The Creative Digital Darkroom
by Katrin Eismann, Sean Duggan
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Book Summary Information
Author: Katrin Eismann, Sean DugganEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-01-11
ISBN: 0596100477
Number of pages: 432
Publisher: O'Reilly Media
Book Reviews of The Creative Digital Darkroom
Book Review: A basic book in the tradition of Anselm Adams
Summary: 5 Stars
The Creative Digital Darkroom is a must read for all photographers wanting to do serious work using contemporary photographic tools and techniques. As Stephen Johnson, a renowned photographer in his own right, puts it in his forward to the book, "Digital photography has now become simply photography." That is an extremely deep and significant remark and that's what this book is all about. But, once you begin to fully grasp the meaning of Johnson's remark you begin to appreciate the revolutionary transition that is upon us and, as with most revolutions, the potential complexity, chaos and confusion that it implies.
Eismann and Duggan take it as their mission to smooth this transition. Chemical-based photography, as it was practiced in the 19th and 20th centuries, also possessed its share of complexity and confusion. It was a revolution in its own right. It took masters like Anselm Adams to help the rest of us cut through the confusion by explaining the basics. He did this in his five book Basic Photo series. Adams' series dealt with the basics of chemical photography in a direct, unpretentious and straightforward way appropriate for novices (e.g., laying out the position of safelights in a darkroom's ceiling, for example, or setting up of an enlarger) and experts (such as print densities that are obtained by timing various developers). No one thought his books overly simplistic though they dealt with basic issues, and no one will consider this book overly simplistic, it, too, deals with basic issues, complex issues that need to be addressed in sophisticated ways but explained in the book so the rest of us don't have to work through all the options.
The Creative Digital Darkroom covers contemporary basics such as digital darkroom layout and room lighting (what color shirts not to wear when sitting in front of a monitor) while also delving into deeper issues like color spaces (check out "why bit depth matters") and HDR. This book is about photography as we currently practice it and will be practicing it for the foreseeable future and that means how we exploit the digital reality (read: "data reality") these new digital capture devices hand to us. Although it uses metaphors (like darkroom, when do we exit that space?) that draw upon the chemical roots of 19th and 20th photography, it's all about where we are now and what digital (read numerical) image capture opens up for us (which is now beginning to approach "magic").
Eismann and Duggan, two of the most experienced and articulate authors in this space, have, in this book, done a masterful job of bringing together a broad array of information, insight, personal experience and theory in a remarkably well organized framework (as an educator, I love the way chapters are structured with advance information on what the key issues each chapter will address) that makes all of our tasks as (digital) photographers easier, less laden with uncertainty, more efficient and more likely to yield successful and satisfying outcomes, which is what it's all about after all.
Is there a problem with this book? I have two: One is that it should have been named "The Creative Digital Lightroom" because that's really what it's about, sorry, a minor complaint, but I'm all about nomenclature. And the other is: How do you keep up? In a digital world, which I believe Anselm would actually have loved, everything changes all the time. Eismann and Duggan deal with that with a very active website associated with the book. Any reader should buy the book and take advantage of the dynamic changes that the associated website provides. I'm sure it will be a worthwhile ride.
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