Digital Artist Requirements

[Shoku]

While it is expected for a digital artist to have quality skills in Photoshop and a keen eye for color, knowledge regarding technical aspects related to color is extremely helpful, especially when preparing files for off-set printing.

Here are 25 questions every digital artist should be able to answer:

1. What are the three color spaces most commonly used when editing a color image?
2. When scaling an image up beyond 150%, what settings are best to use?
3. What is considered a neutral tone in CMYK?
4. What is beneficial about Grayscale in Photoshop?
5. When setting shadows for CMYK printing what must be considered?
6. What are the colors represented by the “a” channel in LAB?
7. What is universally beneficial about CMYK?
8. What is considered a neutral tone in RGB?
9. When setting highlights for CMYK printing, what must be considered?
10. What is beneficial about LAB in Photoshop?
11. What is GCR?
12. If an image is too green, what could be the cause, and how could this be fixed?
13. What is metamerism?
14. What happens to an image file when a color profile is assigned to it?
15. What is beneficial about RGB?
16. What happens to an image file when it is converted to a color profile?
17. When a monitor is “calibrated” what does this mean?
18. Do RGB values always represent the same color?
19. Are the CMYK values 55c 40m 23y 45k absolute for the color they produce?
20. What is the benefit of a “rich black” CMYK color profile?
21. What is UCR?
22. How can GCR be implemented?
23. What is a “False” profile?
24. What are the advantages and disadvantages of Pantone colors?
25. What is gamma, and how can this be beneficial when editing an image file?

[Repairman]

The more you know the better but you can get by comfortably as a digital artist without knowing 50% of that list. It's relevance depends on where you work and who your clients are.

[Benny Profane]

This reminds me of someone I work with, who talks, talks, talks stuff like this, but can't retouch at all. Works for him, though. His creative superiors think he's a genius. The power of BS.

[Shoku]

Originally Posted by Benny Profane

This reminds me of someone I work with, who talks, talks, talks stuff like this, but can't retouch at all. Works for him, though. His creative superiors think he's a genius. The power of BS.

Those questions make up the second stage of our assessment test for potential new hires. They help determine how much training will be necessary to bring the artist up to speed to work in our high volume, highly demanding environment.

The first stage of the assessment is the Farnsworth Munsell 100 Hue test, which tells us how well they see color. The third stage is a skills test. They are given 10 images, and told to complete as many as possible in one hour, based on specific instructions. Some complete 4, some complete all 10. The criteria for success is not the amount of the completed images but the quality of those images. Of course the more they can finish that are outstanding, the better for them.

We need artists who work fast, but effectively, and can tackle images produced by professional photographers along with low quality files submitted by consumers who haven't got a clue about photography. Our goal is always total quality, and we are all capable of achieving that - I hold everyone to the same standards, and I teach by example.

If you are ever in Carlsbad, California you are welcome to stop by and check out our company. I would be happy to give you a tour.

[Benny Profane]

Dude, you make post cards. Lighten up.


edit: Listen, you sound very ambitious, and I was rude, I guess, so, I'll pay you back with something I learned a long time ago. Once I worked as a pre press technician (in-house, color/retoucher) for a large publisher. A very large publisher. For the first few five or so years, we had a large staff of quasi quality people marking up proofs and another bunch of geeks dealing with color controls (pre rgb workflow, profiles). I swear, an eighteenth proof of a certain image or spread was not a surprise, after all. Why? Because so many had their fingers in the pie, and made a nice middle class wage for the effort. Then, one day, somebody in a cube came to their senses, saw how much money all of these people were costing the operation, both in their salaries and the version eighteens, and a light bulb went off. You can guess where I'm going. There was a big house cleaning/layoff festival one month, and, lo and behold, a big chunk of change was saved over the next few years. Yeah, quality slipped a little, but, we're talking about products for the masses here, and, really, they don't care too much, or, not as much to justify someone who obsesses over trivia so much that the profit margin is killed. Quality did come back though, because all of the noise and **** swinging was gone, and a good operator could talk directly to the client, and it got done. Cheaper. Know what I mean?


There's people in India who do what you do a whole lot cheaper than you can. That's your competition. But, you probably know that.

[Shoku]

Originally Posted by Benny Profane

Dude, you make post cards. Lightnen up.

We do more than Postcards.

Our products are used for marketing by a variety of Professionals. No different than an ad in a magazine or online. Our products represent our clients so they must look as good as possible. Create a booklet to present your work to potential buyers - if that product looks like crap you will not get many clients.

We are not just a postcard company - we are a high-end marketing company who does everything in-house - we have come a long way from a simple postcard company. Tour our website.
You can start here:
http://www.modernpostcard.com/services/digital-imaging

[chillin]

I wonder what's the pay rate for an artist/printer/quality control/operations manager?

[kav]

Originally Posted by Shoku

We do more than Postcards.

Our products are used for marketing by a variety of Professionals. No different than an ad in a magazine or online. Our products represent our clients so they must look as good as possible. Create a booklet to present your work to potential buyers - if that product looks like crap you will not get many clients.

