I wonder if anyone has any suggestions for me, particularly if they are using similar equipment with similar ends. I am a digital photo editor in a growing, full-service ad agency/marketing company. I added "growing" only to bring home the point that I am increasingly preparing images for different output solutions from magazine ads to sheet-fed printing to the Internet as well as display material, billboards and everything else out there. So I am constantly confronted with a broad range of output specifications, some color-managed, some not. Even with our regular print vendors there always seems
to be upheaval as they overturn their workflows to accommodate a new proofing system or RIP technology, in an effort to remain on the cutting edge.
From my perspective I just want to be able to predict with reasonable accuracy what my images are going to look like when the get to vendor A, B or C.
My current configuration consists of Photoshop CS2, OSX 4, An Apple Cinema 20" LCD display, Gretag-Macbeth Spectroscan/Spectrolino, Profilemaker 4.1.5 (including Measurement Tools and Profile Editor), Colorbyte's ImagePrint 5.5 Build 1.0.7 and an Epson 9600 using Ultrachrome inks and Photo Black and most of the output is going on Epson Photosemigloss paper.
I am color-managed up to a point. I assign or convert all new RGB images to ColorMatch and I edit in RGB and save a master file, repurposing it as needed and converting to CMYK as a last step unless I need to build into an image such elements as a black-only drop shadow. When I convert to CMYK I generally use the SWOP standards for Sheetfed, Web offset, etc., adjusting these as necessary depending on whether or not I have vendor specs for dot gain, total ink, etc.
I calibrate my monitor using PM Measurement Tool and the Spectrolino and build a profile from the measurement data. I am at a loss as to what white point to use. I build profiles for each new paper I am using on the Epson.
I was using Epson's paper profiles as a base profile that I use to profile each new roll. I use this updated profile as my paper profile but have noticed that my rich blues are more purple than I'd like. I read somewhere that I should be using profiles with ECWF suffix as these were made for mixed light viewing. I downloaded this profile from Epson and this has helped but now, comparing my proofs to my display, vendors proof and press-sheets my reds are running a touch orange. I have been afraid to edit profiles in Profile Editor. I am not so familiar with the software options and I find the online documentation to be confusing and having to jump from link to link doesn't help. I'm looking for rock solid and real world help in the form of responses, books, training programs or a consultant to work with hands on for a few days. I have an older copy of the Blatner, Murphy, Bunting book but find it not so easily applicable to the tools I have before me.
I have to say that, for the most part, we get good color and some of the surprises we get on press or in proofing are not so drastic as to be unacceptable. It seems we are in an increasingly "pleasing color" world. Similar to what happened with typography as it was handed over to Art Directors and Designers 20 years or so ago, color in the hands of designers, has lost it's primacy and we settle for less than the best as a matter of course. This may be cynical but it seems as the tools and technology get better, our expectations lower. Anyway that's the world I'm in. I'd love to be able to say with confidence that the royal blue on the screen, possibly seen through a soft-proof, it what you'll get back on the printer's proof and what he'll lay down with his Heidelberg.
I'm really just looking for advice on how most effectively to employ the tools I have at my disposal, recommend better tools (like an updated Imageprint) and have someone guide me in putting theory into practice.
Thanks for any and all input.
Kevin Casey
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Kevin Casey
Digital Imaging Technician - Pushing pixels around for over 20 years
RightMinds
You Can Do Anything When You Put Our Minds To It.
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KC's Inspiration du Jour:
"Shall we tell the architect of the Universe how to build?" Swami Vivekananda
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