In the most recent View Camera magazine I read and then re-read the article by ? Gordon Hutchings: Seeing in Silver?. This has caused me to ponder the current us e of a digital darkroom in regards to the time honored method of a traditional ? wet? darkroom. For those of you who have not seen the article there were specifi cally two points (amongst various others) that raised my eyebrows. The first is that he states "While the basics of Photoshop, for example can be learned in an afternoon, it takes hard work to really know it, and all computer technology is a constantly moving target, requiring continuous learning?" He continues on in h is article towards explaining how, just like a traditional darkroom one must spe nd hours upon hours of learning digital techniques in order to be able to produc e a fine quality print.
His second point that has interested myself is that he goes on to suggest that i f "One could simply scan in a color slide and push the ?Monet? or ?Rembrandt? bu tton and out of the printer comes a near-perfect rendition of the print" then ho w long would it take before the person creating the print becomes dissatisfied w ith the process. He suggests, "By the end of the first half days output I suspec t there would be a complete burnout followed by disgust, disappointment and tota l boredom with the whole project.?"
So let?s start with the second point. I suspect (by reading posts over the past year) that there is more than a few photographers who would rather spend their t ime shooting rather than printing, and are welcoming and perhaps even embracing the ease with which digital printing is permitting them to produce quality print s with a minimum of effort. Am I wrong about this? Are these people not relieved in that they do not have to use a ?wet darkroom? and that changes are much easi er to implement in a digital environment?
In regards to the first point, I personally have found the computer capable of m aking tasks that use to consume much time and effort to now be almost effortless . I also am not a ?computer guru? and most of these tasks have been quite easy t o learn. For instance the creation of this topic in a word processor, which I ca n spell check, cut and paste to restructure content, and change the fonts, and b olding of words so as to add emphasis where I feel it is necessary. If I had bee n using an old fashion typewriter I would have found this to be quite a task and one that would not have been done so well. I also feel compelled to point out t hat the ability to use these features is easily acquired in a single evening jus t by playing around and experimenting with the software. Would it not also be po ssible to learn how to do ?digital printing? by enjoying a few evenings of exper imentation with a program like Photoshop and the appropriate hardware such as a good scanner/printer combination?
In conclusion I just wish to say that I use a traditional darkroom and have no i ntention of going digital at this time but felt compelled to question Gordon?s p resumptions based upon my own computer experiences. I now seek your opinions on whether using digital techniques requires many hours of practice and after becom ing proficient if you thing that you would become bored with the whole process? Please no flames on the spelling or grammar as I am becoming a ?spelling/grammar checking, semi-illiterate, word-processing type of guy? who is trying to kick t he habit. :>)))
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