Posted: Fri Jan 07, 2011 12:51 pm Post subject: CMYK vs RGB profile, and DPI for magazine print - help!
Hi all,
I'm hoping someone can advise me about this, as reading guides online has me totally confused.
I've recently started submitting my photography to magazines and agencies, most of whom state that the images must be 300dpi, specific dimensions and in CMYKTiff format. I checked mine, and they're all slightly larger dimensions, 240dpi and in RGB and JPG.
My first question is: how do I convert my images so they fit the specs without ruining them? When I convert RGB to CMYK the colour washes out and I can't quite get it back to the original (not to mention the large array of types of CMYK and other boxes to tick), and when I alter the image size and dpi it makes them severely cropped and I also read you shouldn't just change the dpi like that (in Edit - Image size). I'm worried now that some of my images will never be printable.
2. I'd like to make sure the photographs I take are in the best possible format for internet and possible magazine print before I start working on them. Given the above specs that I'm always given, what would you advise me to change my settings to - and are these in the camera or CS4, or both?
Thank you very much in advance, really appreciate any advice you can offer.
Use Image|Image Size and set Resolution to 300 and turn off re-sample image.
Now you have your 300"ppi" and it doesn't change the H/W ratio of the image.
Go to View|Proof Setup and select Working CMYK which should be US Web Coated (SWOP) v2 unless the magazine tells you to use something else.
With Ctrl+Y, Cmd+Y on the Mac, you can toggle back and forth from the RGB and CMYK view.
Adjust your image in CMYK to get the image as close as possible to the RGB.
CMYK is a smaller color space, you're not going to get everything you want.
If you want the best possible quality from you photos, set your camera to Adobe RGB 1998, it's the largest color available on most cameras.
It the image is going to the web you can convert your "Copy" to sRGB a smaller color space.
To a commercial printer, as you already know they want CMYK.
If you're printing the image yourself use Adobe RGB.
Always shoot in the largest available color space, make "copy's" to convert to other spaces. If you convert an Adobe RGB to something smaller, you've thrown away colors you can never get back.
Thank you Steve, you've helped untangle so much of that for me. Can I just ask also; in the 'workflow settings' in camera RAW, should I set them to Adobe RGB - 8 bits - 3888 x 2592 - 300 p/inch as my default working space (I do fashion photography mainly, but am self-taught so missing a lot of the technical know-how)? And in 'color settings' in the edit menu - is that also best left on Adobe RGB? Really appreciate your help
Ah, ok, thank you. Yes I do work in RAW - though since I started doing that I've noticed it washes out my images when I open them, and I spend a lot of time trying to get them back to what they look like in the camera and in preview form. Never understood why that happens but perhaps it's also to do with colour space incompatibilities?
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