Book Review: The Creative Digital Darkroom by Katrin Eismann and Sean Duggan - Page 2

Part of: The Enlightened Image

Chapter 5, "Tone and Contrast," starts back at what was the traditional beginning for most wet darkroom photographers; black and white. By focusing on black and white, you will learn how to understand tone and contrast, levels and curves, as well as toning and split-toning effects. You will also learn how to listen to an image while learning how to apply global image improvements. Chapter 6, "Dodging, Burning, and Exposure Control," explain how brightness and contrast are important to designing the look of an image. By taking control away from the camera, you can create the image that you want.

Chapter 7, "Color Correction," examines the fact that because color is all around us, many times we take it for granted. In this chapter, the authors begin with the landscape of color in which they explain that there is no "true color" because there is many factors that allow us to perceive color. From there they tackle color correction, enhancement, and the power of working with Lab; a system that separates the brightness or luminance from the color in an image. Chapter 8, "Creative Color", compares color to the musical score of an image. Just as the score of a movie changes the way that you feel toward the movie, color correction can change how you feel toward an image. Remember that this does not excuse your ability to create a good image in the first place, only that with a good image it can make it better.

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.

Continued on the next page Page 1 — Page 2 — Page 3

Article tags

Spread the word
Bookmark and Share
Profile image for t-michael-testi

Article Author: T. Michael Testi

T. Michael Testi is software developer, a writer, and a photographer. He also blogs at PhotographyTodayNet and at All This and Everything Else.

Visit T. Michael Testi's author pageT. Michael Testi's Blog

Read comments on this article, and add some feedback of your own

Article comments

Add your comment, speak your mind

Personal attacks are NOT allowed.
Please read our comment policy.
Please preview your comment.

blogcritics lists for Nov 27, 2009

fresh articles Most recent articles site-wide

fresh comments Most recent comments site-wide

most comments Most comments in 24hrs

top writers Most prolific Blogcritics for October

top commenters Most prolific Commenters in 24 hrs