I recently got myself mixed up in this and I have spend  a few days reading and reading about what anybody else think of it, what are the experts saying, and i came to the conclusion that first I have to see for myself. And i have been pretty amazed and a little relieved of the results.

First we will talk about Monitor calibration.

So basically, without putting into account the color profiles, the first most biggest problem is that you monitor is not calibrated to the printer. This means that the colors from you monitor might end up having a different shade on the paper. And you might ask “Why?”. Well, for example LCD monitor tend to change the color based of you angle you are looking at the monitor, but the most important factor is the light hitting you monitor, because if you have your room painted in a powerful blue, your monitor might have a blueish tint, and when you edit your photo, you might edit the color balance so that you will get rid of the supposed bluish tint in the photo and end up with a reddish photo. So how can you calibrate your monitor? Well first of all try to avoid using software to calibrate it. This isn’t going to calibrate your monitor, because it can’t collect the most crucial information: the intensity and color of the light hitting your monitor. So the best way is to use a device to calibrate it like Color Spyder and has a price tag ranging from 65$ to 600$. It isn’t a huge investition if you put into the consideration the results you’ll have.

Now let’s get to the hardest thing to understand: Color profiles. The hardest thing to do is to choose between Adobe RGB and sRGB color profiles. We all have heard or read about the amazing colors that have the Adobe RGB color profile, at least from the technical point of view. Well, i put that to the test.

So this is what i did:

• First I have chosen a cloudy day so i don’t have light fluctuations through the process
• Then I have chosen a very colorful painting as my subject
• The I have set my camera on manual and went with the settings for a correct exposure
• I took 3 exposures: one that was taken with sRGB color profile, another one in Adobe RGB color profile and the last one was in RAW format.
• After this I only took the RAW format photograph and converted it into 2 different JPGS: one with the profile converted into sRGB and another in Adobe RGB
• Then i went to put the 4 photos ( the 2 original ones and the other 2 converted from RAW ) on the paper to see which one is better. I have to add something very important: you have to go to a pro photo lab or somewhere where they support sRGB and Adobe RGB an d specify which one n what color profile to make. Because most printer from your local lab makes photos in default sRGB and the Adobe RGB are printed as well in in sRGB and that might result in a horrible disaster.
• Then i saw the results and I was amazed that all the photos were almost identical. I had to stare at them for a while to really see the difference: The Adobe RGB has a little more color range, but very little, so little that it doesn’t deserve the effort. I was amazed because i was expecting huge differences.

Now here is the bottom line (Recommendations):

• Use the default sRGB color profile it has the same beautiful colors as the Adobe RGB
• If you have a photo in Adobe RGB, convert it with Photoshop in sRGB before you post it on the web or go to your local photo lab which you know they use sRGB
• It’s very important to convert it because an unconverted Adobe RGB will look awful on the web (web uses only sRGB) or on a photo printed in sRGB, because you will loose colors and shadow ares will become darker. So remember to convert it first.
• Again stick to sRGB so you will not be forced to go through that time consuming work flow and every time you put a photo on the web you must convert it.
• I was an Adobe RGB user before i made this test, now i went back to sRGB to save me the effort, because i will not gain to much your photos will still look amazing
• If you are a pro and make photo for important commercial companies, by all means stick to Adobe RGB
• You should use RAW, it’s a more flexible format so you can take the photo without thinking of the color profile you are using because you can choose at your will into the RAW editing software( i will talk more about the advantages of the RAW format some other time) , but beware that eats a lot of space, not that nowadays it’s something we lack.

I wish i could present with some real evidence, but because the talk is about color profiles and the color ranges because the photos will be presented on the web.

My only advice is take on hour of your time and do the test yourself, usually the best evidence is the one you saw it with your own eye.

Have fun