Believe it or not, the perfect image does not come straight out of the camera ready to use. The old photographer's rule of thumb is that you'll only get a 1 in 36 (a roll of film) strike rate, and even then, it will take some skill in the darkroom to really make it shine. It's fortunate that we have digital, where we don't have to waste film on dud shots, but using digital doesn't elimiate the need for scrutiny and skill before and after the shutter button goes down.

Especially when shooting outdoors and on-the-run, exposures are almost never perfect. The sky might be too bright, faces too dark, imbalanced, washed out, lacking impact. Even with teh camera on fully automatic mode, something will be out of whack. The digital darkroom is where the essential process of juicing an image to get the best out of it happens.

Digital imaging is a science in itself and, while I don't claim to understand it fully, I have years of experience working with digital images that will bring out the best from each photo. These years of knowledge also feed into the action of taking the photograph, as the whole process must be considered when planning a shot.

Adjusting exposures, lightening and darkening, cropping, combining exposures and removing dust spots or unwanted details is not exclusive to the digital age. Since the advent of photography, artists have dodged and burned, push-processed, scraped and coloured slides and negatives and over or under-exposed images to get the best out of the photo. The only thing that's changed is where it's all done.

So although the mediums have evolved, photography is still the same. It's important to give time and attention to photos before and after they are taken. The latter half is the magic of digital editing.