400
Section III Digital Postprocessing
control and convenience. Compared to a
conventional darkroom, the space required by
a computer, scanner, and printer is minimal
(and multipurpose, since most people use the
equipment to perform other tasks in addition to
photo work). The convenience factor is a major
advantage for many users. Unlike traditional
darkroom work, the digital darkroom requires
little setup time, and there is no need to set
aside a block of time (typically several hours) to
complete the work of printing, developing, fixing,
washing, and drying prints.
Digital imaging also offers much greater
flexibility, since operations can be easily stopped
and started. For example, work on a digital image
can be halted, the results saved, and efforts
resumed hours or even days later. In conventional
darkroom work, operations must typically be
carried through to completion in a single session.
Conventional darkroom work usually means
hours of standing in a darkened room; digital
darkroom activities are carried out in a lighted
room from the comfort of a desk chair. For the
photographer with allergies or sensitivity to
chemical fumes, the advantage of the digital
darkroom is obvious.
On the other hand, processing in the digital
darkroom does not have the same feeling as
closing yourself up in the tiny world of the
chemical darkroom, turning on some music, and
working for hours that seem like minutes. It also
requires learning a whole new set of skills and
methods to achieve the kinds of results you are
used to from the conventional darkroom (and
it is even quicker and easier to produce really
bad prints). In some contexts, digital imaging
can raise ethical questions (depending on your
view of photography as a truthful medium) as a
result of inserting or removing elements from a
picture. Actually, such manipulation has always
been possible with the skilled use of traditional
printing methods—it is just faster and easier to do
with a computer and image-editing software.
Image Processing or Image
Manipulation?
Some photographers make a distinction
between image processing and image
manipulation. They consider image processing to
consist of the electronic equivalents of the work
typically done in the conventional darkroom:
adjustment of exposure, color, and contrast,
cropping the image, and dodging and burning.
More extreme changes to the image, especially
where they involved distortion, removal of
particular elements from the photo, combination
of elements from one or more other sources, or
radical changes of color and tone are considered
image manipulation.
Using that distinction, processing activities
could be classified as working in the digital
darkroom, while manipulation could be
characterized as working in the digital studio.
How much manipulation of an image is
permissible depends on its intended use and
the photographer’s ethical standards. Most
Figure 15-1. A completely digital system permits the
time lapse from image capture to finished print to
be shortened to a matter of minutes. By the time the
results of this rodeo barrel race are announced, a print
of the last competitor’s ride will be emerging from the
photographer’s printer. A number of photographers
specializing in competitive event pictures of this type
use a setup that tethers the digital camera to a computer
with a cable. The image is downloaded to the hard
drive, and then sent to a printer for output. In another
system, the camera’s memory card is removed and
slipped into the reader slot of a specially equipped
printer. The image is printed from the card, without
need for the computer.