Page 88 - Enhancing CAD Drawings with Photoshop

4386.book Page 71 Monday, November 15, 2004 3:27 PM

Chapter 3

Digital Darkroom Skills

Thankfully, you do not have to subject yourself to toxic chemicals to develop and print photos like tra-
ditional film photographers; you can do it all in Photoshop. Perhaps Photoshop is best known for its
ability to function as a digital darkroom. This chapter teaches essential darkroom skills that you can
use to improve every photo you take:
◆ Working with Digital Film
◆ Adjusting Tonal Range
◆ Balancing Color
◆ Replacing the Sky
◆ Sharpening and Blurring

◆ Simulating Camera Effects

Working with Digital Film
As you are probably aware, the term digital film is an oxymoron. Thinking of your raw data as digital
film may be helpful, however. New technology is often understood using the metaphors of the tech-
nology it replaces.
Traditional photographers had the advantage of the film itself—a persistent record of their shoot-
ing. Unfortunately, most of the raw data taken by digital photographers is lost or is stored in a manip-
ulated form.
Start thinking of your digital photos as “film” that must be “developed” on a read-only medium
like a CD-ROM or DVD-ROM. If you get in the habit of burning a disc as a “roll,” you will have a per-
sistent record of your shooting experience. Years from now you will be able to access the light recorded
on your camera’s sensor plate, and the “truth” of your shot will be preserved for posterity.

WARNING If you work directly on your original image data, any mistakes that you save into the file
are permanent and destroy the truthful record of your shooting experience.
Once your digital film is developed, the images burned on the disc are like “negatives” that you
can manipulate in Photoshop. Because you will access the originals from a read-only medium, there
is no danger of overwriting your shooting data with work you do in Photoshop.