Digital Darkroom Basics, Part 4: Software
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By now you have learned how to select a printer and an image scanner. Both have to be connected to a computer, which is simply a tool to process your input into the output you desire. Most printers and scanners will work equally well on a PC or a Mac, but it is up to you to make sure. Ok, your printer and scanner will indeed work with a Mac or a PC - what's next? Getting There Is Half The Fun Software requirements are next. What will you use to craft your scanned image into the printed masterpiece that you envision? There are hundreds of photo-editing programs available, each with thousands of features. Some are free, some cost $1000 or more. Is it possible to decide, or are they all the same? Tip: Focus on your requirements and ignore everything else. Ring Around The Color I have set up many desktop publishing systems for clients, and have had the chance to evaluate and use lots of photo software over the past ten years. Now, I only use Adobe PhotoShop. Let me tell you about one feature that blew me away and converted me to digital photography! My old Omega B66XL enlarger has a condenser head with those stupid little CMY filters that you stick in it. So, I make my first exposure using my pre-calibrated figures and my best guess. Now, into the kitchen to process the Cibachrome in a daylight drum. Next, I'm drying it with a hairdryer. Thirty minutes after I started, I see that the color is too, um, something. Darned if I could ever be sure exactly what was wrong. So, I get out my Kodak print guides and my Cibachrome print guides and look at their color ring charts. You know, they show you a perfect print, surrounded by images of the same print but with various color casts. You try to match your print with one of the funny-looking ones. I am not very good at that, and it usually takes four prints before I'm happy. That's at least two hours needed for one 8 x 10 print, more likely three hours because I waste so much time with those dumb color charts (I know, it's not the charts that are dumb). If you'll stop laughing at me, I'll show you how PhotoShop saves the day. Using PhotoShop, I scan an image, or simply open an image file that I already have. The image looks too, um, something. I click on a few simple menu options and PhotoShop creates a color ring chart with my image in the center. Surrounding my image are duplicates, each with a varying degree of some feature applied. That feature might be CMY filtration, brightness, contrast, sharpness or whatever I asked for. PhotoShop shows me all of the possibilities at once, instantly. I select the image that looks best. Yes, I can do that. PhotoShop applies the corrections to my image file. Within seconds, I can repeat the process if necessary, perhaps using smaller increments. I can create my perfect image within minutes. I print it once. If I'm really in a fussy mood, I might fiddle some more and then print it again. I have never needed to print an image for a third time. PhotoShop allows me to create a better quality color print than I can in my darkroom. Thank you, Adobe. Everything else it does is just an extra bonus. PhotoShop is available for the Mac or the PC. It costs about $800 new, but is sometimes bundled with a scanner for free. Version 4 is the current version. I use Version 3.04, and have seen used copies for sale for only $80. If you had no other use for your computer, you would select it based on the requirements of your printer, scanner and photo-editing software. In fact, you may want other software as well, and it may have special requirements. If you want a Mac, great, thank you for reading this far, and good luck. If you want a PC, allow me to offer some more firsthand tips next month.
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