articles/Lighting/endgamesecond-page4

The End Game - the second half - part 4 of 1 2 3 4

by Dave Montizambert Published 01/02/2006

Image [3]: Sample of test printout image labeled with reflective meter reading values and RGB values. Image [4] & [5]: The digital Cross-processed image of model Chelsea Walker in the black leather jacket may pose some printing problems for the printing press in this publication because of the very high contrast that my Cross-processing curves introduced (digital Cross-processing CD tutorial is available through me at montizambert@telus.com). Problems like: What happens when only one channel burns out, as in this case the red channel on Chelsea's cheek (compare upper uncorrected image to lower corrected image on Image 5)? The shadow side of her black jacket (Image 4) straddles that fine line between slight detail and no detail - is that going to be okay and what do those values look like in print? With a little Print Value Recognition practice I'm able to make a fairly accurate guess and make corrections if needed. Check out the RGB readouts on Image 4 and Image 5 to see how they reproduce in this magazine. Are the results acceptable? This is somewhat subjective. My lighting mentor, the late Dean Collins, taught me to always go with the money - in other words, all subjective decisions ultimately lie with the cheque book holder. Also keep in mind that presses can be rather inconsistent, the last copies coming off press can be different from the first - consistency is very much in the hands of the pressman.

On Chelsea's image, Image 4 & 5, I am not correcting the colour because I purposely shifted it for a Cross-processed look. However I am concerned with brightness values and will make sure that essential highlight detail sits no higher than 245 levels or less in all three channels. I also believe that all shadow detail will be lost below 15 levels. If this image were headed to a good lab for chemical based printing I could probably push that 245-highlight detail figure (which is an average limit for offset press) to 249, same for good inkjet printing. Often the three channels will not read the same because they are not truly neutral, so I average them. On Chelsea's jacket at the arm pit it reads Red: 4 Green: 20 Blue: 21. This averages out to approximately 15 levels (4+20+21=45÷3=15 levels).

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1st Published 01/02/2006
last update 09/12/2022 14:53:48

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