I don't know how many people on this forum know about CMYK. I mean we live in an RGB world but I feel that everyone should have a little bit of CMYK know how to achieve the best skin tones, especially if you want to print your photos. You don't have to actually convert your file to CMYK to beneift. You can actually configure your Info palette to show both RGB and CMYK readouts simultaneously.

So what is a good skin tone for print? The Y values should almost always be greater than the M values. For ratios, M should be around double C and Y around 50% greater than M. Example: C 10%, M 20%, Y 30%. Be sure to get an eye drop reading other than the cheek of the face since makeup may be there if you are editing portraits of women. The forehead or neck is usually better. Getting a hold of cmyk numbers is the best way to get accurate skin tones for print.

I hope some of the advertising pros (hint: Ben Chan, G-Nie Arambulo) can chime in here with their comment.:Grin:

I don't have any experience in prepress, but when I retouch, I keep my caucasian at 8-35-45.

You know Stanley, looks like I'm going to those numbers soon too. Looks like my last images have been looking a bit too cool!

CMYK is the standard offset color printing process. Here we use four negatives, cyan, magenta, yelo and black. RGB(red, green, blue) are actually for viewing processes only and are not printable colors (correct me if i'm wrong) In our computer we used to work with RGB cos it brings out the brigther and vivid colors rather than CMYK not to mention its lighter file sizes. But sometimes upon working long hours in rgb and later convert it to cmyk for offset printing we get dissapointed when noticed a big difference and colors get bland and dull and we're back at square one retouching and trying to catch up with the brighter colors we made in rgb. Best way (i think) to prevent this is to try toggling from rgb to cmyk preview mode from time to time by pressing command y in ps. :)

As for the skin tone printing yes you are right, there are certain cmyk values for accurate printing but i think that depends on your service provider (again, correct me if i'm wrong) Here in our office we rely on our service provider's final output color values once we see the correct tones in the color proofing not unless your monitor color is 100% calibrated for offset printing. I can share those values but there's no guarantee if it will match your imagesetter's/printer's value according to your liking.

Just my two cents.

Will try to check it out though and post it here soon

I was just going ask about CMYK or RGB for printing, i usually bring my shots in RGB & most of the time prints come out uneven, some are light some are dark, & i saw this when i brought 1 picture with a 25 piece section 4R, just like a puzzle, which i made as a poster. 20" X 30".

would it be better if I brought it to the shop if converted to CMYK? thanks

For many years, the scariest thing for an offset printer to see is a new client holding an inkjet printed proof sample, printed from their desktop, that the client expects to be reproduced in print. This small P4000 peso inkjet regularly prints out colors that are out of gamut for a P20 million offset machine.

WYSIWYG - what you see (on your monitor) is what you get (on print) has been one of the highest goals in the printing industry. Until now it's still very difficult and not yet perfect. Different papers, different printing processes create different effects. It's getting closer though.Much improved inkjet and RIP softwares now give a very good approximation of the print. New methods of monitor calibration and profiling even alllows you to get a very good soft proof and Better color separation technologies and printing equipment now allow you to create excellent RGB looking prints.

I look at the DPP magazine and have to admit that it's like looking at real rgb photos! Don't you think so? These pictures were not possible on a magazine ten years ago. Not locally at least.

If the final output will NOT be on a magazine like DPP, toggling CMYK and rgb is one of the best ways to get a preview on what's it going to look like in print. I suggest best to submit in RGB still.

A nice comment about our printing quality Enjoy. We proof each and every image to make sure to get the best results on CMYK print. It helps to have dedicated staff who really care about photo quality also.

I agree with your comments for Willy. If you are planning to have an image printed via CMYK, better submit an RGB file and let the printer handle the conversion. It would help though to know what CMYK profiles they use for output so that you can run softprroofs in Photoshop to give you a fair idea of it may turn out on print.

@ willy
Were the items digitally printed? I would suggest you try a different printer.
I would expect better consistency from digitally printed items such as large format ink jet printing especially w rip softwares. The print should NOT change that much unless settings are different.

Offset printing is a different story altogether. Printing inconsistencies for offset is an inherent part of the process.

It used to be that if you run the same job back to back, the colors would even be different! Many great companies and solutions were extablished due to these inconsistencies, such as pantone colors, spot coloured inks, print monitoring, colorimeters, spectographers, etc. So many factors affect the colors and offset print quality, including humidity, ink, even how an operator is feeling changes the print! Running the same job on a different day, using the same machine with the same inks and settting and operator still produced different results! With older machines, so much depends on the skill of the operator and his current mood of course.

With newer offset machines, consistensy is much much better! You hardly even need to use spot colors nowadays. So unless it's for a high volume very price sensitive production, go to the printer which has the highest quality equipments, experience, proofing capabilities, training and guidelines.

Enter digital printing!
Assuming a well maintained and calibrated equipment with the right settings, consistency could be achieved day after day! even across continents!

i'm a graphic artist for a press before. in our workflow, layouts and retouches would always be done in RGB (usually the first few proofs), the last proof would be done in CMYK to prepare the document for film output or direct plating.

we always make it a point to explain to our customers that computer printouts wouldn't always be 100% exact to the final product. this is because there's just too many factors at play.