Color profiles affect how your images look on screens and in print. Here is what photographers need to know to get consistent color across devices.
A color profile — also called a color space — is a mathematical description of the range of colors a device can capture, display, or print. It tells other devices how to interpret the color values in your image file. Without a color profile, devices make assumptions about color interpretation that often produce inconsistent results.
sRGB has a smaller color gamut (range of colors) but is universally supported by web browsers, screens, consumer printers, and online photo labs. It is the standard color space for the web and for most consumer printing. When in doubt, use sRGB.
Adobe RGB has a wider color gamut — it can represent more colors, particularly in the green-cyan range. This is theoretically better for print. However, Adobe RGB is not supported by all screens and devices. If an Adobe RGB image is displayed on a screen that does not support it, the colors look muted and dull because the screen is not interpreting the wider gamut correctly.
In the Lightroom export dialog, scroll to the "File Settings" section. The "Color Space" dropdown offers sRGB, AdobeRGB, ProPhoto RGB, and others. Select sRGB for virtually all client delivery and web use. This ensures the images look correct on any screen and in any browser.
If your monitor is not calibrated to a known color profile, you cannot fully trust what you see when editing. A monitor that displays colors slightly warm or with a color cast will lead you to make compensating corrections that look wrong on other screens. Monitor calibration with a hardware colorimeter (X-Rite, Datacolor Spyder) is the foundation of reliable color work.
ShootRate generates a complete pricing strategy for any booking in under 2 minutes — real market benchmarks, 3-tier package anchoring, and word-for-word objection scripts. No card required.
Build My Strategy Free →