanks

[Simpo Two]

I'm not a colour profile expert, but my general view is to start with the widest gamut and process down to sRGB for end use.

After that, no idea as I (smartly) gave the images on disk rather than get bogged down in printer profiles, inks and papers! On the rare occasion I needed a print I sent the file to Photobox and let them worry about it.

Good luck, you may be some time

[Beggarall]

I think the standard remains sRGB for most things that you do. There may be some advantage to using wider colour gamuts but as you have already found they may alter the colour you see when displayed on some web-sites or even on your own monitor - Pro-photo for example tends to change the quality of the green colours. A lot of the better print houses will publish the colour gamut they print and I think you can match or download these profiles in LR or PS. The paper quality will also affect the print. It is a bit of a dark art.

[cirks]

and if you use Photobox like SimpoTwo (or multiple other printers) they say:
"However, we usually strip out embedded profiles (depending on the type of printer we are using) as our printing devices print within a limited colour space. We therefore ask you to submit your images in sRGB for best possible printing output."

[satans worm]

It does indeed seem to be a 'dark art' which seems quite bizarre to me given the lengths people go to to get the production of colours just right, only to have the work undone(well, maybe just the absolute colour accuracy of it) at arguably the most important part, the printing stage

I think i will have to see where im going to print the stuff i want and ask them in advance what colour spectrum they print to and then try to load it in photoshop go from there.
Not that my prints matter that much, im not that good, but if im going to make the effort i want them as good as they could possible be!

Finally, im really surprised that all prints are not the Prophoto specrum, when i first started looking at this i had assumed it must of been the case!

[RedThree]

Loads of misconceptions are out there about colour spaces but here are a few pointers;
RAW files don't have a colour space; anything you set in the camera merely adds a tag that the manufacturer's own software may pay attention to. JPEGs from your camera on the other hand do have a colour space; usually it will be sRGB for web use, if you have your camera set to AdobeRGB and view the resulting JPEG in a non-colour space aware application then the colour will look odd. Same applies if you post it somewhere online and the site software strips out the colour tags as it will then be assumed to be sRGB.
Lightroom, if processing RAW files, has its own internal processing colour space, it is very wide gamut, is similar to ProPhoto and you don't really need to know anything about it! When you output from Lightroom then you need to choose a colour space; if it's for the web then generally you want a JPEG in sRGB, it's the least likely to be screwed up by websites, browsers and dodgy monitors; if its for further 16 bit processing in Photoshop (or similar) then ProPhoto makes lots of sense till you have finished processing the file. If you are doing 8 bit processing you may actually be better using sRGB or AdobeRGB, it's a bit of a moot point which is better.
If you are sending out your files for printing then most labs will be happier with a sRGB file so once you have finished adjusting your file in Lightroom export it as an sRGB file (or in Photoshop convert it to sRGB then save it as a JPEG). This is the method most likely to get you something similar to what you expect.
Higher end printing labs will be colour aware so you can send them 16 bit files in ProPhoto and the lab will work with them correctly but by that stage you want to know exactly which printer, paper and ink they are using and you should be able to get a printing profile from them to suit that you can use for soft proofing. This is a great way of screwing things up, there are so many ways that things can get mismatched and is arguably much less necessary for good results than it used to be as the paper, printers and inks are a lot better than they were a few years ago.
There are some very good books about on colour management but unless you are really looking for a cure for insomnia they are heavy going.

[Craikeybaby]

Some labs will let you download the colour profiles they use for printing, then you can use the soft proofing feature in Lightroom to make sure the won't be any clipping etc.