James Abbott - The Digital Darkroom: The Definitive Guide to Photo Editing

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Photography is a process that begins well before you release the shutter button and continues long afterwards. And while the most important part of the process is often thought to be the moment of capture itself, this is only one part of your workflow, with image editing being an equally significant aspect of the photographic process.

Post-production can make the difference between a good image and a great image, not to mention its an essential process if you shoot in Raw in order to enjoy the most flexibility and control possible. So, with this in mind, The Digital Darkroomoutlines everything you need to know to gain a better understanding of how to apply darkroom-style effects to your images using Adobe Photoshop and Affinity Photo.

After introductory sections designed to make you familiar with the software and to build your confidence, youll learn a wide range of skills and techniques through a series of case studies that work to make learning an active experience. Not only will this book be a valuable reference resource as you become more adept, it will also be your very own personal tutor that will teach you everything you need to know to edit your images like a pro.

When working in Affinity

Look out for this symbol if youre using Affinity Photo to edit your images and to follow the tutorials. The tutorials in the case studies sections use Photoshop, which Affinity Photo users can follow, but any differences in the process you need to be aware of will be highlighted in these boxes.

Learn about different opinions on photo editing and the equipment available to enhance your workflow

Some photographers believe that only JPEGs straight from camera are true to photography because they avoid processing, but all images are processed

Raw files may be widely considered to be as close to a film negative as you can get, but some photographers believe that any adjustments, no matter how minor, even just to brightness or contrast, still constitute image manipulation. And therefore, the results are manipulated and are not pure photographs like a negative.

The reality of the darkroom is that with black & white photography you can control contrast using filters and/or graded paper. And with colour photography, you have control over the colour balance. So even at the most basic level of analogue photography, images have almost always been altered in some way during processing.

At a more advanced level, photographers would dodge and burn to lighten and darken desired parts of images. These techniques, alongside masking, could also be used to blend two or more negatives to create a composite, while sandwiching two negatives together was another method often used to bring two separate images together. The darkroom is an incredibly creative place where many of the processing techniques we apply in editing software are also commonly used.

The idea that JPEGs straight from camera provide purer unedited images is untrue. This is because JPEGs have been processed by the camera itself. All cameras offer picture styles when shooting in JPEG format with options including Standard, Neutral, Vivid, Monochrome, Portrait and Landscape. Each option will use varying degrees of settings such as Sharpness, Contrast, Saturation and Colour Tone to achieve a desired effect, and each setting can be manually adjusted before shooting.

The image you see on the camera LCD screen when reviewing images, even when shooting in Raw, will be displayed with the currently set picture style active.