I’m helping a friend get some photos together for a show he’s applying for and they want all of the pictures in 1920x1920 which is easy enough but then it says “Color space: Save images in an RGB color space”. I know that it means something about red/green/blue but I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do about it. What does saving it in a color space mean, and do I need special software to do it? I have some crappy editing software but it might be enough.
Most image editing software will allow you to control this - it’s just the way that the file described the colour information for each pixel - RGB (red, green, blue) is one way of doing it, CYMK (Cyan, Yellow, Magenta, blacK) is another, HSV (Hue, Saturation, [lightness]Value) is another - each method has its own pros and cons and each type of use (i.e. video, print…) lends itself to one type more than the other.
Most images you create in standard Windows image editing applications will be RGB, unless you specify otherwise.
Thanks a lot. I’d hate to see his application turned down over some technicality. I just did a search on my software and it refers to it but doesn’t say much or give you other options, so I’m going to assume that it’s the default.
Is there something special about the size 1920x1920? It’s awfully large for someone that just wants to look at it on their computer. I’m artistically hopeless so I’m not familiar with anything other than playing with my own pictures.
If this is a show of electronic photos that will not be printed out, then RGB is correct. But if they’re going to be printed they should be converted to CMYK.
But I’m questioning the size of the images. Did they say the files have to be ***within ***1920x1920? Can they be, say, 1920x1250 or 1250x1920?
Did they specify 1920X1920 pixels, or inches?
Why would they want images that are 160 feet wide & tall? Is this a billboard contest?
I don’t know what is special about 1920 pixels, but I have seen the size before.
1024 is 64 * 16, and 1920 is 64 * 30. These numbers look familiar from programming.
In the world of computers and simple imaging software, RGB is certainly the commonest color space. Many kinds of software can convert between spaces, but sometimes the conversions lose information, either because some things must be assumed, or because the original space has corners that poke out of the range of the new space and the values get clipped. Since scanners and digital cameras are basically generating RGB information, I think it is safest to keep everything in RGB, which in your case probably just means not messing with it.
That would be a 53.4G image (at 72ppi)!
From the dimensions, I’m guessing the artist is applying to a juried show through the Zappsite (or something similar). I prepared my images last year in Photoshop. If you run into problems, Karyn, feel free to PM me. If you get really stuck, you can e-mail me the photos and I can prepare them and send them back to you.
If your artist friend is applying to the same shows I am and in the same medium, I’ll do an extra special job of preparing them. BWAHAHAHAHA! 
Most of the printers I’ve used specify sRGB or Adobe RGB files these days. We used to convert to CMYK for newspaper plates, but a lot of printers want to do their own separations. Also, a lot of work isn’t printed with four-color separations, so they generally want you to leave them in RGB.
1920 x 1080 is the pixel dimensions of the largest ATSC high-definition television display. Mu monitor is 1920 x 1200, which gives an HDTV image plus a bit left over for window borders and stuff.
As far as what the show is asking for when they specify that an RGB color space be used – for instance, it would exclude the JPEG format, which uses a Y Cb Cr color space. The issue is that an image in Y Cb Cr color space can’t be exactly represented on a computer screen, which requires the image be defined in precisely defined units of red, green, and blue. By requiring the images be defined in the RGB color space, the show can display the images exactly as the artists originally intended. If you save the images in the TIFF file format you should be fine.
Glad to know that, since I do my own Photoshop work in sRGB.
You wouldn’t want to use JPEG for an art show or competition anyway, since it’s a lossy format. Even if the artifacts are very subtle, they’re there, and probably detract from the quality of the piece.
Are you sure about that? I have used JPEG images for a number of books which required RGB colour space and have never had a problem.
It’s easy to transform images from one color space to another, but representing the result in digital form always results in some compromise.
Note that the color space is not only whether they are described by RGB values or CMYK values (or anything else). For example, Adobe RGB and sRGB cover different gamuts. Adobe RGB can cover more of the gamut of colors visible to the eye, but still not all of them. sRGB covers a rather small subset of human-visible colors.
Here you can compare their coverage to the human visible colors (horse-shoe shaped)
vs.
Adobe RGB covers more greens and cyan than sRGB.
JPEGs should be fine for most applications. I archive work in TIFF LZW compression, but, when sending stuff out to print, JPEGs at 10 quality (even 8) work perfectly fine. JPEGs are a lossy compression, but, when working with photographic work (as opposed to line drawings or anything with hard edges), the compression is pretty much imperceptible to the eye at high qualities.
Thanks for all of this. I was surprised that they wanted something so big too so I checked the application forms myself and that’s what they want.
Frekafree, he’s applying to a very high-end artisan show that only accepts people that exclusively sell their own work, and they’ll only allow one fabric artist. He started out making tiedyes back in the 80s and now he does bolts of silks and velvet for designers although he still does clothing and scarves that he sells at fairs. He sent them samples of the bolts a few weeks ago and they loved them and wanted to see some of the t-shirts and baby clothing too before they give him the spot. They’ve already said that no one else is even close in the running. Anyone that has been to Dead shows has probably seen his work in huge banners behind the stage. Thanks for the offer, and I’ll certainly take you up on it if they reject these ones for being the wrong size.
His work sounds really interesting! I’d love to see some photos.