Reply To: Rich black in images with RGB workflow – too much ink coverage

RGB black converts to a >300% rich black no matter how you handle it. If it's a problem, a quick fix is to bring the image into Photoshop and raise the black output “floor” to 5 using Levels. That brings the RGB 0,0,0 to CMYK conversion below 300% ink coverage while maintaining good contrast.

An Adobe RGB or ProPhoto image is very often outside the gamut of CMYK process colors, so you may want to do other tweaks for best quality in any individual project. It's a good idea to confer with your printer's (or magazine publisher's) prepress department to find out what they prefer, and to get a contract proof before committing to press. A publication often has a .joboptions file (Distiller preset) that you can simply drop into your Acrobat settings folder, which pretty much eliminates the worries.