Re: Newbie in lith print
Good morning all, Cor and P. (name?), Here is an excerpt from my Experimental Photography Workbook--beware, lengthy; I quote it all because you can see the two developer formulas I USED to use before happening upon Fotospeed Lith developer. I used to mix up the ID 85 formula and teach it to 30 students at once, if you can believe that one. What a pain. When I found that Fotospeed worked wonderfully I have not gone back. I also have a recipe, below, for a "pseudolith" that was kinda fun. I much preferred the ID 85 but being in Italy, I would think that you would be able to get the Moersch Lith from Maco in Germany??? Either way I agree with Cor--watch your RC papers that they are not developer incorporated. They will not work. I don't THINK that Ilford RC papers are developer incorporated....and I used to lith Ilford fiber beautifully with the ID 85 but with Fotospeed the Ilford paper did not work. It got snowflakey patterns all the way through it. Now, mind you, it could be student error, too. Ilford paper produced wonderful pinky/mauve tones with my ID 85 and with the pseudolith process, below, so Loris is right on that one. The papers my students this semester had luck with: Bergger warmtone, Forte warmtone, Foma, and I think Ilford warmtone, too, but I am not positive. Bergger and Forte were producing really nice caramel browns this year. Well, I think that is overkill, way more than P needs to know but there I said it. Chris CZAphotography.com Lith Developer "ID 13" Solution A Water at 125º F 750ml Hydroquinone 25g Potassium Metabisulfite 25g Potassium Bromide 25g Water to make 1000ml Solution B Cold water 750ml Potassium Hydroxide (care!) 50g Water to make 1000ml Add potassium hydroxide slowly to the cold water, or it will explode in your face. It produces heat when it goes into solution. (Red Devil Lye is 99% pure sodium hydroxide that you can get at the grocery store...) For split tone lith printing of papers, add 1 part A to 1 part B and dilute with 4 parts water. Look for development times of 2-1/2 to 5 minutes, or longer. The developer, below, is my favorite. The one above is the usual kind of lith developer that does not produce a good lith print until the 4th print through the "soup". It needs a bit of aging, in other words. The one below lithed the first print through, and kept on ticking! However, the downside is that it is made with formaldehyde, a known carcinogen, and smelly to boot. Lith Developer "ID 85" Sol A water @ 125º F 500ml Sod. sulfite 36.5g Boric acid crystals 9.4g Hydroquinone 28g Potassium bromide 2g water to make 1000ml Sol B water @ 90º F 500ml Sodium bisulfite 11g Sodium sulfite 1g Paraformaldehyde 37.5g water to make 1000ml Mix 4 parts A to 1 part B to 10 parts water. Times are a bit longer with this formula than the one above, but it is a beautiful developer. Ideas Pseudo lith is a fun process to try: take a previously exposed print, preferrably one that is darker than you would like, and bleach it completely in the bleach recipe found in the Bleaching section. Then rinse well, and redevelop in the lith developer, just as if you were doing a lith print from scratch. This is a great way to use old prints that were not well printed (as long as they are not too light!) This process works better on some papers than on others--Forte Polywarmtone is wonderful. Ilford MGIV produces pretty neat lavender/peach splits. Some papers redevelop to give reds/pinks, some browns on greys, some golden yellows and some olive. MGWT can give a passable Lith look-alike on redevelopment in lith, Kentmere gives a pink and grey split, Kentona gives browns on greys. If you go too far, you just go back to a B&Wprint this way, so don't develop too long. Rinse, fix, wash, and dry. ----- Original Message ----- From: <C.Breukel@lumc.nl> To: <alt-photo-process-l@usask.ca> Sent: Thursday, December 07, 2006 3:50 AM Subject: RE: Newbie in lith print Hi P., If you cannot buy prepaired devlopers you're stuck with paraformaldehyde I am afraid. I use the D-85 formula with good succes. Some people claim you can replace the paraformaldehyde with aceton, but I recall that people weren't that happy with the results (was that you, Christina?). AFAIK Ilford RC does not lith print. Good luck Cor
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