Chapter 9, "Creative Enhancements," shows that even with the magic that can be captured through the camera and the lens and the filters as well as with any other image capturing techniques, there is still more that can happen in the digital darkroom. In a lot of ways the focus of this book is on enhancements and so it should be no surprise that there are more tricks up their sleeves. Chapter 10, "Enhancing Focus," deals with something that every photographer needs to come to grips with, and that is focus; or sharpness, resolution power, or fundamentally, making a strong image. As it is with image processing, it is with this book, one of the last things to do to an image is to make it sharp.

The focus of The Creative Digital Darkroom is trying to translate what was the traditional darkroom into the new digital darkroom. The authors do not touch on many of the "new tech" features of Photoshop; rather instead tread on what would be considered traditional techniques. On the other hand it covers some techniques such as curves and levels in more depth than many books other than some of the more technical ones.

The fundamental strengths of The Creative Digital Darkroom is that it performs. It gets straight into detailed examples of each of the technical topics that it covers; topics such as levels and curves, but also things like Blending modes, Camera Raw, and Color Processing. Because it does not get into features, it is relevant if you are using CS, CS2 as well as CS3. Sure there may be some missing items, but overall the flow is the same.

The Creative Digital Darkroom is not about dazzle, rather it is about functionality. It is about improving your workflow. It is about giving you the ability to fine tune your images and make you a better photographer. If you are new to digital photography, if digital is all that you have done and want to learn more from traditional methods, and especially if you are moving from the wet darkroom to the digital darkroom, then The Creative Digital Darkroom should be on your reading list.