Hi I'm after some advice.
I do most of my work for various outdoor magazines based in one publishing company. There are about three repro companies doing the work for the magazines both of which do fantastic scans from transparencies. As a result I come into contact with at least two of these. A couple of the magazines are starting to use some digital pictures and are getting on very well. They are using some of the pictures for front covers and also double page spread pictures. Clearly the repro house have got things sorted. One of the other magazines uses and different company and the results have been very disappointing. The results in the magazines look very digital. I recently did a test more for my own progress. I sent an RGB file (from a Nikon D1) and also a CMYK conversion of the same file to both repro houses. The one who has been doing good consistent work sent back two proofs both of which I would consider more than useable. The other sent back only the CMYK proof which is disappointing to say the least (they said they couldn't do anything with the RGB file). It seems almost very slightly solarised (in old photographic terms). Out of interest the "good" repro house said the CMYK conversion I had done was very good and they had know problems with it. If I hadn't done the side by side test I would consider my camera is at fault or that my CMYK conversion was poor. Since my test the "poor" repro house has done more test for me but they readily admit they are not what we need. I'm not even sure if it might just be the printer they use for outputting the proofs. I realise it is very difficult to sum up what is wrong but I am finding it very difficult to get an unbiased point of view. I know it is a lot to ask but if someone was willing I would happily send the test proofs to get a second opinion. At the moment I am considering doing further investigation by using images from a newer camera (maybe the Canon D10). Any help would be gratefully appreciated. Matthew Matthew Roberts Photographer 07947 135970 www.matthewroberts-photography.co.uk =============================================================== GO TO http://www.prodig.org for ~ GUIDELINES ~ un/SUBSCRIBING ~ ITEMS for SALE
