Mike Ware's Digital Negative Workflow

We've just released Mike Ware's Digital Negative Workflow, an 18 page PDF document which gives step-by-step instructions on producing digital negatives for iron-based printing including Cyanotype, Chrysotype, Platinotype and Argyrotype.

Included is a hi-resolution file for making a 100-step test negative. Making Digital Negatives is delivered on CD and costs 12, with free postage throughout the world.

Details, including a free download of the preface, at http://www.siderotype.com/publications.htm

xtype said:

We've just released Mike Ware's Digital Negative Workflow, an 18 page PDF document which gives step-by-step instructions on producing digital negatives for iron-based printing including Cyanotype, Chrysotype, Platinotype and Argyrotype.

Included is a hi-resolution file for making a 100-step test negative. Making Digital Negatives is delivered on CD and costs 12, with free postage throughout the world.

Details, including a free download of the preface, at http://www.siderotype.com/publications.htm

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Can the pdf be downloaded instead of shipping on a CD from the UK?

pschwart said:

Can the pdf be downloaded instead of shipping on a CD from the UK?

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yea.. here as well.. if it were, i'd have bought it and had it working this evening

keep us updated

jim

The files are a little over 12mb together - they can be sent attached to an email (or two emails depending on what your system will take). If you'd prefer this to the CD, you can specify in the 'messages' part of the shopping cart that you want delivery by email.

Cheers!

xtype said:

The files are a little over 12mb together - they can be sent attached to an email (or two emails depending on what your system will take). If you'd prefer this to the CD, you can specify in the 'messages' part of the shopping cart that you want delivery by email.

Cheers!

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thank you!

(order placed

I have been running through this workflow today and things look promising having done some initial tests. The article is well written and I believe even the absolute novice who has little or no experience with digital negatives or photoshop should be able to follow it. For those advanced users its worth taking a look too. I am using the Epson 3800 with this workflow and I will post more with scans of the results in the next few days.

Is any particular printer recommended for this, Dave ?

Hi Roy, there are settings for the Epson 2400 and 2880, if i get my workflow going well and consistently for my 3800 i will post the results and relavent settings, although it does seem that the settings for the 2880 and 3800 are very similar if not the same due them both have the K3 ink set.

Can you say there is anything new in Mike's approach to others like PDN, etc?

jag2x said:

Can you say there is anything new in Mike's approach to others like PDN, etc?

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At present I am still working through the document and making exactly sure I understand all the concepts that Dr Ware discusses, once I have completely understood them I will be able to comment further.

However I would say that it’s a new approach in the sense that it is a very easy workflow to follow compared with other ones I have tried including PDN and Quark. For the absolute beginner it is very useful IMO as it provides click by click instructions for the entire workflow from start to finish. I gave PDN a good try some time ago, but I found it to be very reliant on being able to accurately identify a number of parameters that if incorrectly interpreted led to problems which I found frustrating and time consuming. For some I am sure PDN and Quark is perfect and provides exacting results, however I think there is a need to simplify the digital negative workflow for beginners who do not want to get bogged down in number crunching etc.. and I think this might be it.

Again from my limited testing of the workflow I have obtained some promising print results that I was not previously able to obtain with my 3800. It has also made me identify the limitations of my current transparency film (Agfa Copy Jet). Printing digital negs with Matt Black @2880 (a combination that puts a lot of ink down) on this film I get some slightly pooling of ink in the darkest areas of the negatives, luckily I have found a similar quality, much cheaper film that will hold the ink with any problems.

I will be testing the concepts it discusses with the Epson 7600 today and will try and offer some feedback for those people that do not have the K3 ink system.

I, for one, look forward to your results Dave. This might influence my choice of printer, as I do not have one and have made my enlarged negatives in the darkroom. Of course, it might also convince me that I should buy a bigger camera and not get too involved with the 'digital scene' !

