Re: Images for print
Re: Images for print
Hiya Bob
Trying to help everyone who is involved with getting a piece of work
into print, from concept to final mass production, to understand that
we are not a game of perfect, but a game of compromise, is something
I've been involved with all my working life - well, ever since I
understood that myself. Initially as a supplier in repro and latterly
as a consultant.
Getting to a stage were you can what I call "predict the tick" on an
image or proof means that you have to understand what makes the whole
production trail work. I think this is the role traditionally that
reprohouses filled, I still have a large hook, taken from a crane,
that used to hang in my office - the hook I was never off of until the
job I had supplied film for was printed, delivered and either safely
in the waste basket or wrapping someone's fish and chips. (Sympathy
for Mo here...) But we did have to have one foot in the conceptual
camp, pink glasses and yellow socks, and the other in the mucky world
of ink and paper, boiler suits and shrugged shoulders... if we were to
get any job successfully out the door.
We are in a better position than ever before to predict the tick, and
I totally agree that everyone involved has a responsibility and vested
interest in ensuring that the rules of engagement are clearly
understood, which is quite often not the case in the real world. In
the past, the name of the game was so often Pete Seager-like... Little
boxes on a hillside - with everyone strictly in their comfort zone -
well the march of technology certainly made a shift of position
necessary there.
It does not surprise me that early initiatives for standard for
digital supply came from photographers, after all with the potential
demise of the transparency something had to be done to make sense of
the fidelity of their product. I can remember "guide" prints from
early digital files so saturated that you needed RayBan's to view
them! When the client got back a contract proof, (and by the way, we
would not call what was supplied then a "contract proof" today, we
have all learnt) and they were introduced to the wonderful small CMYK
gamut, well they could hardly be blamed for throwing their toys out of
the pram!
We have a different workflow emerging today. There fewer reprohouses,
so the filter stage that they maybe provided is disappearing. So we
have a content provider, a page designer/ artworker and a mass
producer. It is even more important that from shutter click onwards
the process is managed, there are just less people involved.
I would not expect anything supplied or processed by any member of
this list to be wanting, but we are a forum of specialists ranging
from enthusiastic journeymen to colour scientists, and we have made it
our business to find the answers. What continues to amaze me, is just
how many of our colleagues in the wider field don't even have the
questions let alone the answers and are still knocking out work every
day...
Eric
On 10 Oct 2008, at 13:04, Bob Marchant wrote:
On 10 Oct 2008, at 10:07, eric@poem wrote:
It seems to me that there is no excuse in this day and age for
photographers, who after all are at the very start of our digital
food-chain, to be paid to produce an image for print that cannot be
satisfactorily and successfully reproduced, all the tools are there
for them to ensure it can.
Hi Eric.
Well..........there's also no excuse in this day and age
commissioners, producers , pre press and press not to be able to
provide a CMYK spec for repro ( or even agreed RGB space ) but it
still happens far too often
And it's kind of interesting to note that the first major
initiatives for best practice guidelines for the supply of digital
files for repro were instigated by photographers . Mostly because
they were fed up with getting the blame for the errors of others.
The more cost conscious will go where the product costs them less
in the end.
Ultimate cost is more than the sticker price.We find that many
(including the cost conscious) will pay a good rate to get quality
output at the photography stage because in the long term it saves
them money to get it right at the beginning of the chain, and many
seem especially keen to work with those who can support their
output with experience and knowledge , even if that sometimes means
ruffling a few feathers at the other end of the chain <g>.
Regards,
Bob Marchant.
m. 07776 23 66 93
Eric Nunn
High House
Chapel Yard
Station Road
Ivinghoe
LU7 9EB
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