Photoshop makes life easy by automatically applying the monitor profile to images as they are opened. There are, however, several options that influence how colors are rendered within the Photoshop environment. The most important of these is the image's color space setting. Color space involves a series of instructions that tell the monitor how to interpret and display color. Each color space has strengths and weaknesses. Most importantly, each color space has a limited range of colors it can display (referred to as the color gamut). While monitors are able to display many colors, they are not capable of displaying the variety of colors the human eye can perceive. By selecting a color space, I can define how an image's colors will be displayed as well as the color gamut that is possible. These factors influence how the image will be appear on my monitor. Fortunately, photographers tend to use two color spaces: Adobe RGB and sRGB.

Adobe RGB is an excellent photographic color space for a number of reasons. As a photographer, I want my images to include the greatest variety of colors possible. Adobe RGB has a wide color gamut, meaning it includes a wider range of colors then most color spaces. By using a wide color gamut, I am able to maintain the greatest number of colors in my images as I make adjustments. While it is fairly simple to change an image's color space with a narrower color gamut, going from a narrow color gamut (limited range of colors) to a wide color gamut (wide range of colors) doesn't work very well. You can't create additional colors from nothing. Beginning with the widest color gamut available enables me to maintaining the greatest variety of colors throughout my image workflow. Adobe RGB has the added benefit of being a widely accepted color space that is recognized by many programs. Finally, the Adobe RGB color gamut is very similar to the printable range of colors of most ink jet printers.

In contrast, sRGB has a narrower color gamut and is capable of displaying fewer colors. With that in mind, why would a photographer want to sacrifice the color range in an image? The advantage of sRGB lies in the fact that its color pallet closely resembled colors that are displayed by internet browsers. For images that are going to be posted on the web, the sRGB color space does an excellent job of maintaining the image's colors as they were intended.

The color space of an image can easily be changed. In Photoshop, go to Image → Mode → Convert to Profile. When the Convert to profile window opens, I select a color space and click OK. Since Adobe RGB has the widest color gamut, I recommend working in that color space while making adjustments. For images that are destined for the world wide web, convert the image to the sRGB color space as the final step, thereby keeping as much color information for as long as possible. Profile conversions do affect the pixels in the image, so each conversion destroys a little bit of information. For this reason, it is best to keep the number of conversions to a minimum.

Now that color spaces are under control, lets look at how to prepare an image for the web. Digital photographers are often frustrated with the results when uploading images for viewing on web sites or internet discussion forums. Colors often look flat and color casts can develope. Fortunately, prepping web images is easy once we understand how internet browsers work. Particularly, internet browsers DO NOT incorporate color management into their display. Any color space information that Photoshop used when displaying image will not be used by the browser. Knowing this, how can we diplay our images in Photoshop as if they will be displayed by the browser? The answer lies in soft proofing.

Photoshop allows the display of images using a variety of different color spaces without actually altering the image (called soft proofing). Photoshop can also apply a soft proof of how an image will appear without an color space information applied (as on the web). To do this, go to View → Proof Setup → Monitor RGB. What I am doing here is telling Photoshop to display my image using only my monitor profile (no additional color space). This is how web browsers display images, so the images should appear the same as it will once uploaded to the web. Using the soft preview feature, I am able to fine tune my image, knowing that what I see is what other internet viewers will also see (assuming they are using calibrated monitors).

Once an image is ready, convert the color space to sRGB and save it. For best results, I recommend using File → Save for Web instead of the traditional File → Save method. The save for web dialog box offers controls for image quality and file size. This allows me to fine tune the file before uploading. So far we have discussed color management as it applies to monitors and the Photoshop environment. Next month, we will expand the discussion to printing with profiles.

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