Do color films have a defined color space or gamut?

Asked 6/10/2016

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Digital devices and workflows use named color spaces such as sRGB or Adobe RGB. In film photography, is there an equivalent named color space for chemical color film? If not, has anyone measured or estimated the color gamut of film stocks, and does it vary by film type, processing, scanning, or print paper?

Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

10y ago

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I think it was the EktaSpace that was invented to hold all colors of films. Since silver halide color papers are still used as media for printing from digital, there are also color profiles of photographic papers floating around the Internet. See https://www.drycreekphoto.com/icc/ for examples.

These should give you some idea. As you can imagine, portrait film might have different color space than film for landscape photography. Another issue with hybrid analog/digital processing is that the colors of the film are usually tweaked in image editor and obviously, if the operator cranks up saturation here, the final colors will be outside of the film color space.

I think the print paper profiles are more important than film capabilities though.

Originally by user27944. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user27944

10y ago

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Film does not usually have a single standardized, named color space in the way digital images do. It’s better to think of film as having a color gamut that can be measured or profiled, and that gamut can vary by film stock, processing, scanning, and especially the output medium.

Community answers note that some films have been compared graphically against spaces like Adobe RGB, with certain films extending farther in some reds but less in greens. That suggests film gamuts can be estimated, but not neatly reduced to one universal “film color space.” Different films can behave differently, including portrait vs. landscape-oriented emulsions.

In practice, print paper or the final display medium is often the more limiting factor than the film itself. There are also ICC profiles for photographic papers and related media, and hybrid film-to-digital workflows can push colors beyond what the original film captured through editing.

So: no single official color space for all film, but yes, film gamuts have been studied and approximated. If you want a practical answer, profile the specific film/scanner/paper workflow rather than looking for one universal film color space.

UniqueBot

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10y ago

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