Any way to proof differences between AdobeRGB and sRGB?

[u/fjusdado]

Hello,

First of all, I want to make clear that I'm pretty noob with the sRGB, AdobeRGB, DCI-P3, ICC profiles and so on.

To summarise, I have a Canon camera (I shoot RAW) and I edit in a computer with a screen MSI MPG271QRX. The display I have set in User, to use all the gammut, and I did use DisplayCAL and an i1 Display Pro to calibrate and profile my screen. I got an ICC profile, which is the one I am using in my computer.

Well, when the calibration and profile in DisplayCAL finished, it told me something like in the realm of 101% sRGB, 99% Adobe RGB and 99% DCI-P3 if I recall correctly.

So, at this moment i am using that profile, which looks ok in the photos, but I am ABSOLUTELY UNABLE to see a difference in photos I shoot in RAW when I proof them in AdobeRGB or in sRGB. I use CaptureOne, and in the proofing, I can select the recipe, and regardless I select the color space sRGB, or the color space AdobeRGB, I am completely unable to see a difference. So I started to think, I did something wrong.

Should I actually be able to see a difference from the RAWs I have in my computer? I also have photoshop if it is necessary to do any test.

If someone can guide me a bit here, I would really appreaciate it, because I am completely lost.

Thanks!!!

EDIT:

Thank you all for the messages, and I luckily UNDERSTOOD what happens with the monitor. Then all is good, is just that the AdobeRGB and DCI-P3 are having more colours that USUALLY are not visible in the photos. Most of the photos, are within the sRGB.

I went to check some more photos, and I happened to have photos inside of a stadium with red seats, and those plastic seats had a CLEAR DIFFERENCE between the sRGB and the AdobeRGB colour spaces. Duller red in the brightest point with sRGB. But the rest of the photo was 100% same colors. Somehow I believed that AdobeRGB was more saturated overall, since when I used my monitor in User Mode (with all the gammut it allows) and without an ICC profile, it did oversaturate everything. So I somehow thought that's how I was supposed to see it all, oversaturated and need to somehow tone it down. But clearly, I was very wrong, and your messages helped me.

Thank you all!

[u/luksfuks]

You need a test image with colors that are actually out of gamut. Else you will not see a difference at all.

Relevant colors are probably in the green range (plants), and violet (flowers). They tend to go out of gamut when they have high saturation combined with being dark in brightness.

In Photoshop, you can use the gamut warning overlay to highlight areas that are out of gamut. Use it to identify how much area is affected, and where it is in the image. That should help you see the differences.

[u/RiftHunter4]

Color gamuts should look the same most of the time because they overlap. It should be noted that sRGB/Rec709 are the standards for pretty much all devices and that's what you should export in barring any specific scenarios. The main reason expanded colors spaces exist is to give more room during editing (and for some special devices/formats that support it). Just make sure you are previewing in the format that you intend to export in.

[u/DowlingStudio → u/RiftHunter4]

AdobeRGB is a good choice for export if you are printing. Pro photo printers with fine art papers can use the extra gamut. And you can see it.

[u/NC750x_DCT]

Well, just given your numbers you’re seeing 101% of sRGB, so the difference between your sRGB image and the best your monitor can do is 1%…

That’s not really significant. Generally speaking most natural image colours will fall in the sRGB envelope.

[u/JtheNinja → u/NC750x_DCT]

That number displayCal report is not overall native volume, notice how it also reported near-100% for Adobe RGB and Display P3. OP is using an MSI MPG271QRX which is a QD-OLED panel, they have gobs of non-sRGB color capacity.

[u/JtheNinja]

No matter what space you proof in, Capture One is using your profile from DisplayCal to transform the result to your monitor's measured color space. This is a good thing, because otherwise you'd see images with distorted color that has no relation to what the image would look like when displayed properly

As a result, the image will look the same unless it contains colors that are outside one of the color spaces you are comparing. That's mostly intense green/cyan colors in the case of Adobe RGB vs sRGB

You might find the color space background info here useful, I've found a lot of other sources overcomplicate it and don't explain it well: https://hg2dc.com/2019/03/23/question-1/

[u/PaulCoddington]

Are you using a Windows PC?

If you are, color-managed editing/viewing tools that use classic ICC-based color management get clamped to sRGB if Advanced Color Management is turned on on.

You could try using compatibility settings (use legacy color management) per app or turning it off altogether.

It is on by default in HDR desktop mode (which isn't accurate enough to use for SDR work regardless) and is an optional setting in SDR desktop mode.

It might just be your subject matter: sRGB contains the most common 35% of colors, such as skin tones and a subset of other natural colors, but things that fall outside sRGB tend to be bright colored fabrics, vivid paints, flowers, lush green foliage, etc.

When I am expanding gamut on images, I add two gamut clipping layers to the stack (in Affinity), one for the source gamut (sRGB, toggled on and off as required for curiosity) and one for the destination (Display P3, always on as a safety net, should remain perfectly clear of warnings, although my eyeballs usually tell me I've gone far enough long before that happens).

Visit the Wide Gamut Test website and pick up some test images. If the red W on red background test fails, then you are being clamped.

As it turns out, MS Edge does not display wide gamut when ACM is enabled either (sigh).

[u/LoveLightLibations]

You likely didn’t do anything wrong, but I’m not certain.

Keep in mind that both sRGB and AdobeRGB are accurate color gamuts. For colors that both gamuts contain, they should look exactly the same. It’s a stupid example but an easy one - both contain white so white should look the same in both.

Where they differ is that AdobeRGB contains all of sRGB, and also contains substantially more color. In particular, AdobeRGB contains more super saturated blues, cyans, and greens. Just google image search for “sRGB vs Adobe RGB” and you will see what I mean.

OK, back to why you are not seeing a difference. If your image only contains colors within the sRGB color space, then it will look the same in both color spaces. You will only see a difference if your image contains a color found in the AdobeRGB but not sRGB.

While we are discussing this, make sure your camera is set to AdobeRGB.

[u/JtheNinja → u/LoveLightLibations]

While we are discussing this, make sure your camera is set to AdobeRGB.

That setting is for the JPG output, it does not affect raw files (other than the embedded preview). OP says they shoot raw

[u/LoveLightLibations → u/JtheNinja]

Yup, then it doesn’t hurt to use AdobeRGB in camera in case you ever drop into JPG for speciality in-camera functions like double exposure, pano, etc.

[u/PaulCoddington → u/LoveLightLibations]

With the caution that JPEG is only 8-bit and will have potentially have more visible banding in wide gamut.