Wide gamut display and editing

[xrayzzz]

So I have an Eizo monitor that can display almost the full Adobe RGB color space.  I know that LR uses a variation of Pro Photo when editing, but I had a question for those of you with wide-gamut displays.  Do you have your monitor calibrated to show it's full, wide-gamut color range while editing, or do you limit it to sRGB?

I've tried it both ways, and when I calibrate my screen to allow it's native color range, I have a few problems.  First, windows has issues with super-saturated icons, thumbnails, etc due to its lack of proper color management.  However, the bigger issue is, I see wide gamut colors while editing in LR, but I export to sRGB, so the colors can change upon export.  It doesn't always happen, but today I shot an image with green in it, and in LR the green was rich and saturated.  When it converted to sRGB, it lost that pop.  I realize it's due to the fact that those colors can't be displayed in sRGB.

The other option is to calibrate my monitor and limit it to the sRGB color space.  I actually prefer this so far because Windows looks normal, and more importantly, my images look consistent in LR and on export.  Even though I'm still editing in Pro Photo in LR, I'm not seeing the extra colors since my monitor will only display sRGB.

Finally, the last option is to keep my monitor calibrated in its native gamut, but I can softproof in sRGB in LR.

Just curious what everyone else is doing?

[JohanElzenga]

Why would I spend extra money on a wide gamut monitor and then set it to sRGB? If I wanted to have an sRGB monitor I would buy an sRGB monitor and keep that money in my pocket.

[Just Shoot Me]

Although I have never worked on a Wide Gamut display I would like to think if you have it properly calibrated it should show all colors correctly wether they are sRGB, AdobeRGB, Pro Photo or Whatever.

Windows, the OS, colors should not look different on a wide gamut display from a normal sRGB display. That is IF the wide gamut display is properly calibrated.

I personally think your display calibration is fubar in some way and I would recalibrate.

[TheDigitalDog]

I would like to think if you have it properly calibrated it should show all colors correctly wether they are sRGB, AdobeRGB, Pro Photo or Whatever.

No Display can nor ever will be able show all colors in ProPhoto RGB. Never. 

For example, R0/G255/B0 in ProPhoto RGB isn't a color. It is a number (Device Value) but not a color. It can't be seen by any human. 

http://digitaldog.net/files/ColorNumbersColorGamut.pdf

[Todd Shaner]

Working with a wide gamut display can be challenging. As you've noticed the Windows interface and many apps even if color managed do not use the display profile. This causes some colors (especially red) to appear oversaturated. Fortunately, Chrome, FireFox, and Safari browsers are all now fully color manged and use the display profile so no color issues. All Adobe apps have full color management and use the display profile so no issue.

"However, the bigger issue is, I see wide gamut colors while editing in LR, but I export to sRGB, so the colors can change upon export. It doesn't always happen, but today I shot an image with green in it, and in LR the green was rich and saturated. When it converted to sRGB, it lost that pop."

Think of it this way. Previously, with your standard gamut display you were already in sRGB Soft Proof mode. You are now seeing the image in the much wider Adobe RGB gamut, and have the ability to Soft Proof and display the image in a wider range of applications. This includes printer profiles for wide gamut inkjet printers, Display P3 profile used on a many Mac product displays, and of course sRGB for general use. Even the Fuji Frontier printers used by Costco and other print facilities have some gamut outside of sRGB, so now you can use available printer profiles and actually get an accurate soft proof image.

http://www.astramael.com/

I have my NEC PA272W wide gamut display calibrated to its native gamut, which has some red gamut extending outside of Adobe RGB. I rarely see the need to Soft Proof adjust images destined for sRGB export for general use such as email or posting to the Web. Most users have standard gamut displays that are uncalibrated so they never see an accurate rendering. Don't waste your time trying to "fix" these export renderings. For more critical work you may want to review some of the Soft Proof tutorials. Just keep in mind output to sRGB or a standard gamut printer will never look as good as what you are now seeing on screen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LG7LjtqM9IQ (For Lightroom using RGB printer profiles)

https://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/soft-proofing.htm (For Photoshop using CMYK printer profiles)

[TheDigitalDog]

In color managed applications like Photoshop, Lightroom and even many browsers, there are NO issues with wide gamut displays! They all understand the display characteristics through their ICC profile that describes not only the gamut but all other attrubutes to produce a preview. NON color managed applications are a problem. For ANY gamut display. For any color space. 

The so called 'native' behavior of your display isn't necessarily ideal depending on your goals. It is whatever the behavior is out of the box, and this is far more than just the color gamut. The cd/m2, the white point, the gamma/TRC are also part of the way the display and it's profile (if used and it will be with color management) produce a preview in any application that uses that profile. 

There's NO reason to limit a wide gamut display to sRGB gamut. You can and should soft proof to any output behvaior, sRGB or to a printer. That said, you cannot control how the image appears on anyone else's display! They may be using an sRGB gamut display, they may be using a wide gamut display, they may calibrate differently than you, they may not be calibrating at all, they may not be using color management software. 

So yes, to answer the important quesiton you can soft proof sRGB in LR while keeping the image previews in a wider gamut and OUTSIDE of soft proofing, that's exactly what will happen in Develop and other modules. IOW, if you view sRGB in LR outside of soft proofing, that's the gamut you'll see of that image. If you preview Adobe RGB (1998) outside of soft proofing, that's what you'll see. If raw, you'll see an even wider gamut (colors that may not be even within display gamut on your wide gamut display) in Develop module. Nothing to really worry about. 

sRGB is an output color space. For the web. If you are providing images for the web, while you could use a wider gamut color space, there is no guarantee others will see it correctly and without color management they will not see looking good at all UNLESS they too are on a wide gamut display (whereby sRGB without color management will look awful). So sRGB is the best option today for the web. It is an output color space for that use, you have to massively resample down the image for the web so encode in sRGB at the same time and move on to using a wider gamut where it is useful. 

[Conrad C]

Because the Eizo display is more expensive than my NEC SpectraView, I assume the Eizo can store multiple calibrations and you can switch them quickly? If so, then you don’t need to stick to a single calibration all the time. Use the one that makes more sense for the applications and output that are your current priority.

On my NEC, software called SpectraView lets me maintain any number of calibrations for the display. The two I use the most are one for print-oriented photo editing (full gamut, reduced luminance, reduced contrast range) in Lightroom Classic and Photoshop, and sRGB. I switch between them as needed. The sRGB mode is useful when I’m working with applications that don’t support color management, which can include some video editing applications. For example, Adobe Premiere Pro only recently added an option for color-managed display; before that, editing with it on a wide-gamut display was asking for trouble in terms of color. I had to switch the display into sRGB or else.

Although a display can switch calibrations using hardware controls, there is a specific reason I am talking about software. If you switch the calibration without changing the display profile in the operating system, the OS might be applying a display profile that doesn’t match the gamut the display is currently using. The SpectraView software makes sure that both the hardware gamut and the current OS display profile are both changed together. My understanding is that Eizo has ColorNavigator software that does the same thing; if you use that, you should be able to switch gamuts at will based on your current requirements. Instead of worrying about which gamut to stick to.