From: Katharine Thayer (kthayer@pacifier.com)
Date: 08/17/03-10:12:36 AM Z
Oh dear, I had to say that, didn't I.
Okay, first of all, let's make it clear that not everyone agrees with me
that it makes a difference, so we don't have to have all the fighting
that always ensues whenever I bring this up. Let's also make it clear
that I don't like black. I don't even like black in black and white
photographs. (I thought I hated Ansel Adams' work until someone pointed
me to his earlier, subtler work which I like a lot.) So I'm never going
to want to print black in my work. Like many others who print in
tricolor, I find that the three colors print as dark a dark as I'd ever
want. So I'd never be a customer for CMYK, regardless.
But if I were, I would make my color separations individually from the
RGB file, rather than using a CMYK profile. And for those doing
tricolor, I wouldn't recommend, as some people do, taking an easy route
to tricolor separations by printing CMYK separations and throwing away
the black one. The reason for my position on this is that when Photoshop
switches to CMYK, it adjusts the density for the added black by
adjusting the other colors in a very arbitrary way. When you switch from
RGB to CMYK, the CMY part of the equation contains very different
information from what's in RGB. So it's not RGB goes to CMY plus black,
as many people assume, it's RGB goes to CMYK, which is a different
animal.
As I mentioned above, others have claimed that they don't see any
difference, and that it's not worth making a fuss over. And gum is very
forgiving in that you can keep adjusting the color balance with
subsequent printings until you get it the way you want it. So in that
sense, maybe it doesn't matter all that much. But the way I think is,
why not start with the best set of separations possible, rather than
with one that has the colors all messed up? I just prefer to start with
separations that are as close to the color information that was in the
film, even if I'm going to do something different with the balance
later; I like to know what I started with. And during the years when I
was in a production mode with tricolor gum, it was important to be able
to get it right in three printings and not have to be screwing around
with the balance. But as I've said a thousand times here, to each his
own.
Katharine
Steve Bell wrote:
>
> Hey Katharine,
>
> You've piqued my interestl. you said "I don't go the CMYK route to color
> separations, BTW,because that really screws up your colors, but that's a whole
> different issue," now i'm curious. i've tried the CMYK separations in
> photoshop. The method outlined in the James book. i have had moderate success
> with this technique, but it does seem a lot of my 'full color' gums are a
> little off balance color wise. now i know there are tons of variables, and it's
> basically pass-fail-learn with gum, but i never thought to look into CMYK
> separations as a source of a problem.
>
> what have you found?
>
> Steve
>
> Quoting Katharine Thayer <kthayer@pacifier.com>:
>
> > Richard Sullivan wrote:
> > >
> > > When printing color gum or carbon what is the proper order of the colors?
> > >
> > > Is it as noted: CMYK?
> > >
> > > Or is it some other order and what is the rational?
> > >
> >
> > If there's a "proper" order to print gum, I don't know about it. The
> > order I read somewhere when I started printing tricolor gum was yellow,
> > magenta, cyan, and that's the order I've always followed. (I don't use a
> > black printer and I don't go the CMYK route to color separations, BTW,
> > because that really screws up your colors, but that's a whole different
> > issue.) As long as you use transparent pigments, as I do, I don't think
> > the order actually matters. If one or more of the pigments you use is an
> > opaque pigment, like cadmium yellow for example, then there may be
> > issues putting that opaque color over other colors; that's the only case
> > I can think of where order might matter. Some people like to register
> > on a lightbox, and I think those people usually put the blue down first
> > so they can see the image better to register by. Except for the
> > transparent-opaque thing, I think it's just a matter of personal
> > preference or habit.
> > Katharine
> >
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