Two Simple Pathways to Making
Perfect[1]Prints from Digital Negatives

.1×12.5 inch (18×32 cm) Kallitype print made from a profiled negative without further correction. Photograph & print by John Riches

7.1×12.5 inch (18×32 cm) Kallitype print made from a profiled negative without further correction. Photograph & print by John Riches

With a Densitometer

The TruNeg Gradient/Stepwedge and Profiler tool makes this the quickest, simplest, and most
accurate way there is to make a digital negative.

The TruNeg 128-step Gradient/Stepwedge.
The TruNeg Profiler, showing taget densities and RGB equivalent.

Print the TruNeg Gradient/Stepwedge; find “Just White,” “Just Black,” and 10 intermediate tones; save the Preset; convert and print the negative; print the print.

Screenshot of a digital negative calibration software window with a grayscale gradient, numerical data, and text labels for calibration and exposure zones.

TruNeg Open Screen

The TruNeg Windows Application main page.

More Details

Without a Densitometer

TruNeg Profiles and the unique DLogRGB curve provide a methodical pathway to perfect prints.

TruNeg DLogRGB plot of a Kallitype Curve.

The Kallitype Profile Curve

Adjusting the curve by one grid line changes the test strip stepwedge by one tone, whether in the shadows, midtones, or highlights, removing guesswork and making correcting printer and process variations simple and predictable.

Kallitype print with poor highlights, to be corrected with the TruNeg DLogRGB curve.

A Test print made from the Profile shows that the highlights and midtones are too light.

Kallitype DLogRGB curve showing how to correct the highlights and midtones.

Modifying the Profile curve to darken the highlights and midtones.

Kallitype print with corrected highlights..
More Details

[1]. A perfect print is defined here as a print that has a white and a black (Dmax), with all the highlight and shadow detail of the original positive image and that the print is neither too light nor too dark.