Tech & Science

Digital Darkroom: Tips and Tricks for your Photo Lab @ Home

Digital Journal Staff

Published

September 2, 2005

Photoshop ‘til You Drop
Digital Journal —A major benefit of digital photography is the ability to edit, adjust and improve your images. Now with Adobe Photoshop Elements, anyone can be the master of the digital darkroom.

This latest version allows you to make anything from quick fixes to sophisticated edits in order to perfect your photos. Instantly eliminate red-eye and replace it with precise colour matching with a point and click. Plus, brush away wrinkles and unwanted splotches using the Spot Healing Brush. For a more deliberate edit, use the Healing Brush for final control.

Poorly lit or overexposed photos are a nightmare. Reduce highlights in your photos or combat shadows by adjusting the brightness and contrast. You can also convert your black-and-white photos to sepia for that antique, grandfatherly look. Once you’ve made your edits, organize your photos any way you like: Show off your creativity with new dynamic slide shows, arrange personalized albums and catalogue your photos by date. When you’re finished, it’s always interesting to compare your before-and-after shots in Quick Fix mode.

4 Tips for Better Photo Printing:
Your pics may look stellar on screen, but how about on paper? Printing digital photos isn’t as easy as double-clicking your way to success, so here are several tips worth pasting on your digital clipboard:

Control ambient light by drawing the shades, since daytime light changes constantly and will give you an inconsistent view of your images.

Select your working colour space to edit photos. In Photoshop, go to Edit > Colour Settings and select U.S. Prepress Defaults at the top, making Adobe 1998 RGB your working colour space. This setting is also ideal for editing.

Calibrate your monitor to sharpen and colourize your pics. To view photos for printing, calibrate to a colour temperature of 6,500 Kelvin with a gamma of 2.2 (or 1.8 on a Mac).

Check your display driver to see if its colour profile matches the one created by your monitor-calibration system. In Windows XP, go to Control Panel > Display > Settings > Advanced > Colour Management.

BUYING TIPS FOR YOUR DIGITAL DARKROOM:
CAMERA:
Basing your digicam purchase on megapixels can be confusing. For images you plan to print or retouch, go 3-megapixel resolution or higher. The more megapixels your camera has, the larger your prints can be without losing quality or sharpness. Digital Journal recommends the Fujifilm FinePix Z1, a 5.1- megapixel camera.

MONITOR:
All photographers need a reliable monitor that displays images just as they will appear once they are printed. Recommended features include colour calibration, excellent screen geometry (accuracy of displayed shapes and lines) and high resolution. Digital Journal recommends the LaCie 321 monitor.

PRINTER:
To enjoy the full rainbow of colours in digital images, choose a printer that uses many ink cartridges. A six- or eight-ink printer allows you to capture a wider range of colours and reproduce blacks more accurately. Digital Journal recommends the Epson Stylus Photo R2400, which uses nine ink cartridges and can print large photos.

This article is part of Digital Journal’s national magazine edition. Pick up your copy of Digital Journal in bookstores across Canada and the United States. Or subscribe to Digital Journal now, and receive 8 issues for $29.95 + GST ($48.95 USD).