Re: Questions for a good color managed workflow...

Sorry about the late response — just returned from being away for 10+ days.

I would not convert CMYK to CMYK. Its best to convert to RGB or LAB then
back to CMYK.




From what I gather, in the more recent versions of PS, CMYK-to-CMYK conversion still goes through the proper conversion method automatically/behind the scenes, so the manual step is no longer required.

Also If the Photo has an embedded Profile honor it instead of converting
it just to convert it.




Makes sense. Though, the reason I have it set to convert to the working space (web coated swop) is because this is the color space all our printers require (well, except one in the UK, but then those files are only 1% of our workflow and are handled outside the typical workflow). And as we're working with CMYK images from the start (not by choice, but that's just how it is), we've had a problem with our printers in that we get terrible color shifts when we send them jobs with images that AREN'T in that color space. They aren't converting the images to the correct color space, but rather their workflow ignores the embedded profile and assigns it one (again, web coated swop). This results in terrible color shifts on many of the images. The exact results in color shifts can be replicated in Photoshop and I've posted the following two screenshots to show it:

This shows the original (sheeted-profiled image) converted to the press profile (which is just web coated swop):
<http://theboyk.is-a-geek.net/conversionexample/TIR-Without_Preserve_CMYK.jpg>
(you can't see 'cause I'm not showing the original, but trust me, almost a dead match)

This shows the same original (sheeted-profiled image) converted to the press profile (which is just web coated swop), but this time with "Preserve CMYK Numbers" checked:
<http://theboyk.is-a-geek.net/conversionexample/TIR-With_Preserve_CMYK.jpg>
(you can see the severe shift in color/contrast)

So, without converting to that color space on our end, we were getting terrible results. And because I can't manually go through every image myself, automatically having PS convert the images to the color space seemed like the next best option? If I could go through every image I would, but we're talking hundreds of random images on any given day handled by 8-10 different designers. I'd be more than open to any other solutions, but thus far, this is the only thing I've come up with that has given good results.

There is one serious thing to consider: All rips do not have the ability
to confiure Blackpoint compensation.




And, going back to my screenshots above, this seems to stem back to my original problem in color shifts, and thus why I convert all images to web coated swop (to pre-empt poor conversion on the printer's end). If I were working in an RGB workflow (which I wish I could), then a lot of these problems wouldn't exist (as RIPs seems to handle RGB to CMYK much better than images already in CMYK), but unfortunately this isn't the case.

untagged RGB is usually sRGB while Adobe RGB / ECI RGB or Prophoto will
unlock more colours in photos.




Completely agree. For my own work I only work in RGB (well, for colour correction I go between RGB, LAB and CMYK, to get improved channels, etc. but that's another story...), but in the studio, because all images are already in CMYK, there is never a point when any of the designers go into RGB except for when converting images (from CMYK to RGB for the web). I'm the only one who does colour correction, so my machine is set differently (and I usually work in Adobe RGB myself, though I know there are now better RGB colour spaces with much larger gamuts, etc...).

Regards,
Kristin.

This shows the original (sheeted-profiled image) converted to the press
profile (which is just web coated swop)




Judging from your images, the proofed device color space is "FlashPressStoccato_v3, not U.S. Web Coated (SWOP) v2.

So, without converting to that color space on our end, we were getting
terrible results. And because I can't manually go through every image
myself, automatically having PS convert the images to the color space
seemed like the next best option?




Instead of changing the color settings (with its possibly dangerous implications), you could perform a batched action: keep the images in your non-SWOP v2 CMYK device space and batch-convert them to SWOP v2 just before delivering them to the print providers.