Frustrated! - D60 RGB to CMYK woes

[dru_futhark]

Hello,

I have found in converting from RGB to CMYK that I am having special difficulty with "fire engine red" colors like an apple or a fire hydrant. I also have difficulty with bright blues and green. Where the CMYK spectrum range crosses over the RGB spectrum is fairly narrow.

I am researching this problem, and trying to find a workflow that maximizes the quality of color. I have tried other applications(YarcPlus) than the native RAW image converter that comes with the D60. YarcPlus proports to be more accurate but I didn't find it significant enough difference in the intense reds, greens, etc.

I have some good quality CMYK red sample images. They print excellently from my computer to my color printer, so I know there is a way to achieve these reds within the CMYK spectrum.

So it seems the greater issue is in getting these colors to begin with from the input device(Canon D60), or figuring out what was done to these images to achieve these colors in editing.

Anybody know?

-Brian

[Roger_Cavanagh]

Brian,

What's your printer? Unless it's something exotic, you shouldn't need to convert to CMYK.

Regards,

[Kevin Connery]

Roger's question is the most critical one, but unless you keep in mind the nature of different color models (RGB vs CMYK in this case), you can end up with surprises.

Fire-engine bright red isn't a color CMYK does happily, though less saturated and/or deep reds are great.

How does the image look in a calibrated display? That may be a more direct link to isolating the problem.

Which profile are you setting when you import to the computer from the camera? What are your in-camera settings for Contrast, Saturation, and Image Tone (they're menu options)?

All of the above will affect how your colors work, and the more saturated the colors are, the more they usually get affected.