Like most, I began my photographic adventure utilizing purely traditional methods. Over time I came to recognize the inherent limitations imposed upon the photographer by the wet darkroom.

Even though I was able to achieve positive results in the traditional darkroom, I was growing increasingly frustrated with it. I could not refine the image with the precision I desired, nor were the results as repeatable as I wanted. Additionally, being one who cares about the state of the natural world, I felt terrible that the traditional darkroom generates vast amounts of toxic chemicals and numerous, throw-away work prints on silver laden, non-recyclable paper.

My liberation from the frustrations of the darkroom came with Hextone, a hybridized process that combines the best of the traditional and digital technologies.
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It all begins in the field, with traditional equipment. I use an Ebony RW45 4x5 view camera made of Honduran Mahogany and titanium. My lenses are Rodenstock, my light meter is a Pentax, and my film is Kodak T-Max. Exposure is determined by utilization of the Zone System.

The film is then developed in accordance to the Zone System readings suggested at the time of exposure.

After inspection of the negatives, the process leaves the world of traditional photography and enters the digital realm.

Negatives are scanned on an Imacon X5 virtual drum scanner. They are scanned in 16 bit at 2000 ppi. This produces an RGB file of roughly 450 megabytes, which becomes 150 megabytes in grayscale, equal to 80 megapixels.

The darkroom manipulations of dodging and burning, flashing and bleaching, dying and intensifying, and masking and sharpening, are all achieved in the digital darkroom that is Photoshop. Through the use of individual adjustment layers, the image can be fine tuned with marvelous precision.

Finally, the photograph is printed on a Hextone dedicated Epson 7600 wide format printer. A complete description of the printing process can be found under the link, Hextone.