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Color Working

1) Properly matching the RGB and Gray working spaces in Photoshop's Color Settings produces luminosity and saturation masks where the initial selection for neutral tones is centered around the tonal midpoint. 2) There are three recommended matched combinations of RGB and Gray working spaces: ProPhoto RGB/Gray Gamma 1.8, Adobe RGB (1998)/Gray Gamma 2.2, and sRGB IEC61966-2.1/sGray. 3) It is important for the RAW converter output color space to match the RGB working space selected in Photoshop to avoid unintended color space conversions or incorrect Gray settings.

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59 views

Color Working

1) Properly matching the RGB and Gray working spaces in Photoshop's Color Settings produces luminosity and saturation masks where the initial selection for neutral tones is centered around the tonal midpoint. 2) There are three recommended matched combinations of RGB and Gray working spaces: ProPhoto RGB/Gray Gamma 1.8, Adobe RGB (1998)/Gray Gamma 2.2, and sRGB IEC61966-2.1/sGray. 3) It is important for the RAW converter output color space to match the RGB working space selected in Photoshop to avoid unintended color space conversions or incorrect Gray settings.

Uploaded by

metacool
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We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Optimizing Color Settings

Acknowledgement: Correspondence with Samuel Chia and Sean Bagshaw helped


develop these recommendations.

Choices in the Color Settings dialog box affect how Photoshop creates the
luminosity and saturation/vibrance masks. To get the best results, use the correct
combination of RGB and Gray working spaces. Properly matching the RGB and
Gray working spaces produces an initial Lights-1 selection for neutral tones (same
value for R, G, and B) where the 50% pixel selection line (the marching ants) is at
the tonal midpoint. This means that the brightest half of the neutral tones (tones
with values of 128 through 255) is selected. Likewise, the Darks-1 selection
(inverse of Lights-1) selects the darkest half of the neutral tones (0 through 127).
Subsequent Lights and Darks series selections derived from these initial selections
are also symmetrical to each other as well as the tonal midpoint. For example,
Lights-3 and the Darks-3 each contain the same, smaller proportion of the image's
lightest and darkest tones respectively as seen in the image below.

While unmatched combinations of RGB and Gray working spaces still produce
useable masks, the starting point for the Lights and Darks selections for the
neutrals will not be the tonal midpoint and will contain either more or less than
50% of either the lightest or darkest neutral tones. Non-neutral colors frequently
shift also resulting in different weightings in light and dark selections. The
unmatched color spaces also affect the tonal spacing between various selections.

There are three matched RGB and Gray working space combinations that will
maintain the proper relationship in the neutrals:

RGB Working Space Matching Gray Working Space


Pro Photo RGB Gray Gama 1.8
Adobe RGB (1998) Gray Gamma 2.2
sRGB IEC61966-2.1 sGray
To adjust the settings for the optimal RGB/Gray working space combinations in
Photoshop, first open the Color Settings dialog box using the menu Photoshop
menu command Edit > Color Settings.

From the Settings drop-down menu at the top of the dialog window, choose either
ProPhoto RGB or Adobe RGB (1998). This choice will then appear in the RGB
Working Space menu in the dialog window. The Gray Working Space also updates
to correctly match the RGB choice.

VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

1) Be sure to set up the RAW converter (Lightroom, Adobe Camera RAW, etc) to
convert the RAW file to the same RGB space you have chosen to work with in
Photoshop. This match between the RAW converter's output space and Photoshop
is important since mismatched color spaces can lead to unintended profile
conversions or the wrong Gray setting for working with the image and luminosity
masks.
2) The computer's monitor profile and gamma setting should NOT be used in
setting up the Color Settings in Photoshop. The monitor profile's purpose is to
insure that the colors sent from Photoshop are properly interpreted so the user
views them accurately on the monitor. Processing colors INSIDE Photoshop is
independent of the monitor's color profile and gamma setting.

If for some reason sRGB is the desired working color space, the RGB and Gray
settings need to be selected manually as in the image below since there is no
Photoshop Settings preset for this combination.

NOTE: To find the "sGray" option in older versions of Photoshop (CS6 and the
original PS CC), click the "More Options" button in the Color Setting dialog box, and
then click the Gray working space down arrow to select the sGray option.
Here is a little more information regarding the different settings.

ProPhoto RGB/Gray Gamma 1.8—ProPhoto RGB allows for the preservation of


the largest number of colors in the image. It should only be used for images
processed in 16-bit mode in Photoshop. It may be necessary to set up soft-
proofing for the output device when using ProPhoto RGB since it's possible that the
necessary remapping of a significant number of colors to the smaller output
device's color profile (an inkjet printer, for example) will cause the printed image to
look diminished compared to what is seen on the monitor in this large RGB working
space. Still, ProPhoto RGB preserves all colors for future output devices that may
someday be able to handle all these colors.

Adobe RGB (1998)/Gray Gamma 2.2—Adobe RGB 1998 accommodates a


reasonably large number of colors, though it may lack some colors that some inkjet
printers can print and may have others outside the printer's gamut that are then
remapped during conversion to the output device's profile. It's worth noting that
once an image is converted to the Adobe RGB (1998) working space, the extra
colors that were present or possible in ProPhoto RGB are gone forever unless the
image is re-converted from the RAW file. ProPhoto RGB images can be down-sized
to the Adobe RGB (1998) working space, but an image in Adobe RGB (1998) can't
be "up-sized" to ProPhoto RGB. More colors aren't added when going from the
smaller Adobe RGB (1998) working space to the larger ProPhoto RGB.

sRGB IEC61966-2.1/sGray—The sRGB working space is the smallest of the three


recommended working spaces and has the fewest colors. It's generally adequate
for output on "standard" computer monitors and for images displayed on the
Internet.

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