FotoDave@aol.com
Thu, 21 Oct 1999 20:34:34 -0400 (EDT)
> When I used Konica direct dupe lith film with diluted Ilford paper
> developer, I could get nice results.
Well, I guess I should make some correction to my earlier post in reply to
Sato. There is dupe lith film and there is dupe contone film. I am not sure
which one Sato is using; but for both cases, control is about the same
(difficult).
> But D-max is less than 2 step gravure film neg and highlight separation was
> llimited.
If you original negative has low density range, that it will work nicely. If
the density range is high, you will lose highlight separation if you use
diluted paper developer. As explained in my article in PFP journal issue #2,
diluting paper developer can at most, reduce the density range of your
enlarged negative, but it is not able to increase the exposure range (that
is, it won't separate more steps for you).
By lowering the pH of the developer, however, you can let the whole
development proceed very slowly, and this opens up the highlight area. I an
several others have found that LC-1 dilution 2:3:x gives the combination of
sulfite-bisulfite that slows down the development of Arista APH film just
right so that you can have 21 step linear separation.
In the original article, I said that we normally didn't need so much
separation since our original wouldn't have a density range of 21 steps (or
about 3.0 density unit), but now I am using 2:3:x every time because the nice
thing about linear curve is that you can expose it up and down and everything
is still proportional, and you won't worry about shadows blocking up (I am
talking about positive now), so I have a standard procedure of making test
strip and simply expose it 1/2 stop over the time when highlights look good
to my eye. The shadow nevers block up.
I said 2:3:x because the 3rd item is water. You can use different amount
depending on your processing temperature and how long you want to develop
your film. For rotary processing at 75F, I used 2:3:10 for interpositives and
2:3:5 to 2:3:10 for the negatives.
If you haven't try it, you really should give it a try. It will give you
separation that you have never seen before if you used diluted paper
developer before. Here is a quote from Mr. Christopher James, the Department
Chair of the Photo Department of the Art Institute of Boston (I did ask his
permission to quote him):
"i .... found your LC-1 development, for lith film, formula in Judy's PFP
newsletter.... wish i had had this formula a long time ago as it beats
the hell out of manipulating Dektol, HC-110 and D-76...."
Dave S
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