Alt-Process Prints from Digital Negatives or Positives

[Erik Larsen]

Hi Erik

Here is a step by step way of making tonal separations to neg. There probably is many but this is how I do it.

1. Open a BW image in PS- need layers active- adobe 1998 profile
2 Make a layer of the background
3. Double click on the blank space in the layer and a layer style blending mode will pop up.

You will see the following or at least I do two sliders at the bottom one called this Layer and one called Underlying Layer. the Blend if - Gray should be selected.

4. on the top slider (this layer) bring the far right triangle to the left which will isolate all the shadow areas

You can double click on the triangle and this will allow you to feather the transition by splitting the triangle a bit- this is not mandatory and over time you will see its usage.

5, Once you have selected the region you want then click ok.
6. Now un click the background Layer
You will see the visual areas you have selected and also the grid pattern will show you the layers you have not selected.

7. Flatten the layers now
8. A sign will come up saying Discard Hidden Layers… click Ok.
9. Invert this image now and flip horizontal and Save As shadow negative -

Register this negative to your Main negative


As you can see this method gives you incredible control of your tonal ranges and if you are really good you can do a highlight only and shadow only combined negative that you
can add colour to that region only and make all kinds of tonal hits.

With the paint brush you can localize areas for tonal colour hits by blocking out areas in your negative…


Have some fun with this.


Blend If is the Photoshop Option and Dan Margulis talks about this on Kelby training and its only taken me about 10 years to figure out what the
Man was saying… He uses it for colour correction like a bear eats berries.


Erik to your question about layer protocol and colour balance- I think I would like to say this… there probably is a colour difference depending which
layer you put down first… I cannot see how this would not be the case.

But what I am finding is I have better overall feel of the print if I lay down the dominant colour palette first as it definitely sets the tone and the other two colours just come in as an accent ,
I think that this is going to be my Mantra from here on.. why screw around with an Magenta layer if the image is earth brown and sky blue.. get my drift?

Bob, thanks so much for the explanation, it is much appreciated! I can see the potential in your method for great control in putting tone any where you want it. I always wondered what that blend if was used for. There's just so much in Photoshop I have no clue about its mind boggling.
Thanks again

[Erik Larsen]

While I am at it here is another question for those familiar with aluminum and adhesive.

so I have all the rejects from the last year on aluminum, is there a solvent strong that could dissolve the adhesive so I can get back to the raw aluminum??

probably pretty stinky stuff and toxic?

suggestions welcome as I have over 50 mounts I would like to reuse into my production.

Does the adhesive you use give any instructions n the container how to clean up the brushes used for spreading it on. It might be a simple as that? I didn't realize you were keeping the finished prints on the aluminum.

[bob carnie]

this is drytac cold adhesive which is a double sided adhesive, not brushed on

and yes I keep them on… I saw 4 Irving Penn prints come through my shop and this is exactly how he did it.

at least with the four worker series I saw.

Does the adhesive you use give any instructions n the container how to clean up the brushes used for spreading it on. It might be a simple as that? I didn't realize you were keeping the finished prints on the aluminum.

[Erik Larsen]

this is drytac cold adhesive which is a double sided adhesive, not brushed on

and yes I keep them on… I saw 4 Irving Penn prints come through my shop and this is exactly how he did it.

at least with the four worker series I saw.

Ok, I understand. I have no good tips to offer but it might be fun to soak the print in gasoline or acetone and light a match and burn it off

[bob carnie]

I will keep that in mind for my summer bbq with clients

[bob carnie]

Ok here are two files in negative mode ready not flipped horizontal but basically ready to go to the printer.

the Normal neg (left) is what I am printing this last year - the second neg(right)is what I am proposing what the neg should look like.
Now both of these would be used for the Palladium first layer.

My thinking is that the first neg though very usable puts down lots of information and in some cases too much… the second neg is the skeleton of the basic image and I
believe that the subsequent colour layers will fill in the blanks nicer than the first.

I will post some images tomorrow or thurs that illustrates this concept.

so basically we are using the palladium negative to set the image structure.

[Denny]

Bob, is the normal neg simply a conversion of the original to B&W? If so, you might take a look at converting the original image to CMYK and just using the K layer for the palladium layer.

[bob carnie]

Yes that would work as well

Some work exceeding well with the normal neg but others like this boost.

something to think about

[Michael Mutmansky]

Bob, is the normal neg simply a conversion of the original to B&W? If so, you might take a look at converting the original image to CMYK and just using the K layer for the palladium layer.

I would take this approach and then develop some adjustment curves for the pt/pd layer to correct it somewhat.

With digital, it is a simple process to "ring around" the variables to see if you are moving in the right direction. You can even do that in the same print easily enough so you can hone in on a good result fairly quickly.

I think that taking the approach of a high contrast pt/pd negative will produce a very different aesthetic, which may be what you (or the artist) wants, but it won't be the only way to crack that nut, so it isn't a case of right or wrong. Since a lot of tri-color gum is somewhat surreal, it's not like you are bound to trying to achieve a specific result, as was normally the case with dye transfer.


---Michael

[bob carnie]

Michael mentions the ring around approach and I agree..


Right now I am just firing back up my Durst Lambda - which is a large continuous tone paper or negative producer at very high resolution. I make the negative to the size of the print required , my limits are 30 x 40 inches to accommodate my trays.
I am currently on the market for a big ass plate burner(Sandy King has turned me on to a unit he likes) as well a large vacuum frame for silver prints.

When I work with inkjet I use Ron Reeder's method of negative making with quad tone rip. this allows me to have a negative which works for a set Pt Pd balance that is repeatable.
At this point I do not use any contrast control at the coating stage or process stage but rather remake an negative on the fly so to speak to match my process.

But with the Lambda out put my Durst will calibrate a 21 step wedge on film ortho pan 25 either rollie or ilford. this is extremely valuable as the step wedge is linear in controlled steps for predictable
lay down of tone..

Once this is done I can then make a ring around of contrast of any image on a single sheet film and use this to see what curve shape I designed works best for whatever paper or process I will be using.
For each ring around curve I create an action in PS to name the curve so that in future I can call back that action and apply it to my master image for whatever negative characteristic I require.
Each process has a sweet spot so to speak and I will investigate this by doing Ring Arounds to find that spot.

Some of the things I will be doing in the near future are… Lith Negatives, Lodima Prints, Ilford Warmtone, Art 300, Berger line of papers, Pt Pd and of course gum over pd.

I like this ring around method as it is more suited to my background in printing… Once I get the neg into the range I want then I will use split printing, lith printing to control the contrast and density in Silver , and I think
I will move to the Developer control contrast method - where I have five different jugs of developer with different contrast capabilities.

Bob