I haven't been in a darkroom for a couple of years now, and I really don't miss the old ways of doing things. Making prints on an enlarger was a constant (losing) struggle with all the factors which tended to degrade the final image quality, such as misalignment, flare, edge fall-off, focus errors, and paper flatness, just for starters.

Even after subduing those gremlins as much as possible, the techniques available for achieving exactly what I wanted in the final print were pretty crude. I can burn and dodge with the best of 'em, but there's a limit to what that can accomplish.

Now it's a different world. First, our high-end film scanner gets everything there is from each slide and negative. Corner to corner, edge to edge, it doesn't miss a thing, right down to the subtlest detail and tone.

Then I really go to work - in the Photoshop program. I start by going over the whole image at high magnification to remove dust, scratches, specks and spots.

Then I examine each image - and everything from here on applies to both scans and digital camera pictures - in regard to tonal quality. In Photoshop I can adjust not only overall color and density as I could with the enlarger, but also contrast, saturation, and dozens of other image variables. I can apply these adjustments to the entire image, or only to a certain part of it, or only to a certain range of colors or tones.

All these adjustments can mess up an image beyond all recognition if used with a heavy hand or a poor understanding of what they're for, but I've got quite a knack for using them to produce the best possible print from every image I work with. All those years of making color prints the old way really help out there.

So, if you've got a great shot and you'd like to see how good it can look when it receives a lavish amount of expert attention - just as it would if it were published in a magazine or reproduced on a poster - let me make a custom print for you. I guarantee you won't be disappointed.