The input images processed in Neat Image are supposed to be in one or more flavors of RGB color space, like AdobeRGB, sRGB, etc. Most images (irrespective if their file format) produced by consumer digital cameras use the sRGB color space; some prosumer and professional cameras can use the AdobeRGB color space as well.
If an input image is in some flavor of RGB color space then Neat Image produces the output image in exactly the same flavor of RGB color space.
However, to efficiently apply noise reduction Neat Image temporarily converts the image to another color space called working color space. The working color space is an internal parameter of Neat Image noise reduction algorithm. The input image is temporarily converted to selected working color space for processing and then converted back to the original color space to produce the output image. The input and output images are kept in the same flavor of RGB color space and the conversion itself is very accurate so you do not have to worry about this internal color space conversion.
We recommend using the YCrCb working color space to process color images in Neat Image.
Normally, the YCrCb (default) working color space is best for color photographic images, the YCrCb Symmetric color space – for grayscale (halftone) images converted to RGB format. The RGB color space may also be useful for special purposes, for example, to filter only one color channel (R, G or B) of the image.
The subsequent noise analysis will be done in selected working color space. Neat Image will try to automatically redo the analysis if you change the working color space later on.