- Joined
- Aug 6, 2016
- Messages
- 1,586
Ive been spending some time experimenting with digital negatives contact printing with some very good results.
I quickly realised that it's not a one correction curve process, each type of paper and even batch of paper can have different tonal responses.
What I discovered was that although we send 100% black to the transfer film, by the time its gone through the darkroom process, we never actually wound up with 100% which is not surprising when you think about it. Even digital papers have their own characteristics.
What was needed was a method whereby we could in effect map the output from the inkjet printer to the output from the darkroom paper so I decided to work with an 11 patch step wedge for the mapping.
To help speed up the process, I decided to write a Photoshop action but this soon became awkward so I then decided to write a Javascript plugin and wrap the code behind a user interface. In theory, because this is Javascript it should work in Photoshop from around CS4 upwards.
Processes:
I only print using the Silver Gelatin process and have no means of testing it with any other processes.
There is more information and a quick video on my website
https://www.digitalblackandwhite.co.uk/digital-negative-curves.html
I quickly realised that it's not a one correction curve process, each type of paper and even batch of paper can have different tonal responses.
What I discovered was that although we send 100% black to the transfer film, by the time its gone through the darkroom process, we never actually wound up with 100% which is not surprising when you think about it. Even digital papers have their own characteristics.
What was needed was a method whereby we could in effect map the output from the inkjet printer to the output from the darkroom paper so I decided to work with an 11 patch step wedge for the mapping.
To help speed up the process, I decided to write a Photoshop action but this soon became awkward so I then decided to write a Javascript plugin and wrap the code behind a user interface. In theory, because this is Javascript it should work in Photoshop from around CS4 upwards.
Processes:
I only print using the Silver Gelatin process and have no means of testing it with any other processes.
There is more information and a quick video on my website
https://www.digitalblackandwhite.co.uk/digital-negative-curves.html