parishard

I am sending text articles along with JPEG color photos to magazines via email for publication in B & W. I use the capture mode of RAW + JPEG-FINE. I have been using PSE 12 for 'standard' (first in RAW and then in JPEG) PP on the color photos which emphasize details described in the text. Most of the photos are 'macros' (more or less) showing minute to just small details. I am satisfied with the color photos I send; they probably fall into the category of average. There are 10 to 20 photos per article. The problem is - when I finally receive my copy of the printed magazine, ALL the photos just look like gray blobs with very little contrast (maybe 2 stops) to me. Some of them are so poor that even I can't tell what they are supposed to represent until I go back and look up the color original. This problem has been going on with my photos for several years. The magazine has had this publishing problem for decades. The question is - what to do in order to get better photos in the published magazine copies? Do you exaggerate certain features of the colors before sending the JPEGS (over sharpen, exaggerate certain colors, eliminate certain colors, or ?) or, do you convert to B & W before sending? If you convert to B & W before sending to the publisher, then what should the pix look like on the monitor (I assume they are not going to look like anything Ansel Adams would produce).
I realize this is a photo publishing problem and not just a 'taking pictures' problem. But, I am being misrepresented, paying customers of the magazine are not receiving all the original information sent and I would like to know if there is anything that can be done about it on my end?

twowindsbear

Are other photos, from other sources, in that publication any better?

JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco

The magazine must be doing a lousy job of the B&W conversion. If I am sending a photo for publication in B&W, I would convert it myself to make sure it is done right. There are various ways to do it, if you aren't familiar some research might be in order. If your monitor is correctly calibrated, it should look like you want it to look when printed.

OutBack Loc: North Central Florida

Look now, in the old days mags and papers used a screen to convert to B/W. You will have to perform this function digitally or otherwise before you send the pics.

Magnify a shot of oldstyle prints and see what I mean.

bpulv Loc: Buena Park, CA

I agree. When I use to submit photos to newspapers and magazines in the 60's and 70's, high contrast B&W prints were always requested by the publishers. Have you talked to the publisher about the problem? If possible, you should. If you can't, I would perform an experiment. The next time you submit an article I would provide some pictures in color, some in full tone B&W, some in high contrast B&W and a few full tone pre-screened and high contrast pre-screened B&W prints. The pictures in the printed article will be inconsistent looking, but that would happen only the one time. Going forward, you will be able to submit all of your photographs in the best format.

pithydoug Loc: Catskill Mountains, NY

I had/have this issue with the local paper i shoot for. It's small paper and they use a Matel printer. While most of my stuff appears appears on the front page in color, I only have to contend with poor color print quality. When they would decide to put it on a B&W page what a cluster **CK! I told them if they plan to use a photo for a B&W page please let me make it B&W first. On certain photos I will send them(actually place in dropbox) both flavors.

Logan1949

With low quality paper, we used to manually halftone the image by laying a screen over the high-contrast B&W picture. But now you can do that in Photoshop. It makes the picture into dots which helps the print process to keep from smearing the ink all over the picture. Google "halftone texture photoshop". There are videos to show how to do it.

Edit: It will come out looking like comic book or newspaper printing.

via the lens Loc: Northern California, near Yosemite NP

Have you asked the publication what kind of file type or conversion of your photos that they would like to receive? Have you asked them their opinion as to why this problem is happening? Would that not be the first step? If they are still using some older printing equipment and you need a half tone then do as someone else has suggested and turn the image, a BLACK & WHITE image, into a halftone. If they are using more up-to-date equipment, again find out the issue and work with them. In any case, you need to deliver to them the final image, not let them convert anything.