First posted 4 February 2011

Just before Christmas, I wrote and self published a book on the paper negative process. This technique is something I’ve worked with since the late seventies and one which I am particularly fond of. For those of you unfamiliar with it, in it’s simplest form it is just using photographic paper in the camera instead of film. The reduced ISO, paper texture and Orthochromatic response give a look totally unlike film and not easily faked digitally. In fact, there would be no point trying to fake it, as most of the pleasure comes from the slight unpredictability of the process.
Occasionally this is frustrating, but the flipside is when beautiful surprises occur and provide you with amazing images.

The book was self published on Blurb.com using the Booksmart software. Previous books done this way had all been purely images. This time I had to marry up text with image and attempt page layouts.
That in itself is not too difficult, the Booksmart software gives templates for drag and drop simplicity. However, I hadn’t bargained for how totally bloody frustrating the software could be!
It allowed me to drop sections of text in, but as soon as I tried to change a word or add a new bit, the font size would jump from 8 to 16 and the line below would drop down two spaces. Each time I tried to rectify the problem things just got worse! Whole pages of text would jump across to the previous page and lay themselves over a full page image! Aaaarrrggh!
I battled on and just got the book out in time for a few Christmas sales, only to find that there were one or two typing mistakes and the colour cast of some scanned prints had given a very green look to a few images. Also, the font size was a little too large when seen in hard copy, something that is difficult to judge on screen.

I set about producing a second edition immediately and came up against all the previous problems. Hopefully, this version is a little tidier.

The second edition of the book is now available and I apologise to anyone who bought and was disappointed by the style of the first. The information is still sound, take consolation in the fact that you have a very rare book -only six copies sold I believe.

The new book can be seen here;

http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1952208

4 Comments

1. Russ Young
   Posted 08/06/2011 at 3:00 am

   Well, I’m a proud owner of the first edition!
   Russ Young
   Floyd, Virginia

2. John Hamlen
   Posted 08/08/2011 at 9:51 pm

   Hi Andrew,

   I wonder if you can help me.

   I’m just getting into using the Harman Direct Positive paper and found you web-site when trying to find out more information about pre-flashing. (Particularly in-camera pre-flashing as I don’t have access to a darkroom!).

   Which issue of Black and White Photography Magazine was your article on the subject published in, as I’d like to order a back issue to get hold of it.

   Failing this, does the 2nd edition of your Blurb book include any info on this? If it does then you can count me as a buyer of it!

   Many thanks in advance!

   Best wishes,
   John

3. James Jasek
   Posted 09/06/2013 at 4:42 pm

   Is the Paper Negative second edtion still available?

   Thank you

4. Andrew Sanderson
   
   Posted 12/06/2013 at 5:06 pm

   Yes James, it is available on Blur.com
   http://www.blurb.co.uk/b/1952208-paper-negative-photography