Hi. My name is Ron Reeder and I am a retired molecular biologist living in the Seattle area. I have been using the “hybrid” approach to photography for several years -- 4x5 film, scan, Photoshop, digital neg, print on a palladium emulsion. My web site is at www.ronreeder.com.

My current claim to fame is that I have written a book, co-authored with Brad Hinkel, on the art of making digital negatives. The book will be officially released December 1, 2006, and is currently being offered on Amazon. Brad and I also have a web site, www.digital-negatives.com currently under construction, that will be dedicated to the book and to updates for it.

The major innovation of the book is a description of how to use a popular piece of shareware, the Quadtone RIP (QTR), to print digital negatives. By writing custom profiles for QTR you can place all of the needed corrections into the printer’s ink settings and never apply a correction curve to the image file. The profiles also allow you to precisely control the color of the inks used for printing.

I hope to help advance the art of making digital negatives to the point where they are the equal of in-camera negatives. As a group I don’t think we are quite there yet, but we are getting close. I hope to chime in on discussions in the Digital Negatives section of this site. Already I have learned stuff by reading the threads. And maybe I can help by adding my own expertise.

This is an exciting era in which to be doing photography.

Hello, Ron,

You have a great website full of magical images. Already you have made important contributions here. I am ordering your book immediately. I value your continued participation at hybridphoto.

Thanks,

Nathan

Sounds great. I'll look forward to getting the book. It sounds simpler than the PDN method. Is it and does it get as good or better results (alt process and gelatian silver?