Adjust Photos in Photoshop for Prepress like a Pro!

Want to print some CMYK (4 color) photos in your (paper) newsletter, newspaper or newsprint magazine, but they are too big, too dark or a little too blurred? Rather than just using the auto-brightness /contrast /sharpen selections try these more professional steps.
I am sure it would've been more fun to talk about using Photoshop to make some cool dragon hurling fire from its throat with a storm on the horizon and the declaration of independence showing through the background. (Wow, I think I might do that one next time!) However this time we are going to talk about something a little more mundane, I suppose, for some, and possibly exciting for others: toning and adjusting photos for printing in your publication. Important! This is based on newspaper printing, so if you have a glossy magazine or webpage you are wondering about, the following suggestions won't really apply.

Step 1. Acquiring your image. This may be from a scan or a digital image. Open it in your Photoshop program. (The larger the image you start with the more "room" you have for adjusting a photo, but watch how much of your disc space you are using up!)

Step 2. Image>Image size- size it however you want but most photos for newsprint (not the web! that is another possible chapter) are just fine at 170 DPI. (Also, lets hope your image is big enough to be easily resized without distorting)

Note: The next 2 steps focus on brightness and clarity of brightness. Printing in a newspaper or rag mag you want to have light, crisp photos to withstand the torture of a web press with 20% dot gain or (gasp!) a sheet fed press, with dot gains beyond infinity.

Step 3. Image>adjust>Levels. Make sure you leave your photos in RGB until you are finished adjusting as that is normally the format they will start in from a digital camera or scanner. You will change them to CMYK later. Set the white point in the adjust levels dialogue box: Double click on the white eyedropper, and fill in the numbers in the CMYK spaces. Set at 0, 0, 0, 0 and your black point set at 100% black or a good mix to use all your CMYK colors would be 63, 53, 53, 93 or any closer range variation.

Step 4. Image>adjust>Curves. Make sure the white point (below the graph in the curves dialogue box) is to your left (click on the middle arrows move them right or left) and pull the curve line down in the middle slowly until you see your photo lighten up a bit without becoming murky or muddy. Sometimes this is easier said than done. It will get murky if you pull the curve line down too far, but luckily we have a preview of our work to see and therefore keep the muddiness out by eyeballing it. If it seems hopeless, leave out the curves step all together.

Step 5. Filters >Unsharp mask. This is the filter that really pulls up your photo to crispness. Which is what you want, remember, light and crisp, if not slightly on the grainy side...set it correctly though, or you'll end up with an image looking like colorful sand. Unless you were aiming for this effect, go easy on the unsharp mask! Move the slider to up around the 180 mark. Radius: 2 Threshold: 2 ( you can also put the slider lower and make the radius a slightly higher number, it is sometimes a good idea to use your best eyeball judgement on this.

Step 6. If you are happy with your crisp, light, 170 DPI image (Ok, sometimes I set it at 200!) Then change your picture to CMYK. (Image>mode>CMYK color)
Hit save and it's done! And now for that cool dragon hurling fire image...!