So, a few things have happened since the last post. The tee I was working on is still coming, however, since i'm fickle, I actually moved onto another set that I had an idea for, so i've been working away on that for the last few days when I haven't been at work. However, i've hit a bit of a problem.
Trouble is, when i'm making the t-shirt i'm working in RGB. As soon as I upload an image to Redbubble, it converts it to CMYK (since the t-shirts are printed in CMYK, so presumably they do this so people looking to buy stuff from the site can get a good idea of what the finished product will look like). Trouble with CMYK is that it's a far smaller colour space than RGB, which basically means that there are less colours that Redbubble can use on its t-shirts than I can have on screen, so when I end up uploading a design, it inevitably loses some of the saturation and vibrancy; you can't really get luminous colours.
The trouble this is presenting with the set that i've been working on is that the pictures have a lot of skin colour in them, and the conversion to CMYK is making the skin looked really dull and washed out to the point of being almost grey. I spent a good few hours yesterday tinkering with colour balances, saturations, brightnesses and curves to try and reduce the affect as much as possible, but unfortunately I can't quite get a finished t-shirt that has colours that i'm particularly happy with, so i'm at a bit of a loss as for what to do next. Stickers, posters and Iphone cases are all displayed in RGB, so they're shown in their full glory, but I really wanted this set as t-shirts (since I actually was going to buy some for myself), but i'm not so sure about doing them as t-shirts anymore. I mean if i'm not happy with the product myself, I shouldn't really put it up for sale when I know it could be better.
I'll continue working on it and see if I can come to some kind of compromise. I really hope that I can, since I'm really eager to get this set finished and uploaded (i'm really excited about it), but I may be forced to just have them as stickers and iphone cases at the end of it sadly. I'd rather it didn't come to that, but it's looking more and more likely at the moment.
Urgh.
UPDATE: HAHAAA
I have succeeded in getting around the pesky CMYK issue. I will now be promptly cracking on with this set and should have it ready within a matter of days.
Well done on getting around that issue. Must've been a pain. Looking forward to the new designs :3
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Uh, would you mind revealing exactly how you got around this CMYK issue? It's something I've been struggling with a bit too and I'd like to know a few tips into combating it. Unless you were just fiddling around a bit and didn't do anything definite.
ReplyDeleteIn the end I had to change the design a bit, there was no other way around it. I spent a good few hours fiddling with colour balances and saturations and vibrancies but I got nothing. Best I got was sort of skin colour-ish, but it was still way too pink, so I had to rethink the design and the colours I was using. It's not ideal, but at least this way I can actually have them as t-shirts. I've checked the ones i've done so far on RB and they seem fine, albeit a little less saturated, but that's inevitable when you go from RGB to CMYK. Best advice I can give you in order to get around the issue is that when you're working, periodically switch over to CMYK and check the colours. I'd say get your screen properly calibrated as well, but i'm not sure where you can go and get that done. I know there are places that can do screen calibrations, but you'd have to look that up. Another tip is that if you know the profile of the device that'll be printing the image, do a preview using that profile; it'll give you a much better idea of what the actual printed product will come out like, although it's still just a rough estimation at best.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the advice, it hasn't really been troubling me a much lately as I've sort of come to accept it, and some designs just won't work as well.
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