AdobeRGB and Nikon View Question

If you like the look, as I do, then stick with Adobe RGB II, and convert as required in photoshop. That is what I do, even though I use Capture. BTW, Capture can reassign colour spaces, but it does not do conversions (as far as I can determine).

If you are shooting a lot of portraits you might consider shooting in RGB I space in camera - depends if you like the look better...

 

When you select a colour space, you are telling the application how to map the raw sensor data to a given colour, within a given gamut. In Capture, no matter which colour space you TAGGED in the camera, you can change, or REASSIGN to another colour space. This changes the look or colour, as the individual pixels are now mapped differently.

When you convert from one colour space to another, as in photoshop, the application is determining how to change the colour mapping to retain the exact same "look" or output colours.

A couple of things to consider:

1. When you assign a colour space in the camera this has a subtle affect on the exposure.

2. When you convert from one colour space to another you might lose some detail or colour, if you are moving from a larger colour gamut (adobe RGB) to a smaller gamut (sRGB) for example. In the real world you will not notice the difference in most cases.

3. Applications that are not colour space aware, such as the internet explorer, require the image be converted to sRGB. If you leave the image in adobe RGB it will look muddy on the web.

But this is why most serious photographers always shoot NEF when they can - to keep the original data and take advantage of improved converter technology over time.

I hope this helps...