Introduction

I enjoy traditional darkroom work, but the bulk of my photography is now digital. That's partly because I find it more convenient and partly because I believe I can produce black and white prints from digital files that very nearly equal the tonality of the film-based negative-positive process. Plus you get a full colour original file should you need it. For colour work, I don't think I'll be buying colour film again any time soon (I actually still have a freezer well stocked with the stuff!).

But, there is still something about well-processed, finished black and white prints on silver-based fibre photographic paper that stands them apart from current digital prints, so I thought I'd try making some 'digital negatives' from my raw format digital files and then contact print the result onto silver-gelatin paper. Some of the results in this area of exploration can be seen on my other site: www.real-photographs.co.uk.

So what is a digital negative? It's a print made with an ink-jet printer on transparent film. Not just any transparent film, but a specially coated material that holds the ink. For anyone in the UK there lies the first problem, the film is not available anywhere here at the time of writing. There are two types that seem to meet requirements: the first is made by Mitsubishi in Japan and is called Pictorico Ultra Premium OHP Transparency Film; the second is made by Inkpress and simply called Transparency Film. Both are readily available in the US and Canada, or can be ordered from B&H in New York from anywhere in the world - if you are prepared to pay the shipping costs.