Welcome to the Darkrooms: Digital and Traditiona

The Need for Change
Creating and maintaining categories that meet the needs of audience and artists alike is always a challenge.  Photography, as it has been since its inception, is constantly changing, as its tools and methods evolve.  The introduction of the digital production and storage of images radically altered the implementation of photography forever, and while we do not encourage the general division of photography into traditional and digital, it is important to create spaces where photographers feel comfortable posting their work.  One way that we can address the needs of the photography community is to divide the darkroom into two subcategories, digital darkroom and traditional darkroom.  Since this popular umbrella category is defined by process rather than content, it does, in this instance, make sense to distinguish between the digital and analog tools that achieve the intended results.  In fact, photography gallery director Staged ran a poll staged.deviantart.com/journal/… in her journal, and the results were overwhelmingly in favor of creating a division between digital and traditional darkrooms.  We believe that the division will nicely serve two groups of photographers who define their work by the ways in which they create it.  The following of us were involved in the process of dividing this category into two and will be happy to take your questions and comments:



Digital Darkroom
The addition of this category provides a space for photographers who use digital tools to finish their uniquely digital photographs.  Currently, these artists find that their pieces belong neither in photomanipulation nor in darkroom, as defined by processes that emulate what could be done in a darkroom.  While these images might be significantly enhanced by the use of textures, brushes, selective or global color adjustments, use of HDR, the stitching together of panoramic images, the use of the clone stamp to tidy up the photograph, etc., in concept they remain photographs.  A photomanipulation, on the other hand, is an image that has been composed of two or more photos to create something new. Examples of manipulations include putting a subject in a different setting by cutting the subject from its original photograph and using it in another, using so many textures that the original photo is no longer recognizable, creating new landscapes or scenes from a collection of photos.  What distinguishes the images to be located in this new category from photomanipulations is that the image processing is executed in such a manner that the focus remains on the photo and not on the manipulation.  Following are the techniques allowed and encouraged to be posted in Digital Darkroom along with some examples of pieces that would nicely reside in the digital darkroom:

Photography -> Darkroom -> Digital

• Images containing one photo (images incorporating more than one photo belong in photomanipulation)
• Brightness/contrast, Levels, Curves
• Color enhancements
• Addition of textures (credit must be given to providers of resources unless original textures by artist are used)
• Addition of brushes (credit must be given to providers of resources unless original brushes by artist are used)
• Use of HDR techniques and software

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Traditional Darkroom
Currently, film photographers find more and more that the space reserved for darkroom has been taken over by works created using digital processes and by digital emulations of what could be done in the darkroom.  The creation of this category provides a gallery where traditional pieces can reside among like pieces.  Those artists who use make use of the tools of traditional photography can place their images here, knowing that they will be seen in a context that allows their pieces to be prominent.  Following are the techniques allowed and encouraged to be posted in Traditional Darkroom along with some examples of pieces that would nicely reside in the traditional darkroom:

Photography -> Darkroom -> Traditional

• Scans of prints from plates or negatives
• Scans of plates or negatives
• Moderate digital adjustments to remove dust or to fix brightness/contrast and color resulting from scanners

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We are always striving to make deviantART inclusive and to reasonably serve the overall wishes of the photography community.  Deviations currently located in the general darkroom category will remain there, however, you are encouraged to relocate your pieces to the new subcategory that suits your pieces so that they can better be found and appreciated!  We hope that all of you photographers out there who like to identify your work by how you achieved your results will enjoy the galleries refined to reflect the current trends in the post-processing of photography!  

equivoque, hellfirediva, and Staged
Photography is alive and well and living on the daily features pages!