Digital Darkroom

Definition - What does Digital Darkroom mean?

A digital darkroom is a combination of hardware and software processes along with various techniques used in digital photography. It replaces all film development and related activities with the ability to perform these activities on a computer. The software tools used in a digital darkroom are very sophisticated and produce high-quality output.

Techopedia explains Digital Darkroom

A digital darkroom, as the name suggests, is basically a digital world for photo editing. Here, the term "darkroom" is used to indicate that the old darkroom printing activities are replaced digitally. In the earlier film-based darkrooms, activities like cropping, enlarging, dodging and burning were performed. In a modern digital darkroom, these activities are replaced by computers, darkroom software, monitors and printers.

Sometimes the printing is done in a professional lab for better results. Some high-end printers also come with pre-installed software for basic image editing. The software and hardware environment of a digital darkroom depends upon the requirement and budget. The common software used in a digital darkroom is for image acquisition, image editing, camera control and image library management. On the hardware side, computers, cameras, scanners and printers are used.