The Digital DarkroomAs an experienced photographer I know that making an image is only half the process. The Digital Darkroom is where the magic happens and you fully utilize both yur photography and computer skills. Digital Photography is no different but your digital darkroom is, of course, your computer, image software, and your printer. What you do here can have the same results as a darkroom. A traditional film darkroom needs a good enlarger, an easel to hold the paper, a timer and trays to hold the chemicals to develop your film and paper. In the digital darkroom you need a very good computer, a hard drive for storage, and imaging editing software and a good printer, which we’ll get into later. The digital darkroom has a computer and it has an operating system. For those of you that are still deciding what computer to purchase, you really should think about the operating system before you think about the computer itself. At this point it’s really a matter of preference, but you should research both systems. I’m not going into the one is better then the other argument here. I want you to chose what you like and what will work best in your digital darkroom. Macintosh Mac users know its strong points have to do with its digital image editing software like Abode’s Photoshop and other color-matching software which the world of commercial printing used until PC’s and Microsoft Windows added these types of software. I use the Mac system and OS-X and love it. I have used both and still do but I seem to spend less time on my work and more time fooling with the computer when I use my PC for image editing. I find OS for MAC easier to use and needs less time to set up what I’m doing. The down side is software for some applications may be limited and hard to find at times. Service vendors vary by locale—make sure you can obtain local service for what you buy. PC’s and Windows The great thing about Windows PC’s are you can get software or service almost anywhere. This OS is and has been very good at running software used in business, such as accounting spreadsheet programs, databases, and word possessing.. The computers tend to be less expensive and Peripherals are easy to find for a PC. I feel PC’s are more difficult to maintain with many more updates then the Mac OS. Software is more difficult to install and setup. I don’t claim to be a computer geek and I don’t want to be. Nothing wrong with geeks--it’s just that I’m interested in painting my art--computers are just tools I use in my studio and to help me run my business. Do your homework, talk with friends and visit computer stores and try before you buy. Now that you’ve chosen an OS the next thing you need to think about is what goes into the computer you'll use in the digital darkroom, such as RAM, Processor Speed, Storage, and Monitors. RAM or random access memory is necessary if you’re going to work with high-resolution digital images. I put as much RAM in my computer as I can because RAM helps maximize performance as I work on an image. Remember as you work on an open image in Photoshop and then open layers or filters the expanding resolution will slow down that process. Adobe’s Photoshop recommends a RAM size equal to two to three times the size of your usual images. An average speed processor is fine for those of you that are using your computer for other things and just do a little image editing as a hobby. If you’re using your computer for a business and do a lot of image editing and are on a deadline, then you are losing money if you don’t have the fastest CPU you can afford in your digital darkroom. I’m not going to get into recommended speeds because by the time I write this the typical speed available will have greatly increased. Digital images can be a very large file but good hard drive storage is inexpensive, so adding one to the computer workstation for your digital darkroom is a very good idea. I put as much as the hard drive will hold so I don’t have to worry as I work through a very large file. External hard drives are reasonably priced and a good investment. A good reason to use this type of hard drive is for BACK-UP. Think about how valuable what you’ve got sitting on your computer is worth to you! If you lose it, what will be the impact on your business? I even keep files off site at another location, just in case. Monitors are like the lens on a camera. If you have a great camera, but the images are poor, what’s the quality of the lens optics? It’s the same with a monitor. If the image in the computer is good but you see a poor image on the screen, do you trust the monitor and correct an image incorrectly wasting time and money making inaccurate prints? There are a few things you need to know to match a good computer to a good monitor. First of all, what are you going to use it for? If you’re going to use it to put images up on the web you may not need as good a monitor as if your going to use it to print high quality prints. A video card that supports very high resolution with no visible distortion is a must. The video card should also support as mush as 24 bits of VRAM or millions of colors. Does the video card include a co- processor to boost speed that will increase productivity? The size of your monitor is really your choice, but bigger is better in my experience. You can chose a smaller 15” monitor and find yourself squinting or go with a 22” or larger monitor and really see what’s going on with the image your working on. Keep in mind that there’s more on a screen when working in Photoshop then just the image. Frequency or the refresh rate of the screen means less flickering on your screen. Higher frequency or hertz (Hz) is better. I recommend going to a computer store to see the monitors you’re interested in and look for overall image quality and see the color quality and sharpness. Look at the edges of the screen for any distortion or convergence troubles (Slight Bulging or pinching of the image being displayed). I like a flat screen because there is no distortion like in a slightly curved monitor. I hope this helps you to equip your digital darkroom and that you’ve found it interesting. Use the Contact Form to share your questions and comments with me. Want to review some of the topics? Return to Photography or click on a topic to review: Cameras, Lenses, Film and Lighting. Continue to Compositional Awareness or The Table of Visual Elements. Return HOME.
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