DXO on calibrated screen EIZO

DxO PhotoLab macOS topics
25

The image sensor contains color filters, typically RGB ones. The exact nature of that red, green and blue depends on the chemicals used to make these filters, and it is slightly different for each camera manufacturer and camera model. That’s what I call “native color space of the camera”. It is not intended for display, it’s what the sensor “sees”.

Most cameras allow setting a color space in their settings, typically either sRGB or AdobeRGB. This setting impacts the JPEG images produced, but it does not impact the data in RAW files. The setting is still reported in the EXIF data of the RAW file.

  1. When you import the RAW file into PhotoLab
    – PhotoLab will apply demosaicking and convert the RGB values from the “native color space of the camera” into AdobeRGB.
    – PhotoLab will apply any color adjustments (saturation, HSL, but also FilmPack color rendering if you happen to use that, etc.) in that color space. I call this “working color space” because it is the color space PhotoLab does most of its work in.
    – To display the image in PhotoLab, PhotoLab will, after all other processing, convert the image into the color space of your screen.

  2. If you select AdobeRGB for export, that last step will not take place, and everything will stay in AdobeRGB, as you say.

  3. If you choose “as shot” for export, PhotoLab looks in the EXIF data of the RAW file whether you set AdobeRGB or sRGB in your camera settings and will either keep AdobeRGB or convert to sRGB.

  4. Technically, you can choose any ICC color profile for export, including ProPhotoRGB. But as you say, doing so does not make much sense. The ProPhotoRGB export will only contain colors that already existed in AdobeRGB.
    – I use this ICC color profile feature when preparing images for a printing service that provides ICC profiles (e.g. Picto).
    – For post-processing the image in a 3rd party image editor (e.g. Affinity Photo, Adobe Photoshop), I recommend to stick to AdobeRGB as it contains all information that is available in PhotoLab and avoids additional conversions.

  5. Indeed, it is currently impossible to get colors out of PhotoLab that are not contained in AdobeRGB. We are aware that this is a limitation, but frankly, there are not many colors in nature that do not fit inside AdobeRGB. If you encounter images that contain colors outside AdobeRGB, please share them so that we can raise the priority of this topic.

14 Likes