I was fortunate enough to go to Photoshop World in Vegas this past September. It was a valuable experience on my levels. I signed up for a Portfolio Review, where for $25 you bring 15 – 20 pix and they pair you with a photographer in your same category (Wildlife in my case). I was delighted to find myself sitting next to none other than Moose Peterson himself. Wow! His wildlife and aviation pix are legendary. Let’s just say, I had most certainly heard of him before!
Moose was very kind with his critique, though very humbling. Photos that I thought were, while maybe not world class, at least good… didn’t make the cut as far as Moose was concerned. I went home a little deflated, but encouraged and inspired to do better. He explains his philosophy that no ‘critter’ shot should be tampered with, not even cropped! Just when I’m finally getting better at Photoshop. Well… I reserve the right to consider that approach, as I freely admit to the occasional crop or exposure adjustment. Hmmm.
One very interesting comment he made was relative to my camera settings. He took one look at the picture posted here, and suggested that my camera settings were on sRGB and I should change them to Adobe RGB. He looked at one photo, and by that alone, declared my camera settings. You can see that? Really!? I was stunned. He explained that sRGB is 256K of colors, while Adobe RGB is 14 million colors, hence the ‘monotone’ look of my buck picture. Wow! Of course the first thing I did when I got back to my room was check my camera settings. He was dead on. I was set on sRGB. I instantly re-set my camera to Adobe RGB.
A little research online tells a different story. Adobe RGB is best if you are going to print. sRGB is best if you are emailing. But, then you can find any answer you looking for online, irregardless of what you want it to be. For me, I have it set on Adobe RGB, and I’ll be leaving it there, unless I learn something compelling to change it.
