Re: Who does the seperations? (Re: Profile Names and other suggestions)
Re: Who does the seperations? (Re: Profile Names and other suggestions)
- Subject: Re: Who does the seperations? (Re: Profile Names and other suggestions)
- From: email@hidden (Lee Blevins)
- Date: Sat, 6 Jan 2007 10:36:23 -0500
> Lee,
>
> > You're a photographer. You make photographs.
> >
> > You should not make CMYK images.
>
> What kind of "open" attitude is that? We're all trying to better ourselves
> about color anyway we can. That kind of attitude does not help. There is
> nothing sacred about CMYK or RGB or Lch or Lab or XYZ or, what is it, Jab?
> Those CIECAM correlates? Anyway, there are many and varied workflows, as
> many and varied as the people who make them. Color happens in countless
> ways, everyday. Good or bad. Yes, there are better ways than others. But,
> please, be appreciative of the efforts of others to learn trades that you
> mastered over a life time.
>
It's a professional opinion based on many years of experience.
Prepress workers entire focus is to prepare images for printing. That is
what they do. That is their job and their focus and all of their
training and experience is about doing that and nothing else.
Photographers on the other hand work in studios or go out on locations
and take pictures. They don't have the hours of time dealing directly
with presses, plating and the issues surrounding that. They are not
involved in the day to day operation of printing inside the walls of a
print shop. As a result they don't establish the skills from seeing
directly the results of their actions relative to color separating and
printing.
Photographers tend to be the clients of print shops. They don't get the
brow beating and scolding that prepress workers get from pressroom
supervisors who enter the prepress department with a press sheet in
their hand demanding to know what dimwit is responsible for the issue
the are having. That school of hard knocks is the college where people
learn the fine art of color separating. Sad but true, that's how a trade
works. It's not something you read in a book or attend a college to
learn. It's about experience and apprentiship.
While some photographers might learn the craft due to their brilliance
and desire the majority will not become expert.
I am on the receiving end of images that photographers create. One
particular area that I see as a problem is when the photographer creates
a separation when none was needed. My company prints large format inkjet
as well as performs prepress work.
I have a customer who orders backlit displays and their images suffer in
the shadow areas because the digital photographer is converting the
image to CMYK with an excessive amount of UCR. He/she should not be
converting to CMYK at all. The image should be left in RGB for maximum
color gamut.
Just another case where the image conversion should be left up to the
prepress department and not by the photographer.
In another case I see a photographer who copies paintings converting the
image to CMYK and sending it to the printer. No effort has been made to
contact the printer for a profile and the files don't always go to the
same printer. The printer is pulling their hair out trying to color
correct to match the painting and the museum is telling them they don't
know why since the photographer "color corrects" the image before they
send it out.
The photographer submits no proof of their work. And isn't that key if
you're going to create the separation that you would submit a proof
showing that you achieved the objective? And what proof would you use
and how would it be relevant to the print shop?
The fact that you have an Epson printer calibrated to some standard you
have chosen has no relevance whatsoever to the conditions that exist at
a print shop. The only case where that might apply is Web Publication
work where you use SWOP as your target. And in that case proof matching
is rare. Just compare your Epson proof to the actual magazine. I've had
many years of doing that.
Since most commercial printers don't use SWOP inks and use sheetfed
presses and not webs the SWOP certified proof isn't relevant to them.
Proofing media such as Kodak Approval is sold in two flavors, Commerical
and SWOP.
If you are going to make separations for a printer I hope you would have
done your homework and got a site specific profile from them and
contacted their prepress department about conditions relative to their
environment.
But who does that?
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