1. A method for calibrating a densitometer in a digital reproduction system including: generating a series of image panels with toner patches of incrementally increasing densities on a photoreceptor medium, obtaining specular readings and diffuse readings for light reflected from the photoreceptor medium and the toner patches, computing specular developed mass per unit area (DMA) values; and determining a functional relationship between the specular DMAs and the diffuse readings so that the coefficients of the functional relationship may be used to later determine diffuse DMAs for a reproduction system.