LITH-printing (and 2 questions) long.

["Bob Parsons" <bobp@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Jaap Los <imagefotografie@xxxxxx> asked:

"Is there anybody who has experience in the technics of LITH black/white
printing. You need ordinary b/w negatives, special LITH developer and
LITH blue sensitised printing paper .
 <..... cut ......>
In all you can get very beautiful images and very  interesting effects.
 I want to try out this proces on IR negatives! Anybody ever tried this? "


Japp,   

When I started lith printing Konica IR negs I wasn't prepared for 
the results, what a wonderful surprise! The ability to obtain tone 
separation in the shadows and beautiful soft  highlights with backlit 
forest scenes amazes me. The tonal distribution of IR landscapes
seems to match the characterisics of lith printing very well. There is
an overall feeling of openess and light, just what I want to achieve. 
In addition lith prints are very responsive to toning such as Gold or
Selenium.  I can see lith printing IR is going to provide many  
enjoyable hours in the darkroom not to mention the results.

Someone who is very experienced in lith printing is Tim Rudman 
who has just published a (the only?) book on this subject. It's called 
'The Master Photographer's Lith Printing Course' and is due out this 
month. There is also a chapter in his current book  "The Photographer's
Master Printing Course" which gives more than enough information to
get started.


Now I've two questions for the group regarding IR lith prints:

I've been trying to split tone prints with sulphide/gold.
The scenes were backlit and taken in Epping Forest on 120  
Konica 750 IR film with an RG715 filter. It was evening with 
golden sunlight and a deep blue sky. The prints are on Kentmere 
Kentona paper developed in Photospeed LD20 diluted between
1:20 and 1:30.

I wish to tone the prints so that the highlights are golden yellow 
and the deep shadows dark blue-black. There are two problems 
I have with toning:

After partial bleaching with alkaline Ferricyanide/Bromide and 
'redevelopment' with Sodium Sulphide I find that the extreme 
highlights have partially bleached. Subsequent toning in Tetenal
Gold Toner does give the required golden tone to the highlights 
but with very warm black shadows and not blue/black as I wanted. 
The prints were 2 bath fixed, hypo cleared and washed for 40 mins 
before toning so I don't think residual hypo is the cause of the 
highlight loss.

I've tried flashing which seems to lower the highlight contrast
too much, and increasing the print exposure which upsets the 
tonal balance by darkening the mid tones. I'm new to lith printing 
so perhaps it's a question of getting the exposure, dilution and 
development time right?
I've also tried direct toning with polysulphide and hypo-alum. 
These don't bleach the highlights but give a brownish tone which 
turns to pink, not golden, when subsequently gold toned.

So the first question is, how to get golden highlights without the 
loss of highlight detail?

And the second is how to get blue/black shadows rather than the
warm black ones? The only way I can think of is to use a removable 
varnish to protect the shadow areas during sepia toning and 
remove it before gold toning.

FYI I use 120 Konica 750, developed for 8 mins Perceptol diluted
 1:3 @ 68F, 2 inversions each minute, EI 20, measure (no filter) 
shadow zone 2 to 3, exposure usually around 2-4secs @ f16, filter 
RG715. Scenes are in forest with backlit trees in full sunlight & 
blue sky. With an RG715 you can get tone in the blue sky near the
sun, otherwise results are similar with a red or orange filter.
Another developer which I've found gives good results with the 
same type of scene is Rodinal 1:80, 6.5min @ 68F, 2 inversions
each minute,  EI of 20.

PS. You don't have to use a paper with a lith emulsion for printing, 
many standard warm tone papers work well, Kentmere Kentona
which is very colourful, Forte Polywarmtone, Ilford Warmtone etc.
and Process/Sterling lith, designed for lith development.

Kind regards, the best of Invisible Light.

Bob Parsons <bobp@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

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