Colour gamut with sRGB output

DxO PhotoLab
1

I use Photolab (my current version is 8.14) for editing, mainly of bird photos. My photos are nearly always just viewed online and as computer files, so I have a simple process involving raw editing in PL and then exporting at the appropriate file size/quality in jpeg format using sRGB.

I always use the default DxO Wide Gamut working space. I have always assumed that DxO will handle correctly the conversion to sRGB including managing colours to match the export colour space. So I’ve never bothered with soft proofing before export.

However, I have discovered issues with clipping levels in some colours, for example areas of intense red and yellow. I am always careful to manage the clipping of these colours within DxO when editing the raw file, ensuring that the values stay well under the 256 value when measured using the dropper tool so that detail is retained. However, when I then export the file as sRGB jpeg, I find that the resulting file often shows a fair amount of clipped colour at 256. Clearly DxO is not controlling the colour intensity in a way which reflects my editing (256 within DxO Wide Gamut colour space does not equal 256 in sRGB).

DxO’s web help files says : ‘For most screens with restrained color spaces, out-of-range color warnings may appear in the Soft Proofing tool when correcting images. However, getting rid of these warnings should not be your aim as they do not concern the quality obtained in exported files or prints.’ (my emphasis) This suggests that DxO should be producing ‘correct’ output regardless of what you see in the soft processing tool - but it doesn’t seem to.

I have recently been using the soft processing tool (set to sRGB) to check the values and am finding I need to edit a virtual copy to reduce clipping in the sRGB output that is not showing up in DxO Wide Gamut, before exporting.

I’m assuming this is ‘normal’ behaviour for DxO. This suggests that, as my output is jpeg files, I should always work with soft proofing turned ON to to ensure that my jpegs match my editing.

Is this correct, or is there some other setting I am missing.

Thanks

Simon

2

Yes - that’s the way to ensure that What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get - and then you don’t need to have a VC version just for soft-proofing, which saves time & effort.

Also, ensure that you have “Preserve color details” set on in your Export dialogue.

You can set on Soft Proofing in your personal default preset (that’s applied whenever PL discovers a new image) - and you can change the background-color (via Preferences) to have Soft Proofing status appear same as “normal” state (if that bothers you).

1 Like
3

Thanks for the advice!