The CMYK model (acronym for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Key) is a subtractive color model used in color printing. Modern version is more accurate and obsolete RYB color model, which is still used in painting and fine arts. Lets represent a wider color range than the latter, and has a better adaptation to industrial media
I personally work entirely in adobe photo rgb (mostly out of habit) without worrying about the CMYK preview, and convert the image to CMYK in the last step. If the image I get in srgb the first to convert to AdobeRGB, get to know if your post-processing schemes are not going to get above tones sRGB gamut through some filter or similar. But only if I'm on monitors that are enhanced gamut capacez play.
At the end by making the corresponding CMYK, if I see that there are tones like bright orange or red retouch losing saturations too hard to match as closely as possible to the result that I was in adobe rgb, convert it to CMYK at the end rather than technical is a rather practical question.
Keep in mind a few key points.
- The wider color space is the prophoto, but digital cameras are unable to capture the many colors of the spectrum.
- The high-end SLR cameras, digital backs and high-end as the Foveon sensors are capable (experts say) to capture a slightly higher gamut Adobe RGB but fail to capture the prophoto.
In nikon if you notice, the raw not embed the Adobe RGB 1998 standard, eg. the D800E now has one "nikon 4.0.0.3001 adobe rgb" is something different, little, but different.
If working with nikon ideally work as the raw in Nx2 capture, pull a 16bit uncompressed tiff, and work in Photoshop with the case you need to apply filters, resize, etc. with specific embedded profile and leaves nikon Output in the capture nx2, to keep colors. The difference will be minimal compared to adobe rgb 1998, but will be.
There are trends that encourage work under the auspices of prophoto extended color space, well I'm against this. Personal opinion, but why do we do that if they work with the embedded color space that gives us life status camera brand? few cameras outweigh the adobe rgb and they do embed their profile. The prophoto in the future?? can, now we have cameras that capture, or monitors that visualize printers far to play it.
What I think we should try is to have the environment controlled color as possible so as not to screw up. Let your monitor is a conventional sRGB? Congratulations, you have 16 million colors to work, working the photo you can see: these 16milones of colors, transforms the photo to sRGB and point, the colors are going to work you will see. That you have a extended gamut monitor? then great, works photo with that color space. Whatever the color space you are working with embedded leave it and someone can see exactly what you wanted to teach only load the profile that you take your photo.
Are you going to upload your photo to the network? then convert it to sRGB, as not many netizens handle an AdobeRGB gamut monitor.
Work prophoto not see what you are doing because you can not see?? is nonsense, keep raw and if by chance locks in more colors your monitor displays the day they invent a better monitor and see, but do not work blindly, because if you work in a color space not can display the day that if you can see in the future monitors surely the result you've done blind is far from what you intended.
What about printers? the CMYK gamut is well below the adobe rgb generally. There inks come into play low cyan, magenta low, orange or green that yield excellently dedicated in some way and may even exceed the adobe rgb gamut corner somewhere, usually in blue and green, are colors that are not going to play in printing, you already know that. And if by chance our printer exceeds some kind of tone is captured by the camera sensor, we do not care. I never photographed can not be printed.
Why work adobe photo on the camera rgb and convert to CMYK at the end? as I said a practical matter. I may handle about 30 different CMYK profiles, between materials of different brands, laminated gloss, matte or satin textiles, pvc tarpaulins, etc etc photo papers. At the end I look at what I'm going to print and directly convert. If it's vector design with rgb colors etc. fio me spectrophotometer calibration, that's what it is. The advantage is that you calibrate colormunki both printer and monitor, so what you see on the monitor is what you are going to print, what makes you the colormunki when you calibrate the printer is actually not pure white offset the substrate to get the colors as shown in the screen calibrated by the same colormunki. The whites of the substrate are the bosses, they'll never get to pure white 255,255,255 a monitor, are white much more "muted". That's why the monitor was saying nodebe be very bright, I use a vinyl issue 140cd/m2 160cd/m2 for paper high glossy high definition. So what I see on the screen is calibrated with colormunki ue almost equal to what I will see printed. The lower the brightness is "intensity" white equals visually display the "target" of the printable substrate, that is the reason.
When is photography, more subjective, give the final touch after conversion to CMYK, you can always stretch a little with warm colors, a little S in curves etc etc.
But will that is just my opinion, drawn from my experience photographing, viewing and printing in large format and I can be wrong on something.
To convert an RGB file to a target CMYK space, open the image file in Photoshop, then go to Edit > Convert to Profile.
Once there, select your target profile > Library > ColorSync > Profiles folder
Then select a rendering intent appropriate for your image (to simplify, Perceptual if the relevant image colors are out of the target's gamut, otherwise Relative Colorimetric). If you select Relative Colorimetric, it's also a good idea to check "Use Black Point Compensation".
Do NOT use the Image > Mode > CMYK command to convert your image, because that does not offer the degree of control that you have with Convert to Profile, and limits you instead to the target space and conversion controls set in the application's Color Settings, which may not be appropriate for your purposes.
