Sunday, April 4, 2010

An analogy

Here's something to ponder ...

If you have room for four passengers in your car, and have four spare tickets to a football game, is there any sense in inviting five of your neighbours to come with you?

Of course not.

Even if you could hide the fifth guy in the boot ("trunk" for my foreign friends) where he couldn't be seen, he wouldn't be able to get in to the game without a ticket anyway.

Now, consider this ...

If your computer screen can display colours no brighter than the sRGB gamut, and your lab can't print colours brighter than the sRGB gamut, is there any sense in processing your images in the Adobe RGB or ProPhoto RGB space?

Of course not.

If you can't see those extra colours, or reproduce them, there's no sense in "inviting" them along in the first place.

Comments or Questions?

If you have anything to add or ask about this article, please visit me at my Ask Damien page.