Digital BW, The Print

Mark Nelson the developer of PDN - Precision Digital Negatives - sent me an email 
describing in a little more detail about his process. He has given me permission to post it 
to this list.

Once again I have no affiliation with him - I'm just curious!



Hi John,

Thanks for pointing out the discussion.  There have been a number of places such as this, 
APUG and Alt Photo list where the issue of Dan's Book vs. my eBook have been debated.  I 
tend to stay out of these "debates", because I don't feel it is that helpful. 

Here are some comments to you though.

True, my book is an eBook not a "real book".  It is a 138 page PDF that is rather easy to 
print out.  I chose to do it this way because I published the book myself and it also 
includes calibration palette files and the Curve Calculator software that are necessary for 
using the system.  It took me two years, working full time, to do the research and write 
this little eBook.

Yes, the price is higher than other books, but I just noticed a new soft cover "how to" book 
that is running about $50.  Also, consider the BTZS system cost. I would suspect that 
someone using the Precision Digital Negatives system will recover the price of the book 
very very quickly because of the accuracy of the results and less wasted time and materials 
trying to "fiddle" with curves to get them work.  This is a system. It is a system based on 
how digital negatives really work and it provides you with a means of crafting a digital 
negative that will give superior results for your alternative process and your workflow.  
About 3 bad Platinum/Palladium prints will pay for the difference.

Precision Digital Negatives for Silver and Other Alternative Photographic Processes 
introduces a whole new concept into the art and craft of digital negatives—Color Density 
Range Control.  This is a method of matching the density range of the digital negative 
exactly to the exposure scale of the alternative process—before the adjustment curve is 
even applied.  Because of this, a much more subtle, less destructive curve is required.

The proof is in the pudding, so to speak.  The people who have used the system swear by 
it—including Dick Arentz, for one.  As Dick has said to me—"not all people are going to 
care enough to use your system.  They just want to make prints, so they will take the easy 
route."  I think this is somewhat true, but I also think that like many things in life, if you do 
a little work up front, you save yourself a LOT of work and spoiled prints later.  We are all 
concerned about wasting time and money for materials—probably time more than 
anything.

I recently had a student fly in from California for a 3 day workshop.  We covered how to 
scan his negatives and how to prepare his image files as is described in the book.  Then 
we calibrated his two papers of choice for a Platinum/Palladium mix he wanted to use (this 
took 3 small PT/PD prints for each paper). The last day, we printed the 4 different image/
negatives we had made—two for each paper.  When he developed the first print, his eyes 
got big and he smiled and said "This is beautiful!".  Each print was perfect without any test 
strips or test prints.

After I have calibrated a paper and a PT/PD contrast mix with the PDN system, I just make 
prints—without needing to make test prints or test strips.

Best wishes & hope you try the PDN system one of these days.
Mark Nelson

Purchase the eBook & System for Your Own Custom Workflow@
Precision Digital Negatives

PDN's Own 31-Step Tablet Now Available—produced by Stouffer Industries
Credit Card & Paypal now accepted

www.MarkINelsonPhoto.com
Workshop info on Home Page