Agreed again.
David, no hard feelings, I know you're trying to help answer pertinent questions. When you first started with: I would suggest to Andrew (and yourself) if it is something you need to know, then simply ask Tech support but then moved to: I will endeavour to find the answer out for you, before any more blood is spilt, we made significant progress.
I do have to say, it might be either useful or hilarious to ask Tech Support the question, if time permits, maybe I will.
Hi Andrew,
Please see below from Esben at Phase One.
Anyways, the thing is that we actually do most of the work in the native camera space. In fact, we can pretty much work in the native camera space all the way to the output file. The rule is that if you can export an image with an embedded profile, then we can work in the camera space all the way. In that case, the “colorimetric interpretation” is done by the program reading our output file (e.g. PhotoShop).
In fact, if you embed the camera profile and export as a tif, we embed tag 301 (TIFFTAG_TRANSFERFUNCTION) which you can use to get back to a colors-pace which is closely related to the data acquired by the sensor. Obviously, the data has been heavily processed, but the processing is controlled by the user. This feature is targeted at scientific applications and 3rd party software to build color profiles.
The gamut you can see in the camera profile does not limit the gamut used for internal processing in Capture One. While typically large, the gamut is mostly limited because it is intended to be converted to other profiles afterwards. Also, LUT-based ICC profiles which use Lab is the PCS, have a gamut limitation. However, the conversion from the camera space (the “colorimetric interpretation” if you will) is based on ICC profiles.
Now, there are a few exceptions where we are forced to convert into a standard color space:
1) Local color edits
2) Conversion to black&white
There are tradeoffs with this approach. While it allows us to extract just about everything provided in the file, it also means that we need a significant effort to get the best possible quality for a camera. However, it does mean we do not limit ourselves to standardize on a specific internal color space.
Kind regards,
Esben H-R Myosotis
Formerly “EsbenHR” on Luminous Landscape