We are not just a postcard company - we are a high-end marketing company who does everything in-house - we have come a long way from a simple postcard company. Tour our website.
You can start here:
http://www.modernpostcard.com/services/digital-imaging

I don't care that you guys make postcards. I always thought it was a cool company, but some of your questions are still a little flawed. Nothing is universally beneficial about cmyk :p . I guess you can create certain colors that are unavailable within the palette of a typical RGB profile (maroons for example), but there are other ways to do this. You get an independent black channel, but I don't see this as a huge advantage. You just need to make sure you don't set up images that are guaranteed to lose detail when converted due to obnoxious levels of saturation. This can also be a concern in raw processing. If you're using sRGB or Adobe 1998, it's possible to lose single channel detail with a typical relative colorimetric processing conversion, yet perceptual has other annoying effects. You just have to watch for these things. Gamma encoding is little more than a way to display imagery over a low dynamic range with visually pleasing results. If everything was displayed on screen with a linear behavior (as in 254 is twice as bright as 127) you wouldn't like the way these images look given the limited contrast range of typical electronic devices and printed media. It just solves a problem in the way things are displayed, and it's basically handled behind the scenes for the most part anyway in regards to color management. The gamma encoding issue is built into profiles for the way things are displayed and output. While these aren't perfect, I've never seen gamma encoding as a frequently adjusted element.

When it gets down to what does "calibrated" mean and the definition of metamerism (again controlled as much as possible via profiles to aid in color separation and controlled lighting for print viewing), it starts to become patronizing.

It's just my opinion anyway.

If you do know so much, know a way to bring up multiple views of the same image in photoshop like the four up view does in AE? That's a real question, as I'm not sure an equivalent exists within PS.

Edit: edit: Also I want that tour next time I'm down there .

[Shoku]

Originally Posted by kav

Nothing is universally beneficial about cmyk :p

Edit: edit: Also I want that tour next time I'm down there .

There are two things universally beneficial about CMYK (and by that I mean any type of CMYK for any Printer) when retouching or correcting color:

1. The black channel - in order to emulate similar benefits in RGB one must go through too many hoops - and that is not just concerning shadow detail.

2. The ability to make the same color with different channel values - which leads to UCR and GCR - both impossible in RGB, and a real benefit when trying to hold some solid colors or neutral tones on press.

Just let me know when you are in town for that tour.

[Shoku]

Originally Posted by Benny Profane

Dude, you make post cards. Lightnen up
There's people in India who do what you do a whole lot cheaper than you can. That's your competition. But, you probably know that.

Sorry to hear about that layoff event. Many companies have laid off people in the last few years.

FYI: - we do not make eighteen proofs. We are G7 certified - which means we color manage our output to very consistent and precise targets. We very rarely need to re-print a job. Multiple proofs are due to a request by a client, but rarely go beyond the second one.

Our Digital Artists do not sit at a station all day like robots. Besides the retouching and color managing we also provide tech support for our clients, in-person or over the phone - that's why all those questions are necessary. We need to assess how much training will be required because a lot is expected from us.

[kav]

Originally Posted by Shoku

There are two things universally beneficial about CMYK (and by that I mean any type of CMYK for any Printer) when retouching or correcting color:

1. The black channel - in order to emulate similar benefits in RGB one must go through too many hoops - and that is not just concerning shadow detail.

2. The ability to make the same color with different channel values - which leads to UCR and GCR - both impossible in RGB, and a real benefit when trying to hold some solid colors or neutral tones on press.

See I don't disagree with you here at all. It's just become somewhat of a final step as opposed to deal with it at the end rather than for the highest ink density first then reverse engineer if it will also be printed at lower ink limits on different stock.

I can deal without the advantage of a black channel for most things (figured that was one of the answers). As for undercolor / grey component (yes I knew them, I did not google that even though I rarely deal with things at that stage) I'm not used to heavy tweaking there. I've used things such as channel mixer to adjust the balance if the darker tones are going too warm. I've dealt with K only shadows, and if I have to convert something to cmyk, I know enough not to introduce clipping in the file.

I would like to know what resources you use for training there or if it's all just that you teach them there. CMYK has always been a weak point for me when it comes to finer details even though I know how not to mess up most things.

Originally Posted by Shoku

Just let me know when you are in town for that tour.

I will take you up on that.

[Shoku]

Originally Posted by chillin

I wonder what's the pay rate for an artist/printer/quality control/operations manager?

My compensation is between me and the company.

I will say this: I have been at MP since 1996. I live in Southern California on ten acres and am in debt to no one.

[Shoku]

Originally Posted by kav

I would like to know what resources you use for training there or if it's all just that you teach them there.

Teaching is done on the job. For reference we refer to a number of publications, and request that our Artists read them. Two books we use for retouching are:

1. Professional Photoshop, by Dan Margulis

2. Photoshop LAB Color, also by Dan Margulis.

[chillin]

Originally Posted by Shoku

My compensation is between me and the company.

I will say this: I have been at MP since 1996. I live in Southern California on ten acres and am in debt to no one.

I'm very glad.

[Shoku]

Originally Posted by kav

The gamma encoding issue is built into profiles for the way things are displayed and output. While these aren't perfect, I've never seen gamma encoding as a frequently adjusted element..

Gamma is embedded in all profiles, and because of that can it be very beneficial when retouching. Ever have a really dark image?

Adobe 1998 has an embedded gamma of 2.2. In Photoshop you can create your own profiles. You can create an Adobe 1998 based profile with any gamma you want. With your dark image in the original Adobe 1998, assign it a custom version with a gamma of 1.8 and your image will now appear much lighter. This technique can be used for many different effects. It's simple, quick, and very effective.