Re: Who does the seperations?
Re: Who does the seperations?
- Subject: Re: Who does the seperations?
- From: email@hidden (Lee Blevins)
- Date: Wed, 3 Jan 2007 17:26:26 -0500
> Once , just once, as a photographer here in Paris I was asked to
> separate some fashion images I had shot. They were being run full
> page. I said ok, what's the press profile. They said "what" ? I said
> ask your printer. They said no. I said please. They said the printer
> is in Poland. I said ask. They asked and said the printer says there
> are no profiles, that's old technology. I said no profile means no
> separation, by me. They said but it'll only take 10 minutes. I said
> then do it yourselves if it's that easy. When the magazine came out
> they said your colors are flat, your lighting is bad, we'll never work
> with you again, but what we don't understand is how come you showed us
> those beautiful colorful portofolio prints to get the job.
Here's how I would have handled that situation.
The first piece of info I'd want is what is the print condition?
The client might not be able to tell me but I could take a guess.
Is it a magazine running on a web or commercial sheetfed job?
Will it run course screen ruling or fine?
Given whatever answer I'd get (or guess) I'd color separate the file
with what I had.
I have collected a few profiles. I'd grab one that I thought was close
to the print condition and give them a separation.
Because of my years of making separations I can read CMYK values in
colors and have a pretty good idea what will work and what won't.
I don't want black on flesh, I can guess what a good deep red will max
out and and I know when royal blue will turn purple and how much color I
can put into it.
I know the highlight aimpoints and max shadow values for a typical print
process.
I'm not big on long blacks unless I've been able to see the actual print
condition. More often than not long blacks proof well but print heavy so
I try to avoid them. This means I avoid GCR and try to stick with a
skeleton black and UCR.
While we often think that the hues of CMYK inks can vary greatly, in
reality they don't. The differences are subtle.
If they weren't in some close proximity to each other, you couldn't
print.
The problem in your case is that the client is ignorant and doesn't want
to learn. Unfortunately you lost because you gave them RGB and some
schmuck without a clue separated it. I've seen it happen many times.
You'd have been better off to just give a Eurostandard Coated RGB to
CMYK in Photoshop and let it go.
But live and learn.
One degree of experience I have that I don't know how it is to be
obtained these days is my years of looking at separated film on a light
table.
I've done it so many times that I could tell if the film was worth
proofing in about a 5 second glance. I can spot a plugged highlight or a
too long black instantly. Seeing those 4 films laid out you start to get
a feel for the contrast and range of the separations in a good set.
It's very much like a photographer evaluating a black and white neg. You
know if it's too thin or plugged before you put it in the enlarger.
To this day I click throught he seps and look at each layer.
It's my electronic light table.
But given that there isn't film anymore I don't know how anybody would
get that experience today.
To be a separator one has to understand how halftone dots work in the
printing process. Ultimately for litho work you're going to end up with
dots. Be they stocastic or halftone you're going to end up making little
tiny spots that end up on a printing plate.
Then you have to evaluate how those dots hold up under the process.
People who don't know dots and rely completely on calibrated monitors
and inkjet proofs often end up sending a file that has a scum dot on a
plate.
Unless you have a close relationship with whoever will do the separation
you can't trust that they'll honor your embedded profile or choose the
rendering intent you feel is best.
It's a catch 22 that drives this printing business crazy.
Here's a case where I as a separator had to intervene in a job recently.
The problem was the artist created a gradient from a deep blue to black.
It looked great on their monitor but I had to advise them that it
wouldn't print so well. What would happen is exactly what they had
instructed the program to do.
Blend from Blue to 100% K.
As would be expected the middle of the gradient became a desaturated
gray. Because I have experience I knew what they were trying to do.
The solution is to make a Blue solid and place a gradaded black
overprinting it. If I had a knickel for every time I've had to fix this
I'd be rich.
My approach was to call the designer and say "I' don't think that blend
you made will print correctly and I'd like to adjust it, would that be
ok with you?"
The designer was all thanks and I fixed it and the job was beautiful.
But that's what I do. It's my job, It's what as a separator I'm supposed
to do.
What photographers need is a guy like me converting your files to CMYK.
I understand your lingo and can work with your system to give you want
you want.
Unfortunately, there are fewer and fewer of me around and I'm getting
old.
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