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There are quite a few articles exploring the ins and outs of colour banding (8 vs 10 bit, sRGB vs Adobe RGB etc) but they get horrifically complicated. This is going to be written in lay-man’s terms with my best understanding (read, it won’t be scientific, but it is working for me).
This article is also written for those using an 8bit monitor. I have a couple of fairly decent Dell Ultrasharp 24″ monitors, that up until this point, I thought had done me well. Now I’ve discovered the black hole of 10 bit monitors, I will likely invest in one in due time, especially now that I’m using a Leica. For now however I’d rather not splash out another £1,000. I should add that I do calibrate my monitors with a Datacolor Spyder. I also proof my images to The Print Space’s ICC Colour Profiles found here.
TL:DR – I discovered that Lightroom uses a larger colour space to Photoshop which is why we don’t see the banding in Lightroom. Switching to LAB in Photoshop makes the image render the same as it does in Lightroom.
The benefit of editing images in 16bit LAB is that we have a huge amount of flexibility to process the images, which is like starting a painting with every possible colour combination on hand. The banding visible is a limitation of my RGB monitor and RGB file. It is not actually on the file, the computer just doesn’t have the visual vocabulary to express those tones. By changing the mode to LAB, I am giving the hardware a wider vocabulary.
One of the things I like the most about Leica images is the amount of detail available in the shadows. This means I can expose for the highlights and pull the shadows back. The problem is, when I open the images in Photoshop to apply finer adjustments, the skies often have colour banding in, especially in darker clouds. The DNG (RAW) images were opening as 16bit TIFFs. Changing from RGB to Adobe RGB didn’t improve things, there was still horrible colour banding present and the image appeared underexposed.
I happened to stumble across a post about LAB and thought, “I wonder”.
Bingo, changing the Image Mode from RGB to LAB made all the banding disappear and the image rendered identically to Lightroom.
*I think the image compression of the screen grabs in the Fuji examples has introduced a bit of colour banding, ironically. It’s not there on the native files.
LAB is simply a colour space (well, sort of) which means it is just one more way of translating the data that the camera’s sensor has recorded. My monitor hasn’t changed, that is still RGB and a print is still CMYK. This means I am only viewing a translation that appears/displays consistently. The final output of an image is still limited to the output’s parameters.
That sounds more complicated than I want it to. Basically, what I’m achieving by editing my images in LAB is consistency across Photoshop and Lightroom, which is the operating theatre. Anything that I send for print, or deliver to a client is going to be converted into their required colour space (RGB or CMYK) and often flattened to a JPEG.
I use Photoshop for accurate dodging, burning and precise adjustments, but I manage most of my colour adjustments in Lightroom (unless making final tweaks before sending something to print). The reason I am converting to LAB is to make sure my shadows and highlights remain consistent across both applications (Ps and Lr). Otherwise, I could have found myself to be overly lightening a highlight, or clipping a shadow. Changing the colour mode to LAB in Photoshop has meant I’m seeing an accurate representation of the image to work on, based on Lightroom where I manage all of my images.
Interestingly I have noticed a handful of filters and blend modes aren’t available in LAB. This is why I will still always artwork in RGB or CMYK, because that is in line with the final output. LAB is a working space, not an output so it is always prudent to be mindful that some colours/tones may be lost when converting back to RGB, however…
As I pointed out above, the final artwork is likely to be an 8bit JPEG. My go-to printers are The Print Space who have put together this helpful guide to preparing files for print. This post here also gives a really good explanation of why 8bit is appropriate for exporting artwork. This is also an interesting article that shows C-Type printing is RGB, kind of.
Also, have a read of this article that explains the difference between the RGBs, just because it’s interesting and easy to digest.
Editing in LAB gives me a lot of potential for editing highlights and shadows, confidently knowing what I’m editing is accurate.
Think of it like this: your final output is VHS quality. You'd want to work on Blue Ray quality and export to VHS for the best quality. You can't get Blue Ray quality when you start with VHS. Always work in the highest fidelity.
The closing point I’d like to make is that I almost fell into the trap of thinking I had to buy a new monitor(s). This is typical GAS, whereas have been producing plenty of beautiful prints and delivering high quality work that’s been well appreciated for nearly twenty years – with 8bit monitors!
I’m know there is a benefit to 10bit monitors, but it certainly doesn’t mean those without are incapable of delivering beautiful work.