Why sRGB color is a bad choice
Even on my Apple 30" Cinema Display, which doesn’t have all that great a color gamut (range of colors it can show), the loss of color and detail can readily be seen when certain images are converted to the sRGB color space.
Increasingly, the color gamut of digital cameras like the Nikon D3x pushes well beyond the limits of sRGB and even AdobeRGB. If y’all are shooting JPEG (only), this should be a concern to you: be sure to not push up saturation, or you can end up with an undifferentiated block of solid color—your image is “toast” in sRGB, whether 8-bit or 16-bit. Whether it’s an issue all depends on the subject matter. The quality of Nikon JPEGs is outstanding (Canon in-camera JPEG files are crap), but be sure to set the camera to use AdobeRGB to avoid loss of color resolution.
The fire hydrant below is in the ProPhotoRGB color space. If it looks sickly/pale yellow, then your browser is not color-space aware.
D3x + Zeiss ZF 35/2 Distagon
Why does color space matter? Because on images like this, using a least-common-denominator color space like sRGB can easily blow out the red channel and pin the blue channel. Compare the blue channels below. At left is from ProPhotoRGB (AdobeRGB is similar), and at right is from sRGB. That blows. (You should definitely use 16-bit files with ProPhotoRGB, and it’s advised with AdobeRGB).
Detail-be-gone: Blue channel in ProPhotoRGB (left), sRGB (right)
Looking for a great monitor that can display almost the entire AdobeRGB color gamut? Look no further than the NEC MultiSync 3090WQXi (or one of it’s siblings). I was so impressed with what I saw at MacWorld Expo that I’ve ordered one, because I’m certain it will make a real difference in my ability to judge tone and color. More info.
