If I shoot raw+jpeg, the resulting jpeg images definitely have been generated using the selected color space choice. If I shot much in jpeg, and if I somehow lost the embedded profile originally placed there by the camera, I might be happy to have the file name to fall back on, at least until I renamed the file, but this seems like a marginal benefit. As do most photographers though, I rename all my images once I copy them to my computer, so this difference is irrelevant. In sRGB image file names have an underscore in the middle whereas the underscore gets moved to the beginning of the name when the camera is set to Adobe RGB. The total gamut of a typical raw file actually exceeds even that of ProPhoto RGB in many respects, but a lot depends on just how you convert it to a usable image.īut if one accepts that the in-camera choice of sRGB versus Adobe RGB for raw capture doesn't make much sense, does it nonetheless make a difference?Īt least on my camera, the most obvious difference is the file naming scheme that results.

Yes, there are limits to how bright as well as how 'green' or how 'red' a camera can record, but if you considered these limits as part of a color space definition, they wouldn't describe either sRGB or Adobe RGB at all. The truth is, a raw image doesn't really have a color space at all in the traditional sense. But even given that, the values for each color have an entirely different range of values and interpretation from the closest RGB equivalent. A raw file has just a single channel of information with half of the pixels distributed throughout the image representing green information and the remainder split 50/50 between red and blue. There aren't separate red, green and blue channels at all.

It's nothing like a regular image and is really just a bunch of data that can later be turned into an image. To answer this question, it's worth starting from a common understanding of what a raw file is.

But if you use raw, does the color space really matter? Most cameras that allow you to shoot raw also have numerous other options including the choice of color space between sRGB and Adobe RGB. When Shooting in RAW, What Color Space Should You Use?

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