Digital Negatives: Using Photoshop to Create Digital Negatives for Silver and Alternative Process Printing

Dan Burkholder gets the credit for introducing digital negatives for contact printing processes several years ago, but it is Ron Reeder and Brad Hinkle who have finally worked out a system that produces extremely repeatable results. Now photographers everywhere can easily harness the power of Photoshop to create stunning prints using just about any contact printing process available. I have personally used this book to create salted-paper prints, van dykes, cyanotypes, and silver gelatin prints with pleasing results. I teach alternative processes year round in Denver, Colorado, and as any instructor knows, the easiest way to hook a student on something new is the accessibility of the process. Even my darkroom shy students are taking notice of the work a small handful of pioneering students are experimenting with at our school using this excellent text. One student exclaimed to me just last week "this book will save the darkroom". If you are looking for a system to harness the power of Photoshop with the beauty of a hand-crafted print, this is the best resource available!

This book has been a long time coming. after spending countless hours on my own, then experimenting with another well known book by dan burkholder (who has some good ideas but ultimately is outdated and there are really only a few pages that deal with 'inkjet negative' making.) this book has answered many of my long standing questions of how to create your own curve for output and then be able to check your work for accuracy. to many resources tell you to buy one specific printer (which by the time the book is printed has been discontinued), one specific ink, and one specific printing media (OHP was discontinued by its manufacturer), and if you do not then their cookie cutter curve will not work exaclty correct. so thank the authors for sharing this information in a very down to earth way. it has opened a new door in photo printing for the masses.

The last few years have seen alternative photographic processes grow in use. From the street studios in Providence to the booming gallery scene in Chelsea, hand-coated emulsions are a popular counter to the photographic digital revolution. Brad Henkel and Ron Reeder have deftly organized the work flow necessary to produce the high quality large format negtaives necessary for many of these processes. Their "Digital Negatives.." provides clear simple instructions (along with PhotoShop curves and calibration step wedges at their [...]) for the artist who wants to launch quickly with minimal theory. The book also has excellent detail for those who seek more (The Quadtone RIP profile instruction is top quality). I found their explanation of calibrating PhotoShop curves to print media very clear and easy to practice. The two authors have expanded on the groundbreaking work of Dan Burkholder (Making Digital Negatives for Contact Printing) and Mark I. Nelson's "Precision Digital Negatives", but have kept their processes open and very approachable. Key screen flows are presented for both the Mac and PC environments. The book also includes a number of fine art and practical process illustrations (How about a Becquerel contact Daguerreotype from a D1x RAW file!). I would strongly recommend this book for the alternative process artist who is ready to move from litho film and pyro developer to digtial contact negative production. In addition to your computer, you will need a scanner and good quality inkjet printer, as well as Photoshop CS, to get started. NWG 3-31-07

I found the book very helpful and easy to follow! I particularly like the fact that you can go to chapter four and start printing really great negatives. I made some platinum prints and after a little trial and error on my mixture and exposing time I was able to get pretty nice prints. I am a bigginer and found the book easy to understand. Hope it helps!

This new book represents the state of the art in producing digital negatives to be used for a variety of alternative printing processes, including platinum, palladium, and others. I have used the procedures and tools presented in this book to work my own way through the process of creating negatives and making fine palladium prints, so I have proven that it works. The use of the QTR RIP as defined in the book is the best way today to get repeatable print quality and tonality for making negatives, allowing me to spend more time on the creative side of editing images in Photoshop (or wherever you choose). The structure of the book also allowed me to spend time understanding the details of curve creation necessary for getting the right tones in the negative, but also lets me jump to chapter 4 and just follow his procedures, use his curves, and get started without slugging through the measurements that the authors spent years doing for us. Plus the ending sections of the book give lots of examples and suggestions for other printing processes, including adding color to palladium or platinum prints with the same printer used to make the negative. It's very clear and inspiring. As a direct result of the content of this book, I am now making the finest prints I can make in Palladium. This book takes the process out of the hands of the select few who have more time than I to solve the trials and tribulations of this process, and puts it where I can simply make beautiful prints. It's a whole new world...