Mike Ware has released a statement on the specific points where his workflow differs from other systems - the full text follows:

To single out those features where my workflow may differ significantly from the practice of others (from whom I have borrowed freely and gratefully acknowledge!):

1) My inkjet 100-steptablet is identical in its print parameters and materials with the actual negatives to be printed

2) The Standard Printing Exposure is found using only that steptablet (not additional silver-gelatin Stouffers, etc)

3) The printer ink density range is tested and adjusted first, to find the best printer driver settings to make a full tonal range negative for a given process

4) No derived "curves" are used at all; the necessary redistribution of print tones is provided by the Gamma slider in the Levels window

5) Almost none of the 256 levels are wasted by truncating the tonal scale to fit the process, as happens with some "curves"

6) Ink choice is not used as the density variable to match the UVA exposure range; the printer's balanced mix of all the ink colours provides a very smooth (5760 dpi) neutral grey with adequate UV absorbance; there is no risk of the "spotting" that can arise with single colours

7) RGB files are monochromatized according to the visual response of the normal human eye

8) The 'white point' can be 'fine-tuned' (not usually necessary) by employing the Layer Opacity Slider control

9) Image files are economical in size, but high resolution: flattened, 16-bit greyscale, 360 ppi .tiff: an A3 (16.3"x11.4") image file occupies 46 MB

I bougth and even if I have already have a succesful way to make my digital negative. i find the search of the basic timing interesting. using the level is already used by some digitnegative maker . But Mike ware has the way to make it easy to control.
The only point which disturb, and that's why I 'll use some of this method mix other in the future, is that you can only control inking with good printer. With low cost printer it is harder to control the inking and I 'll keep teaching to my workshoper a mix of Array with the other way to make a good digineg.

6) Ink choice is not used as the density variable to match the UVA exposure range; the printer's balanced mix of all the ink colours provides a very smooth (5760 dpi) neutral grey with adequate UV absorbance; there is no risk of the "spotting" that can arise with single colours

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Can you expand on this statement? I find it a bit vague.

Thanks,

Don Bryant

xtype said:

Mike Ware has released a statement on the specific points where his workflow differs from other systems

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Xtype

Thanks for posting Mike Wares statement on his digital negative workflow (since I have been too cheap to purchase the full PDF merely to satisfy my curiosity). Here are a couple of thoughts on this new workflow:

3) The printer ink density range is tested and adjusted first, to find the best printer driver settings to make a full tonal range negative for a given process

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There are actually two different places in Epson printer drivers where you can set the ink density range to produce a negative of the desired contrast and I assume Wares method uses one of them. On older printers you can do it under Paper Configuration where the Color Density slider can be moved to adjust overall ink density. On newer printers the Advanced B+W menu also offers the Max OD slider that apparently does the same thing (I posted an article describing use of the Max OD slider on my website about a year ago). I agree with Ware that using these sliders to set negative contrast is preferable to doing it by changing ink color because it leaves the printer free to print with all of its inks (resulting in smoother tones).

4) No derived "curves" are used at all; the necessary redistribution of print tones is provided by the Gamma slider in the Levels window

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Well, actually, that is not correct. Sliding the middle slider in Levels back and forth makes a simple adjustment curve that has only one point in the middle of the line. In my experience most adjustment curves need more than one point on the line to fully linearize tones in the final print. But just sliding the gamma adjustment might get you reasonably close. Note that applying a Levels adjustment to the positive image file is just as destructive to the image as applying a Curves adjustment. The only method out there that avoids this problem is QTR where all adjustments are made non-destructively in the drivers ink settings.

So, here is my gratuitous QTR plug again. There is currently nothing out there that even comes close to QTR in offering complete control over ink usage (while at the same time avoiding any degradation of the image file). HOWEVER, all this comes at the disadvantage of a rather steep learning curve and is very likely more control than many photographers need or want. If Wares approach turns out to be clearly written and easy to apply, I am sure it will find wide acceptance.

