darkroom and processing

Tom Ang has written a fine book for anyone interested in the digital darkroom. Note, though, that I reference "digital darkroom." This isn't the same as digital photography. Mr. Ang is committed to 35mm photography, with the images then scanned into a digital format for manipulation with a pc. It isn't, in other words, a book for someone who wants to understand his digital camera.

With that disclaimer, though, I can recommend this book highly. Mr. Ang is a fine artist, with a good eye, and a beginning digital photographer can learn a lot from his work. Note that this isn't an exhaustive book, but one where he illustrates various techniques and methods using Adobe Photoshop on a Mac. You should be able to translate those to your own software on a non-Mac pc, and get creditable results from your shots with a digital camera.

This is a great book for those just getting started in digital photography. It gives an overview of effects you can create using programs like Photoshop and Painter. The book is packed with interesting large color photo examples.

First you get an overview of the pros and cons of both digital and classical photography. Then there is information on choosing camera equipment, film, a computer, a scanner and a printer as well as software and other accessories. The author then gives an explanation of resolution and gives advice on making scanning more efficient and accurate.

Many techniques follow. Some of the basics include using contrast, curves and levels, hue and saturation, toning, channel mixing, sun printing effects, posterisation, changing colors, and hand coloring. Others focus on filters or brush techniques such as blur/sharpen, pixelation, distortion, grain, paint textures and cloning techniques. Compositing as well as using layers, modes and multiple images is also covered. The author also offers in insight on color symphony, file types, compression, resolution and printing digital photos.

This is not your typical step-by-step how-to book. You see concepts illustrated in photos, not page after page of computer screens. There is plenty of high lever technical advice here though, but the main goal to explain the logic behind the tools used. If you understand how they work and when to use them you can utilize them more effectively. This is the kind of background I have been looking for that is missing from most of the software manuals. In the back of the book there is an excellent glossary and a nice list of other helpful books and some websites.