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Color Management >

Your monitor must be calibrated.

Monitor calibration solves many color problems.

Your monitor uses the sRGB color space.

If you're using the Adobe RGB color space, your monitor can't display the files properly.

The first photograph below was made using the sRGB color space.

It looks much better than the second photograph, which was made with the Adobe RGB color space.

sRGB

Adobe RGB

Because the Adobe RGB color space has more colors than sRGB, it should look better.

But, the Adobe RGB photograph looks worse than the sRGB photograph.

That's because the monitor can only properly display photographs made using the sRGB color space.

The remedy is to use soft proofing.

Photoshop users can use soft proofing to simulate, on sRGB monitors, how their Adobe RGB photographs should appear.

Photoshop Elements doesn't have soft proofing.

Photoshop Elements users can make test prints, or use the soft proofing feature in other programs, such as QImage or Elements+.

Both programs are Windows only.

Soft proofing is described in greater detail at the end of the color management journey.

The next stop down the photography system is Photoshop Elements.