Casual Portraits and Photography by Michael McClure, portrait, picture, landscape, abstract, still life, action, digital art

s h u d d e r ' s
d i g i t a l d a r k r o o m

this page contains my digital darkroom action
use it with care and at your own risk!

There are now *FOUR* versions of the SDD available:
- LINKS -
Photoshop
Photoshop Elements
Paint Shop Pro
The GIMP
+
Example Pictures

To All! Please read this information!!

Mac Users: Control click on any of the links below and download to your desktop

PC Users: Right click on any of the links below and choose "Save Target As..."

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For Adobe Photoshop

Place into the Adobe Photoshop / Presets / Photoshop Actions folder then go into PS and Load the action from the Actions sub-menu, as per usual with these sorts of things...

--> download shudder's digital darkroom v1.2 action here <--

Details and instructions are delivered within the action!

--> Release Notes (version revving, etc.) <--

Important: Until further notice, users on PC (Win95, 98, 2000 or XP) will need to rename the action you download from here to add an additional ".atn" onto the end of the filename in order for the automated run of the steps to run smoothly and without error (though some have reported it runs fine without renaming... Oi!). The actual action filename that you should load into Photoshop should be exactly as follows: "shudder's digital darkroom 1.2.atn.atn". Sorry for the bother, but Danny Raphael and I batted this around for several hours, and stunningly, there is no way to work around this issue.

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For Adobe Photoshop Elements

Fellow DPReview forums regular Ling Nero has been kind enough to convert shudder's digital darkroom for Photoshop Elements.

--> get shudder's digital darkroom for PSE here <--

Important: You will need to follow directions on Ling's page. More than likely you will need to pull down her snapActions utility to get PS actions working under PSE. My action is at the bottom of her page, the last in the matrix of various PS actions she has converted, including David Marsit's fine PS ISO NR atn (grab that one as well while you're there -- you won't regret it!).

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For Jasc Paint Shop Pro

Sheri Pierce, a DPReview forums regular, put together a conversion of shudder's digital darkroom for Paint Shop Pro 8.1 and above in March 2004. In May 2005, Fujimugs member Phil Meek ("pm") noted some problems with the sharpening steps in regards to the 'luminance' effect check box, so he updated the action to account for this. It is now the one you will download here.

--> get shudder's digital darkroom for PSP 8.1 and above here <--

Important: This one is a zip file that includes a ReadMe on how to get the SDD running in PSP 8.1 and above.

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For The GIMP
The GNU Image Manipulation Program
available for UNIX, Mac OS X and Windows XP
- AND IT'S FREE! -
--> http://www.gimp.org <--

Wilber The Gimp

Fujimugs member Steve Crane ("craniac") has outdone himself -- he has converted the SDD for use in the freeware program, The GIMP! If you use The GIMP, you should take advantage of his fine work and grab a copy now.

--> get shudder's digital darkroom for The GIMP here <--

Here's a screenshot of how you access the SDD via The GIMP. Please contact Steve at the DPReview Fujitalk Forum regarding any questions you may have about this port. Or click here to go to his mugshot page at Fujimugs and contact him via his links there.

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What Shudder's Digital Darkroom Does

Following is a series of an image of rocks and clouds I photographed in the Red Rock Canyon Park area in Topanga Canyon, CA on November 1, 2003. I ran this image through the SDD so you can see an example of what this action can do for you...

The first image is as it came out of the Fuji s602, shot in 6MF SOFT. It has only been resized from 2832x2128 to 400x301 (for web display). I liked the composition, but just about everything else about it sucks...
This second image has had shudder sharpening applied to it -- that is, Steps 2 and 3 of shudder's digital darkroom action, using the default values in the action (except the size, which I manually set to 400x301 -- same goes for the rest of the pics in this example set).
Not bad, but I think the color lacks flair. So, I went back and ran the PROLOGUE: color adjustments step on the original file, then applied shudder sharpening to it -- that is, in all I ran Steps 1, 2 and 3 of shudder's digital darkroom action on it, using the default values in the action (except Levels, which I adjusted to taste as part of the action).
Okay, things are looking much better, so for fun I applied the ADDENDUM: color punch up step included in shudder's digital darkroom action to that file, leaving the various values at their default (overlay at 50% and multiply at 50% -- you will want to play around with these a bit, but here I left them at default).
And, finally, I applied the ADDENDUM: dodge/burn step to that file, burning in the sky and dodging the rocks on the various layers for that work to give you an idea of what can be done very quickly using shudder's digital darkroom action to enhance your pictures. The results... Okay, okay, I did all of these example files in the space of about five minutes, and can see the nasty haloing around the rock on the right and along the edge of the transverse rock. And I see some other things I would change, but with a little care and feeding, I coulda done much better fixing all of those things up! Also, I think some de-noising is called for, but that's better left to someone else's action... You can achieve much more using shudder's digital darkroom action, especially if you take the time to alter the default values as you go through it. Give it a go! What have you got to lose?... Red Rock Park is one of my favorite local L.A. mountain biking rides. Learn more about it here.

BabyAnt