Re: Newbie in lith print
Christina Z. Anderson escribió:
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
Hello to all:
Chris, as for it formulates it of the ID-85, don't I have
paraformaldehide, if of formaldehyde (formol 40%) liquid, which the
equivalent quantity that I should use would be?,
Thank you and pardon for my English, text translated by computer.
|