Cheers, Ron Reeder
www.ronreeder.com

I agree with Ron that a simple adjustment by moving he middle slide in Levels may not result in a good adjustment curve. In fact, depending on the needed correction it might actually make output less linear.

Attached is a raw output graph that is not atypical. Making an adjustment curve by the use of Levels will make either the highlights or shadows less linear, depending on the direction of adjustment.

Sandy King

Ron-san said:

Xtype—


Sliding the middle slider in Levels back and forth makes a simple adjustment curve that has only one point in the middle of the line. In my experience most adjustment curves need more than one point on the line to fully linearize tones in the final print. But just sliding the gamma adjustment might get you reasonably close.
Cheers, Ron Reeder
www.ronreeder.com

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sanking said:

I agree with Ron that a simple adjustment by moving he middle slide in Levels may not result in a good adjustment curve. In fact, depending on the needed correction it might actually make output less linear.

Attached is a raw output graph that is not atypical. Making an adjustment curve by the use of Levels will make either the highlights or shadows less linear, depending on the direction of adjustment.

Sandy King

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I purchased Mike Ware's pdf and did some quick testing about three weeks ago to investigate his premise that simply setting the gamma from 1.0 to 2.2 in a Photoshop levels layer would be sufficient to create a digital negative with roughly linear output.
I don't have time to comment fully right now, but here is my short take:
Dr. Ware is correct that gamma adjustment can be useful in increasing ink laydown in the midtones. This won't impact the white or black endpoints, so if you can't achieve sufficient density for paper white with your printer and inkset this provides an incomplete solution. I did not find changing the layer opacity to be helpful in adjusting the white point, but I do get sufficient density so I didn't need this tweak and forged ahead. While it was possible to create a printable negative adjusting just the gamma, the output was significantly nonlinear and a correction curve was always required. The gamma adjustment might be used to create a less severe correction curve, but using my materials and printing carbon transfers it could not eliminate the need for a curve. The two biggest technical challenges in printing digital negatives are 1) obtaining sufficient density for paper white and highlight separation and 2) achieving linear output. Dr. Ware's method did not provide solutions to these in my workflow.
These are just some initial thoughts. I may retest using palladium to see if my results are consistent. The pdf is articulate and concise and documents a simple but structured approach for creating digital negatives. It is worth a read and I’m sure will provoke some useful discussions.

As always, your mileage may vary. Here is what I tested:
Epson R800
Arista OHP
Canon Transparent Clear Film
single transfer carbon
X-Rite 810 densitometer (for measuring linearity of prints and tablets)

xtype said:

The files are a little over 12mb together - they can be sent attached to an email (or two emails depending on what your system will take). If you'd prefer this to the CD, you can specify in the 'messages' part of the shopping cart that you want delivery by email.

Cheers!

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Typically most consumer e-mail accounts limit attachment sizes to 5MB or less. So distribution by e-mail may not be ideal.

Don Bryant

Thank you for these thorough comments and private emails - an instant download of Mike Ware's workflow and test negative is now available from the Siderotype.com site - if you've visited recently please refresh your browser.

Also - your email settings may divert the download link to the junk folder (because it contains two links) - please check both the inbox and junk folder for the email.

Ron-san said:

Xtype
So, here is my gratuitous QTR plug again. There is currently nothing out there that even comes close to QTR in offering complete control over ink usage (while at the same time avoiding any degradation of the image file). HOWEVER, all this comes at the disadvantage of a rather steep learning curve and is very likely more control than many photographers need or want. If Wares approach turns out to be clearly written and easy to apply, I am sure it will find wide acceptance.

Cheers, Ron Reeder
www.ronreeder.com

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I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that the "best" way to produce digital negatives is to formulate some amalgamation or hybrid of all the workflows and systems out there. There is no QTR for Canon or other quality printers. However there is TrueBW(more graphical). It will be interesting to see where we are 1 year from today.


Miles