The Digital Darkroom

In the past many amateur photographers have been developing their own black and white photographs, but when it came to making color-prints, things got a bit more difficult.
Although I have only had a black and white darkroom when I was younger and never a color darkroom, I understand that it involves a somewhat more difficult process to make color-enlargements and it's more critical when it comes to temperatures and timing etc.
Anyway, I know of many people who have developed their own black and white pictures, but I only knew one who developed his own color photos and he was a professional.

But thanks to modern computer-technology it has now become a lot easier for all photo-enthusiasts to make their own "digital color darkroom". Well, at least it has become a lot different from the traditional darkroom, but it can still require some work.
For making a digital darkroom you will need a computer, a scanner and/or a digital camera and a photo-printer.
Actually the most important recent progress that has made it possible to use the computer for making color-prints is the printers. The computers have been around for some time now (although they are in rapid progress all the time too), but what is especially important is of course the quality of the output that the printer is capable of.
That quality has undergone a dramatic change within the last 3 - 4 years for consumer photo-printers. Actually the quality of today's photo-printers is so good, that even some professionals are using these printers instead of going to their darkrooms.
Some professionals claim that they can make at least as good prints as they could with the cibachrome or ilfochrome method. I have no personal experience in this, so I suggest that you follow some of the links from my link-site to read what the professionals have to say about it.

My personal experience with color-prints is limited to the normal C41 processed negatives and enlargements. And I must say, that it is a bit of a gamble to go to the lab with my negative-films - sometimes it turns out good, but other times it can be rather bad.
So instead I am now "enlarging" my own color-slides on my printer!
I get results that are far more satisfying and much more controllable than the color-prints I got from the lab in the past. In time to come, I will perhaps also be able to make the resolution and the quality better.
Well, ok of course I will still get some negatives enlarged because it's faster, but it's still a lot more fun to print them myself!