I'm hoping to get some of my images done as prints. unfortunately a lot of my current ones won't make it as they are not CMYK optimised. need some advice on working in CMYK:

As I plan on taking photos using a digital camera in RAW mode, the images should hopefully be all ok for printing. Is this the case?

Once I start working on the pics in photoshop, certain adjustments might move the colours & hues into areas that are best suited for RGB. Is there any way to forbid this by specifying that only a specific palatte from the printer (to whom i will be sending the finished images to) can be used? Something like web colours only I suppose...

When working on a piece, i gather that the final size of the print is not so much dependant on resolution, but on dpi. Is dpi the only variable that determines print size, or are there other factors?

thanks in advance for any advice :o)
GDV

Think you supplied me with some good info to get started. I read up on out of gamut colours from what you were saying.

However, I was more thinking on the lines of photoshop not having a palatte of RGB colours at all to work from. ie - any automated process such as filters would automatically have to select the nearest CMYK colour from a specified profile, as opposed to any 'ole colour it fancies and THEN telling you that 5000 pixels all over the place are out of gamut. is it possible to set photoshop up like this?

found some good info on RAW mode:
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/understanding-series/u-raw-files.shtml

i'm still a bit confused about the camera aspect of things & perhaps this is the wrong forum to post the following point in, but i'll run it past you because you seem like a knowledgeable chap. :o)

i take the photos on my digi camera & save them as .jpgs on the memory card. i then postprocess these images. in my reading on the net, the advice seemed to be to convert these images to CMYK before doing any postprocessing as it would be easier to manage. However when I do this the image is completley screwed anyway. do you think that this is due to the format being a .jpg in the first place? ie - when the camera saves it onto the memory card it does it as a RGB .jpg? i'll post two examples of images below.

I think that RAW mode is neither RGB nor CMYK. RGB & CMYK are smaller subsets of a larger colour range. Are you saying that even though I converted the image to CMYK, because I am viewing it on my monitor, it appears in RGB colours, but if i actually print it out it will appear differently? Thanks GDV

I've never opened up a .raw format file from scratch, so it's colour-space.. or "image mode" is both undetermined, and unknown to me. Raw is still not an "image mode" as such, this image included ^^^ is what came up when opened up a raw image i saved.. then re-opened - 4 channels gives you CMYK, 3 gives you RGB, 1 gives you greyscale. so I chose what it would be. i tried to save a converted image as a cmyk.jpg three ways.. "file > save " "file > save as" and "file > save for web" save for web - actualy converted the colourspace back to RGB again. (but with loss of colour) converting back and forth, or over and over is destuctive to the image. The intention of CMYK conversion is to calculate the inks being mixed on paper, to produce a similar colour. our monitors are not made out of ink, so yes Printed things look different than what a monitor shows you.

Converting to CMYK color space doesn't do you any good unless you have a color calibrated monitor that is using the same ICC color profiles that the printer has set up for their work flow, screen frequencies and dot gain for the appropriate paper and printing press that will be used to reproduce the image. You are better off to let the printer do the conversion to CMYK and ask for a digital color Iris proof. Review the proof at the printers light box (or 5000K light source, I.E. sunlight) to make any comments regarding color corrections at that time. Ask for general prices for corrections BEFORE you submit your work for reproduction! Some printers have great printing prices but make up the difference with Customer Alterations. In general, you will want to increase the levels and sharpen the image a bit. The problematic RGB to CMYK colors are mostly greens & oranges.