color space expert help needed (AR?)

[royfphoto]

Starting a stock photosite; customer may download after purchase, most customers=editorial.
1)If I put up images in sRGB they will look "proper" but when downloaded will not have a large color space
2)Put up ADOBE RGB and they will look dull, download would be good, but I might lose sales due to "lifelessness"
3)Don't really want to keep track of a web and print version of each picture (2 copies)
Have found that a lot of people buying the pictures are looking at the worst monitors in the world. Bg buck clients and PR agencies have off the shelf Dells
(they do then pass the pictures to a graphics department that has the good stuff)
So do I :
Post as sRGB and offer a Adobe RGB if any one requests it?
or..Post as AdobeRGB and hope the image will shine thru the crappy monitor filter.

[Jonathan Wienke]

How about posting low-res thumbnails in sRGB, and purchased images in Adobe RGB or ProPhoto?

[royfphoto]

How about posting low-res thumbnails in sRGB, and purchased images in Adobe RGB or ProPhoto?
[{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

The site/ service doesn't really allow for that, see example here:

[a href=\"http://www.digitalrailroad.net/newyorkstockphoto/]http://www.digitalrailroad.net/newyorkstockphoto/[/url]

Digital Railroad is a great service for selling images and will soon have a network based keyword search, but.... my color space problem remains

[digitaldog]

For web output, sRGB is the right answer.

For output, ideally wider gamut.

[Jonathan Wienke]

The site/ service doesn't really allow for that, see example here:

Get a different service. That's sort of like a McDonalds restaurant forgetting to put burgers on the menu, or not having ketchup. Or a surgeon who has difficulty spelling "scalpel".

[Serge Cashman]

As far as AdobeRGB/sRGB it doesn't matter what monitors people use. All PC users would see AdobeRGB images as undersaturated in their browsers.  Only Safari users on Macs can see them properly if they calibrate their monitors (0.001% of them all?). Note that even those who can see AdobeRGB correctly won't see it any different from a regular sRGB file.

Now - doesn't Digital Railroad allow you to display and sell different files? Essentially you don't want to upload all your hi-rez tiffs to a stock site anyway.

Last time I heard of it Digital Railroad didn't have any automatic ordering procedures - customers had to contact photographers to get their files. So upload low-rez sRGB and send your clients hi-rez Adobe RGB. Like you said "Post as sRGB and offer a Adobe RGB if any one requests it"...

BTW - what's your impression of Digital Railroad? They are really expensive but claim to be really professional.

[edit] disclaimer - I'm asking because I've met someone who worked there. I have absolutely no opinion about that company.