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The News & Observer recently
created new standard guidelines for photo quality. The following
procedures will help you obtain optimum quality on The News &
Observer's flexo presses. Note that these are guidelines
for good picture quality - there are other factors that The News
& Observer cannot control, such as original image quality.
If you would like help with your images, feel free to contact
us.
BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOS OVERVIEW
Remember these 3 keys
to a good photo: Brighten Midtones, Add Contrast and Sharpen,
Sharpen, Sharpen! The most common mistake on a black and
white photo is not accounting for the proper Dot Gain. Dot gain
occurs when the ink meets the paper and spreads, much like it
does if you press a felt tip pen to a sheet of notebook paper.
Don't judge your photo by what you see on your computer screen
- judge it by how you KNOW it will print.
BRIGHTEN UP YOUR DARK PHOTOS
1. Crop and size image to desired specs and set resolution to
170dpi.
2. Tone image in RGB.
3. Evaluate image and determine what corrections are necessary.
4. Create adjustment layer for Levels in Layer Palette. With
Preview on, Option-click on Highlight and Shadow triangles. Pull
in slightly until area appears on screen. We can hold a 4% highlight
dot. Pull midtones over to "open" them.
BEFORE
AFTER
5. Create adjustment layer for curves and further adjust areas
as needed. Create slight "S" curve for contrast.
6. If you want to save a copy of your photo for later adjusting,
save a copy to your hard drive now. After you Flatten the file
in step 8, the adjustment layers are gone.
7. Flatten your image
8. Convert to Grayscale mode
9. Go to Filter / Unsharp Mask. Set Radius is .5 and Threshold
is 0. Don't be afraid to sharpen your image 200%, 300% or more.
Dot gain will eliminate a lot of the noise that appears during
sharpening, especially in the Shadow areas. Note that ad designers
at The News & Observer routinely sharpen images in Unsharp
Mask 300 - 500%.
11. Save As EPS, Mac 8-bit, Binary
 
NOTES:
- For accuracy, it is best to
view the photo at 50% or 100% on your screen, not 33% or 66.7%
- We use adjustment layers so
an original of the file can be saved with the adjustments. If
your file runs too dark in the paper, simply open the adjustment
layer and make the correction without having to start over
- On most computer monitors your
picture should look very light - don't judge output quality by
what you see on your screen. If it is dark on your screen, it
will be TOO dark in the paper.
- Our flexo presses cannot hold
a dot below 5%. Therefore, try not to "blow out" your
highlight dot. Use your Info box to avoid going too light.
- Sharpening the photo using Unsharp
Mask is the single best way to make your photo "jump"
off the page
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BLACK
AND WHITE IMAGES