I am thinking of setting up a digital darkroom at Chez Entropez.

I have one now, sort of. The main downstairs computer is the one that runs Lightroom and Photoshop. It has a powerful video card and a still-potent 6 core i7 processor. To make a full darkroom I’d need to add some RAM and maybe a solid-state drive. A second monitor, and a tablet. I’ll need a desk to sit it on – I can get one from Ikea for $75. Of course it’s not actually a darkroom – digital processing can be done in the light. And there are no chemicals, sinks, or safelights.

I would put it in the all-purpose room we have downstairs that we call the rec room, but which is really the family room, or the drawing room, where we gather in the evening and play video games or watch Netflix or what have you.

Along with it I’d need to purchase a new family Information Appliance and put it in where the current machine is. It would be for homework and game playing and pinteresting and facebooking.

Under the current regime, I find I just don’t have the machine available when I have time and energy for image work. It’s often free at 8:00 PM, by which time I’m too tired and the edge is off.

Anyway, over at Written Inc, this week’s Thematic is Multiples and while some of you will no doubt snicker (I’m looking at you, Doug) I think this is a worthy theme.

This was shot at the Abbotsford Airshow, August 2012. I’ve gassed on about the difficulties of this particular venue, but the reason I started thinking about the digital darkroom with this particular shot is that I have recently learned some techniques that will allow me to punch an image like this up, bring the aircraft out and make that red and white pop. As it is now, this is still miles better than the raw image, and in most cases better than shots that other people got, but it isn’t as good as it could be.

But that all takes time and I need to spend more of it and hence, the digital darkroom.