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I am an aspiring photographer. I take pictures that I want printed in CMYK for a magazine.

Do I have to take the photo, and then painfully convert the rgb photo to cmyk? Is there no out of the box solution to handle this for me?

Jay
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  • Related: CMYK vs RGB - Can a DSLR take CMYKimages? – scottbb Dec 02 '19 at 03:12
  • Yes... i read this before posting this. I guess i can rephrase my question.. Basically i want to know what to do if i want to take photos with my camera for print purposes. Is this the normal process to follow --> Take a photo, then manually convert it to cmyk in photoshop? – Jay Dec 02 '19 at 03:14
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    You need to ask the magazine what format they require. Converting to some random CMYK profile is not going to be at all useful. Many places would rather you gave them sRGB so they can handle the correct profile conversion. – Tetsujin Dec 02 '19 at 09:08
  • The place that I am going to to print specifically said CMYK. I guess i will look into profiles etc, but before I do this, I just want to know what the process here. Is there no automated way to do something like this? Do i really have to snap photos and then use an app to convert them? – Jay Dec 02 '19 at 11:44
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    What do you mean by painfully convert? Why would it be painful? There are ways to batch convert RGB files to CMYK, using a specific profile, etc. So I don't see why this would be painful... – MrUpsidown Dec 02 '19 at 11:54
  • Ok.. I am new to this. Maybe my thought process is incorrect. Let me know. But here is what i did --> I tried many of the converters, but the colors ended up looking very dull looking and less vibrant. Does that mean I have to choose the correct colors to do the conversion? (this is what i meant by painful) – Jay Dec 02 '19 at 11:59
  • Usually, if a printing company, magazine, etc. asks you to send them CMYK images, they should tell you what color profile you should use. When printing large images, or a book/publication/etc. you usually go through a testing (proofing) process to make sure the colors, contrast, etc. is what you had in mind. Otherwise, you may just send them an RGB file which they will convert for you to CMYK, and to which they will apply their own printers' color profile, and probably adjust with common sense. This really depends on what you are printing, where, how, etc. – MrUpsidown Dec 02 '19 at 12:17
  • Ok, so they should do the job for me? Thanks for the information. I was really lost out here as I know next to nothing about CYMK. I've worked with RGB all my life. Again, thanks. – Jay Dec 02 '19 at 12:28
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    When you say the colors "look dull and less vibrant", are you referring to the final printed product, or how your monitor displays CMYK-coded images? The latter will look worse than the former, by nature of the monitor's RGB output. – L. Scott Johnson Dec 02 '19 at 12:34
  • @L.ScottJohnson I am referring to how my monitor displays it. It looks extremely dull. This is what threw me off to begin with. If what you say is true, then I guess I have nothing to worry about. Because of what you just said, I think i will send in a test image to print and then make my conclusion. It seems I was fooled all along to think that the dull looking image on my screen would be the final product. – Jay Dec 02 '19 at 13:01
  • Aye. "Dull" meaning something like "matte" -- where the darkest portions of the CMYK image seem especially flat on the monitor because of the reconversion to RGB (and the additive nature of light vs. the subtractive nature of print). – L. Scott Johnson Dec 02 '19 at 13:09

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If you are submitting images to a magazine/publisher/print shop you do not have to convert the images. What is important is to softproof using the right profile.

Usually CMYK conversion is done when creating a book in a format like pdf/x-1a using a program like indesign.

Steven Kersting
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