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|| SportsShooter.com: Member Message Board
Editing Photos
Paul Hayes, Photographer, Photo Editor
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Littleton | NH | USA | Posted: 11:29 PM on 05.19.10 |
->> Hey everyone. New member here. I was hoping you could help me with the work that comes *after* you take the photo.
I have a couple of good cameras (D3, D700) and some decent lenses. So I should be able to get decent images when I head out on assignment.
When I get back I basically take these images and run them through Photoshop (I typically convert them to CMYK for publication and perform minor adjustments such as cropping, color correction, sharpening, etc.). However I admit I have no idea what I am doing. I just monkey around with the image until I'm satisfied with it.
So I wondered what you all do with your photos when you get back. What programs do you use and what adjustments do you commonly make to photos (and which ones do you avoid for ethical/aesthetic reasons)?
Thanks and look forward to your replies. Take care. - Paul |
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Mark Loundy, Photo Editor
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San Jose | CA | USA | Posted: 11:45 PM on 05.19.10 |
->> CMYK conversion is almost always done by the individual publications. The potential conversion settings are all over the map and it's nearly impossible for your settings to be correct for any specific publication.
Since it is publication size specific, you should also leave sharpening to those doing the final publication prep.
--Mark |
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Paul Hayes, Photographer, Photo Editor
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Littleton | NH | USA | Posted: 11:49 PM on 05.19.10 |
| ->> Thanks Mark. However, at a small paper like mine, the task of converting and editing photos is essentially left up to me. So I need to learn how to better act as my own photo editor. |
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Adam Vogler, Photographer, Photo Editor
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Kansas City | Mo. | USA | Posted: 12:14 AM on 05.20.10 |
->> Injest name and edit in Photomechanic.
Convert to jpeg, crop and tone in Photoshop.
Save to a temporary folder where I keep selects for a few weeks to keep them handy if I need them again.
Cutline and apply iptc info.
Update into Photoshop, size, sharpen and convert to CMYK and web versions.
I shoot raw so most of my color correction occurs in ACR. I use adjustment layers for any further tweeking that's needed. I also make extensive of actions for many of these steps. I've built several that size and save the various formats I need of each photo; a cmyk .eps for the paper, a web version and a rgb jpeg for the archive. These also apply unsharp mask in varying degrees that I've found I use most organized based on iso. I've found that 90% of the time I'd end up using the same settings for an properly exposed image shot at 200 iso so I made an action that does it automaticly, and for 800, 1600 etc. This is all done on a monitor that is set to our press, when working images for other publications I send an AP sized (or sized to their specs) RGB jpeg. |
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Jeremy Harmon, Photo Editor, Photographer
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Salt Lake City | UT | USA | Posted: 12:29 AM on 05.20.10 |
->> This may not be exactly what you're asking for, but perhaps this will help. To really get get results in print you need to get a color profile for photoshop that matches your press. We constantly need to update our profile because if the press folks decide to do something like change brands of ink it has a huge impact on what our paper looks like.
You really should do all your color correction in RGB and then convert to CMYK from there. You're working on an RGB monitor so any color correction you do in CMYK is just guess work. Once you're done with your color correction convert them to CMYK and don't mess with it anymore. You're looking at an image that has been separated into four colors on a monitor that can only display stuff in three colors. The CMYK images will look funky but you just have to trust the corrections you did in RGB.
If you don't have a profile for the press you can experiment a bit. Tone one way for about a week. If the images consistently look too yellow in the paper, purposefully make them a little too blue when you're toning to compensate. |
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Codie McLachlan, Photographer
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Edmonton | AB | Canada | Posted: 12:48 PM on 05.21.10 |
->> I don't want to hi-jack the thread, but expanding on Paul's question, I too work at a small paper where we do all the colour conversions ourselves. CMYK is something that I don't understand very well. I always edit in RGB while having "Proof Colours" toggled, but even that isn't accurate.
Any CMYK gurus out there that can offer some tips? When I was freelancing full time someone else always handled that step. |
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Paul Hayes, Photographer, Photo Editor
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Littleton | NH | USA | Posted: 4:20 PM on 05.21.10 |
| ->> Codie, to add to your question, some members have mentioned calibrating screen resolutions (not sure if that's the right terminology) to match up with print resolution. Do you ... or does anybody else ... have anything to add about that? |
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Aleksi Lepisto, Photographer
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Sacramento | CA | United States | Posted: 5:13 AM on 05.23.10 |
->> You calibrate the color, not so much the resolution.
The point of calibrating is so that your screen better matches the print output. Granted, you won't get it 100%, because screens are backlit and paper isn't, but you can get pretty close. This is so you don't have to make tons of proofs for each type of paper/printer/ink you use to get the colors right. It's really important in news - although probably not as vital to be dead on accurate with newsprint.
There are numerous tools you can buy that will allow you to calibrate on your own. The http://www.colormunki.com/ is a pretty popular and easy to use product that is probably more reasonable than the top of the line systems that some people use.
Or, you can just do it the poor man's way and make test prints, and change your monitor's profiles until they match.
Hopefully that answers your questions.
p.s. CMYK vs. RGB is a rabbit hole as far as knowledge goes. Here is a good explanation: http://www.printernational.org/rgb-versus-cmyk.php
You could compare it to the concept of AdobeRGB or maybe ProPhotoRBG versus sRGB - in that if you know when and how it works, it is advantageous to use, but can get very complex. |
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Colin Heyburn, Photographer
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ARMAGH | NI | United Kingdom | Posted: 6:48 AM on 05.23.10 |
| ->> A bit like Paul I do not really have a clue what I am doing or perhaps better put as having had no formal training. For me it is all done pitchside and in the rain or bright sunlight. It goes something like: Select, caption, crop and edit, export and finally transmit. Then I go home and cringe and some of the stuff I have sent off before reselecting and backing up. |
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