Digital Darkroom Basics Revisited

DIGITAL DARKROOM BASICS
(revisited)

This was the topic of our first meeting. I was nervous and talked faster than usual (yes it's possible). As Rick Castellini sat on the side lines watching me ramble he just kept reminding me to take a breath once in a while.

The user group has grown since then and I am much more comfortable teaching the group. This month should be a much better meeting than that first one two years ago. Thanks for helping it become so successful.

This month's topic is a brief over view of the elements of a digital dark room. We will discuss scanners, digital cameras, printers, monitors and even fun stuff like Wacom tablets and screen calibrators.

What is a digital darkroom?

This question always comes up. A digital darkroom is simply the equipment and software used to play with and print pictures from your computer. A digital darkroom typically includes a monitor, printer, scanner, digital camera and computer.

What do I need to get started?

We make it a point each month of stressing that Digital Photography does not equal digital camera. You can do digital photography with any picture from any source. You can play with pictures that someone else sent you in your email or you can do it with pictures that you scanned in. It doesn't matter how the pictures got on your computer.
Other than a computer the only other vital tool is a program that allows you to alter the pictures.

What kind of computer do I need?

If still pictures is all you really want to play with then you don't need much of a workhorse. Any computer purchased new should do the trick. However, The lower end the computer falls the sooner it will need replaced. The following chart shows some good guidelines to follow:

Processor: Pentium 4 or Athlon 4 chip - NOT CELERON.
RAM: 256 MB - I would recommend doubling this (roughly $70 per 256)
Hard Drive - very important! 60 gigabytes MINIMUM - The more the better!
64 MB video card - minimum.
Optical mouse - these are cheap to add - less than $20 in most cases.
CRT monitors are best - LCDs don't show as many colors in most cases.

What do I look for in a scanner?

I like the Epson Perfection 3170. It is a workhorse and it does slides, negatives and even medium format film! Look for at least 2400 dpi. Ignore the interpolated resolution on the box.

What do I look for in a camera?

There are a variety of features that we will discuss at the meeting. Look forward to a "Shopping for a Digital Camera" meeting in the near future.

What do I look for in a printer?

Photo labs produce the best results in you are looking for something that will last, but if you want a printer for home - you can't beat the Epson Photo line of printers.

At the meeting we will also discuss other goodies like monitor calibrators, Wacom tablets, and CDRW vs. DVD-R(+R).