Digital Negative Printing Question:

[IanBarber]

I have been reading an eBook by Dan Burkholder on creating digital negatives. When he talks about setting the print options from his Epson 3880, he says to make changes to the Color Wheel options in the Epson ABW Driver ....


The last two changes we make to the Advanced Color Settings tab are in the lower-left section of Panel B. This is where we can designate a slight color to be applied to our negative. We do this by entering Horizontal and Vertical color coordinates in the boxes to the right of the circular color picker. The settings of 40 (Horizontal) and 48 (Vertical) are what we want. When you type in these

Would this only be required for Platinum printing and not required for Silver Gelatin Printing. I did try emailing Dan but as of yet I have not had a reply.

[Alan9940]

FWIW, Ian, I have both of Dan's books and tried crafting digital negatives, following his procedures, for pt/pd printing a long time ago, and never had any luck with it. That said, I'm guessing use of the color wheel is to introduce a tint to the negative compatible with the printing process used. If I recall correctly, he, also, cranked up a slider or two to put more ink on the negative, thereby increasing density.

Good luck in your adventure to craft digital negs for silver printing. I'd be most interested to hear how you get on with it.

[Denny]

Ian, I've been using Dan's approach to print platinum, gum, and cyanotypes, all UV sensitive processes, for years. I've never tried it for silver, but I would guess that a few test exposures would let you know if you need to modify the color adjustment. I would think that it would be easier to use the same printer settings with multiple printing processes and just fine tune the curves for each.

[bob carnie]

Richard Boutwell has a program that I have not tried yet but I think very promising to make digital negatives. I plan to buy the program sometime soon.

[Alan9940]

Richard Boutwell has a program that I have not tried yet but I think very promising to make digital negatives. I plan to buy the program sometime soon.

Bob, I've used QCDN since it was released; best digital negatives I've ever made for pt/pd printing! And, I've tried just about every process/system out there for crafting digital negs.

[bob carnie]

QCDN is Richards system? I am really interested in a system that I can use, currently I am using QTR and the Ron Reeder / Roy Harrington method, Ron actually set it up , but unfortunately when this was set up I had someone who worked with me spend the time with Ron and now I need to learn it as that person is not always here. I am moving up in size to full sheet 22 x30 prints in pt pd and in gum overs and I think it would be a perfect time to challenge myself to a new way of making negs using my Mac system and Epson 7800 K3 set. I would compare new to old to see how it works.
I believe there is a great market for something like this for Richard if it is as simple to use as he claims. Not everyone is wired the correct way to do this type of work , I know I struggle everytime a connection is made to my computer.

[Alan9940]

QCDN is Richards system?

Yep. See: https://www.bwmastery.com/quadtoneprofiler-digital-negatives/

You still use QTR to print the negatives, but creating the profiles is very easy and transparent to the user; just like I like it! As a matter of fact, since you're on Mac I believe he now has a native version of QCDN which doesn't require the latest version of Excel. I'm with you regarding a system I can just use. I spent countless hours with other "systems" and "simple one-curve-fits-all" procedures that never yielded pt/pd prints that I was happy with. Once I got QCDN dialed in--to be honest, I did need a bit of Richard's help early on because I was using a ColorMunki to read the gray ramps (and I don't think he had all the quirks worked out, yet)--it all became very simple. Load a sheet of Pictorico, load image into QTR, hit print, and head to the darkroom! :)

[bob carnie]

Do you feel he has all the quirks sorted out as, I keep seeing posts from him that spells out he is not quite there yet, IMO I want to purchase when he feels the product is fool proof and easy to use. I know I am asking a lot but if he nails this down I believe he will really do well.

[Alan9940]

Do you feel he has all the quirks sorted out as, I keep seeing posts from him that spells out he is not quite there yet, IMO I want to purchase when he feels the product is fool proof and easy to use. I know I am asking a lot but if he nails this down I believe he will really do well.

Sorry, I don't really follow the current status of his products. Also, since I work on Windows I have no clue how his native tools for Mac work or if quirk free. I will say that it required a bit of effort on my part, along with quite a few email exchanges with Richard, to get the whole QCDN process working with the ColorMunki. He, also, is not particularly communicative vis-a-vis updates. At one point, I was having some trouble with something so I contacted him and he was like, "Oh, yeah, here is an update that will probable fix that." It did, but had I not tripped over the issue I got the feeling that I would never have known that an update was available. For fact, I've had QCDN for quite awhile now and haven't heard a peep about anymore updates. He was supposed to have a Windows native version available by this past summer; that didn't happen...

I, also, have his QuickCurve-K3 product for prints. In the initial package, he didn't include the spreadsheet necessary for averaging the ColorMunki data. He directed me to some free tool available on the 'net, but it didn't work. I wound up using the spreadsheet from the QCDN package and all was well. But, it never sat very well with me because I felt like I was cobbling something together...just a bit. If you're selling a product and advertising that it works with X colorimeters, shouldn't you include EVERYTHING needed? Maybe I'm just being too picky. ;)

Anyway, bottom line is that his system works, but it may not be a straightforward path to get the results you're looking for. I always found Richard ready and willing to help, albeit many times I had to decipher what he was telling me.

[IanBarber]

I have tried today to produce a Silver Gelatin contact print on ILFORD RC Paper from two digital negatives and neither have worked out very well at all.
I appear to have a good black and a good white but the tones in the middle just don't appear to have much separation.

This is the Photoshop Curve I have been trying

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[Denny]

It would help if you could post a printed test strip, it's hard to offer advice just seeing the photoshop curve. But it sounds like you're going to have to straighten out the curve a bit. You could also try Chartthrob to get you closer.

[IanBarber]

It would help if you could post a printed test strip, it's hard to offer advice just seeing the photoshop curve. But it sounds like you're going to have to straighten out the curve a bit. You could also try Chartthrob to get you closer.

Sorry, I should have done that.

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[Erik Larsen]

Do you feel he has all the quirks sorted out as, I keep seeing posts from him that spells out he is not quite there yet, IMO I want to purchase when he feels the product is fool proof and easy to use. I know I am asking a lot but if he nails this down I believe he will really do well.

Bob, I believe you are well enough versed in digital negs to understand what Richards product is doing. It really is simple compared to the rest I've tried. I've not done gum with his product but have done pt/pd, VD and carbon. One test patch, one measurement and it generates a curve. Pretty idiot proof but the instruction documentation is lacking. He just came out with an upgrade that I've not tried yet so maybe he's added clearer instructions. I believe he has a free trial if I'm not mistaken.

[Denny]

I think straightening out that curve a bit will help. Maybe try something closer to this red line for a start:
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[IanBarber]

I think straightening out that curve a bit will help. Maybe try something closer to this red line for a start:
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Thank You. After some tweaking here and there, I feel as though I am starting to get somewhere now.

https://c2.staticflickr.com/2/1935/43462210930_15b3eeb5dc_o.jpg

[Denny]

Looks like you made a lot of progress in a short time. That's great!

[Erik Larsen]

Thank You. After some tweaking here and there, I feel as though I am starting to get somewhere now.

https://c2.staticflickr.com/2/1935/43462210930_15b3eeb5dc_o.jpg

Looks like you nailed it by the looks of the step wedge!