The New Darkroom Handbook, 2nd Edition

Introduction

Throughout the history of photography, the process of producing a photographic image has been split into two parts—one done in the camera and the other in the darkroom. It is not always easy to decide which has more effect on the final “look” of the photograph. With the camera, one makes an initial decision that has a profound effect on the image—choice of subject, composition, and so on. The options for altering the image, and thus how it is perceived, that are provided by the darkroom (tone, contrast, density, cropping, etc.) can have an equally profound effect. In this age of the digital manipulation of images, the actual photograph may only be the raw material in the production of a much more complicated image.

Both cameras and ...