Re: Who does the seperations? (Re: Profile Names and othersuggestions)
Re: Who does the seperations? (Re: Profile Names and othersuggestions)
- Subject: Re: Who does the seperations? (Re: Profile Names and othersuggestions)
- From: "john castronovo" <email@hidden>
- Date: Sun, 7 Jan 2007 03:18:57 -0500
I think that with direct to plate, the skilled pressman is going the way
of the typesetter, the board artist and the photo lab technician. That
in no way diminishes their hard earned skills and worth to produce an
excellent product, but it's the reality of our times. Like the others,
there is no reason why these skills will not be lost, and not only to
photographers but to their customers as well. I was setting type, making
halftone screened negs, burning plates and running my fathers offset
press when I was fifteen back in the sixties and I also learned to make
dye transfer prints from continuous toned separation negatives in his
lab. None of that matters now because the marketplace doesn't value it.
I hear photographers say all the time that all they want from the photo
lab is a dumb machine that will reproduce their files the same way every
time. We think that's insane, but that's what the world wants from
printers as well - a dumb press, without attitude, that maintains its
own calibration and is smart enough to analyze and adjust for the images
it's printing. Just send it a profiled image or pdf, put in the paper
and collect the copies. We're not there yet, but that's what people want
and will pay for so that's the way technology will unfold to make it
happen and it will function "well enough" over ninety percent of the
time. Marketing and economics trump common sense and quality needs every
time.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Martin Orpen"
We're talking about real pre-press skills and jobs being lost and you
try and make out that it's simply the case that one party isn't up to
doing the job swap?
The problem here is that photographers are quite prepared to carry out
work that they are ill-equipped to do.
And so are printers.
Pre-press was once a profession in its own right. Now it's little more
than a photographer's quest for the perfect profile and few extra
dollars and something that the printer can take or leave because they
still own the most expensive bit of kit in the production chain.
Where are all these pre-press people? There's hardly anybody on this
list who has earned a living creating separations, film and contract
proofs. Just a bunch of photographers, consultants and software
salesmen - all with a lot to say about pre-press despite having no
experience of the industry whatsoever.
Again I'll submit that I cannot understand you can gain the necessary
skills without either experience in the industry (as it was) or
without a huge investment in proofing kit and control equipment.
Most of us learn by experimenting and making mistakes. Is that sort of
thing done on press now?
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