Do you do digital

Do you digital? What a silly question in this day and age, CORRECT.

I ask the question because I was recently told by a dear friend that their son had entered numerous images in a local Fair's photo judging and came out smelling like a rose with various images which included a black and white image and a sepia toned image. That was the question I asked were they digitally done.

Well of course. The sad situation is that no one does film anymore to speak of.

The darkroom is passe and is not appreciated with all the high tech digital manipulations that are now available by a host of companies that promote one click magic photos in a light room.

A quick remembrance of my initiation into photography. I was attending a local community college that just happened to have a top notch photography program led by a top notch photographer who at the time didn't believe in the digital format so he taught photo manipulation by the darkroom methods.
It was so cool { yea I I'm an old fart}to go and find an object to shoot and then bring it into the darkroom and process your film by hand, get a negative, edit the negative and make sure it was pristine in every way including the proper lighting, no dirt, scratches, or any flaws. After that you were ready to produce an image! That is where the alchemy of photography launched the photographer within me.

Magic happened when you watched the image appear before your eyes in that tray that contained the high grade paper with your original vision of the object that you were able to transform from vision to a grand image fit for showing off to the world. It made me understand what folks such as Margaret -Bourke White, Ansel Adams, Man Ray, and dozens of other contemporary photographers saw in their life's passion!

Although I own digital equipment and top of the line imaging programs, I still have a darkroom in my home which has been very neglected for quite some time but I am working on reviving it and giving a new focus to shooting film and processing it in my own magical alchemy room.


In the mean time if you have a desire to become a proficient digital photographer, I suggest you give this book a good look it is one person's foray into doing DIGITAL imaging.