- Why is this loss of quality in the images?
First of all, you have to take into account the difference between the two color spaces that most advanced cameras usually have. We are talking about the Adobe RGB color space and the sRGB.
The sRGB space is used in the vast majority of devices and digital displays. It was introduced by HP and Microsoft, and was the one that best reproduced the colors on those screens. Keep in mind that no screen or printer can reproduce the spectrum of colors that the human eye is able to observe. But they are sufficient for their purpose.
On the other hand, the Adobe RGB space reproduces approximately 35% more colors than the sRGB. The problem is that most non-professional monitors and printers are not able to reproduce all this extra color information. As the name suggests, this spectrum was introduced by Adobe, because it has a more extensive range than the sRGB. And that at the time of printing, was much closer to CMYK mode, which is often used in printing.
Adobe RGB and sRGB color spaces
- But, why does a photograph captured in Adobe RGB look worse if it contains more color information than the one taken in sRGB?
Well, very simple: our smartphones, tablets, monitors, etc., for the most part, are not prepared to show this extra information. And what they do is omit this information, compressing the extra information. What sometimes gives rise to some strange colors.
And WordPress knows all this. So, when you upload a photograph captured under Adobe RGB to your website, it compresses it to the sRGB spectrum. In addition to the extra compression that usually gives any image you upload. This makes the photograph with vibrant colors that you had at first, suddenly appear on your website with softer tones. But there is no need to worry. We will see what steps we must take to ensure that the photographs on our website are as faithful as possible to the originals.
- Correct Color and Saturation Loss
The most obvious answer is that when we have the camera in our hands, we choose the sRGB mode when capturing the images. But this may not be possible for several reasons. On the one hand, perhaps those same photographs will also end in printed format, so it is advisable to use the Adobe RGB mode. And on the other, maybe those photos already have some time and it is not possible to do another session. Or simply our work is in front of the computer, the photograph is obtained from one of the multiple banks of images available. So we have no possibility to modify this choice.
- Choice of color range in a camera
In any case, to make these corrections, we will use Adobe Photoshop photo retouching software, as it is one of the most widespread in the market. And thanks to Photoshop, we will be able to move from one spectrum of color to another without noticing at first sight any difference.
