Today’s Question: There is a great deal of info about the ProPhoto RGB, Adobe RGB, and sRGB color spaces. But what is Display P3, also listed as a Color Space option in Lightroom Classic? The specs for my BenQ monitor show a Color Gamut of 100% sRGB, and 100% Rec.709—how does that relate to the Color Space options in Lightroom Classic and Photoshop?
Tim’s Quick Answer: In my view the Display P3 color space profile can be thought of as being for cinematic or video purposes and is not an option I would generally recommend for a photo editing workflow.
More Detail: The Display P3 profile was created by Apple primarily for their wide-gamut displays and is a variant of the DCI-P3 color space profile. The DCI-P3 profile was created for cinematic workflows, in part to ensure consistent and vibrant color for digital movie theater projection. Based on this background, I think of the Display P3 profile as being primarily applicable for cinematic or video editing purposes.
For reference, in terms of color gamut the Display P3 color space is larger than the sRGB color space but smaller than Adobe RGB and ProPhoto RGB. As a result, there aren’t very many scenarios where I would recommend that a photographer use the Display P3 color space in their workflow.
In general, I recommend editing photos in the ProPhoto RGB color space, since it is the largest color space among the key options. If you’re not able to work in 16-bit per channel and you are preparing images for print, the Adobe RGB color space is a good option. If you are preparing images exclusively for digital output or with a print workflow that revolves around the sRGB color space, then obviously sRGB can be a good choice.
For photographers, the one scenario where you might use the Display P3 profile is when preparing copies of photos for sharing, in particular if you’ll be sharing those images in a cinematic workflow, such as with a high-gamut digital projector or display. Otherwise, in most cases the sRGB color space profile is the better option for digital sharing of photos, since it is much more widely supported.
