This
is my follow on post explaining what happened and how it was done.
Not everything went according
to plan, but more about that later.
Being
in a fortunate position of owning a second slot processor I decided
to set this at 26 degrees for the lith developer. I did not add stop
or fix to the other slots but continued to use what was already
available in the other slotty, keeping the temperature to 20 degrees.
It is just as well I did as one of the papers emulsion became very
soft.
I
chose high contrast negatives that I had already printed. I looked
back through my notes on how long each was exposed for and added one
and half times more exposure to see how things worked. I chose to
follow the instructions when it came to diluting part A and B at 2X
1+25+1000 mls water. (20 mls of each 40 mls in total in 1000 mls of water).
The paper I chose to start with was Kentmere RC because it was the
paper originally used with these negatives. All the prints were
exposed to white light, no grades were set. I had no idea how they
would turn out or what sort of tone would be produced. I used two
other varitone RC papers to see which produced the best results with
this mix of A and B.
 |
| Kentmere paper |
This
is the original Kentmere print exposed at grade zero and developed as
normal.
 |
| Kentmere paper |
This
is the first print out of the easy lith on Kentmere paper. It took
over three minutes for it to reach full development. A very faint out
line of the picture started to show about 30-40 seconds in. It was
difficult to see whether the print had toned or not with the red
light on.
 |
| Foma 131 paper |
Second
print was on Foma 131 varitone. This took a full twelve minutes to
develop fully and is what I had in mind as a lith look.
 |
| Ilford paper |
Third
print was on Ilford multigrade paper, I pulled the paper early
because I thought it may go completely black.
Conclusions:
Not
knowing what to expect from this process makes it difficult to be to
critical with the results. One of my main mistakes was to treat this
like a normal developer, I should have mixed the two parts separately
so I could vary the strengths of each part to get a look that was in
my opinion more lith like, this may have lead me to make changes to
the amount of over exposure as well. The problem I think in these
early stages of getting to grips with a new process such as this is
there are a lot of variables to take into account. With more practice
I suspect I will arrive at something more my taste.
A
side affect of using the Lith process has shown up a weakness in what
I considered a well vented darkroom. This is the first time I
experienced a build up of fumes. Some updating needs to be carried
out if I wish to continue printing using lith chemicals. After a bit
of thought I feel it should be upgraded regardless!
Over
all I am pleased with the outcome, for a first attempt. Others may
not, but I would prefer to get as many of the mistakes out of the way
now so I can concentrate on producing finer prints in the future.
