What color space does Lightroom use outside Develop, and why does an sRGB export match the display best?
Asked 10/1/2015
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2 answers
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I understand Lightroom uses a very wide internal color space in the Develop module, but I’m unclear about two things:
- Does Lightroom use that same color space throughout the application, or only in Develop?
- When I export the same photo as JPEG in sRGB, Adobe RGB, and ProPhoto RGB, the sRGB version looks most like what I see in Lightroom. Why would sRGB match the Lightroom display better than the wider-gamut exports?
I’m comparing how the exported files appear on screen, not in print.
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
10y ago
2 Answers
2
Lightroom uses ProPhotoRGB/Melissa only in Develop module. The rest of the app apparently uses AdobeRGB.
With regards to the brightness of those three images, I took the ProPhoto version and converted it to sRGB in a photo editor. They look pretty much identical, no difference in brightness. So if there is a difference in the sample images, either this is a Lightroom problem or the images were not converted using the exactly same workflow.
Originally by user27944. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user27944
10y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Lightroom uses its wide-gamut internal working space (“Melissa”) in the Develop module. Outside Develop, community answers indicate Lightroom does not necessarily use that same space throughout, and other parts of the app are described as using Adobe RGB.
What you see on screen is not simply the file’s embedded color space; Lightroom renders images through your monitor’s color profile. If your display is close to sRGB—which is common—then an sRGB export will usually look most similar to Lightroom’s on-screen preview.
A wider-gamut export such as Adobe RGB or ProPhoto RGB should not inherently appear lighter or darker if it is being color-managed correctly. If those exports look noticeably different on screen, that usually points to a color-management issue in the viewing workflow, or to the files not having been exported/converted in exactly the same way.
So, in short: sRGB looks closest because Lightroom is displaying through your monitor profile, and your monitor is likely near sRGB.
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