Rudman's Book Project: World Book of Lith Printing

I guess you also read Wolfgang Moersch's note at Phototec, right?
Have been thinking about sending one or two prints to Tim (who's first book is still the bible for lith printing), but I'm a bit embarassed that the quality of mine might not be good enough...

Roman
 
Roman said:
I guess you also read Wolfgang Moersch's note at Phototec, right?
Have been thinking about sending one or two prints to Tim (who's first book is still the bible for lith printing), but I'm a bit embarassed that the quality of mine might not be good enough...
Click to expand...
Yes, I took the link from Phototec. And yes the thoughts which I have about the quality of my own prints are the same. :) I also didn't understand what exactly he expects from the readers.

/rudi
 
I guess on the one hand he wants personal experiences and special tricks & techniques, and on the other hand, simply good prints as examples for what can be done with lith printing.

Roman
 
Lithography and photography

Lithography and photography

Roman said:
I guess on the one hand he wants personal experiences and special tricks & techniques, and on the other hand, simply good prints as examples for what can be done with lith printing.

Roman
Click to expand...

Hi Roman

I do serigraphic/silk screen prints. You can use a photo-emulsion to register an image onto a screen and then do a series of pulls to develop a 'print' . It will replicate the image all else is up to the artist including changing the image, colours etc. It is easy and cheap.

Lithography requires a bit of a 'capital expenditure' however it's prints are 'better' due to the process. Still I like doing the low tech thing. Sort of like Warhol's portraits of Marilyn or Mao.

I'm bookmarking the website though because I am interested in all types of prints.

thanks for posting this on RFF

cheers, Jan
 
Jan,

sorry, but I think you are confusing lithography with lith printing.
I know about lithography - but lith printing (in the way the term is used nowadays in the darkroom scene) does not have anything to do with that - lith printing means overexposing a negative by about 2 to 4 stops (on average) onto 'regular' photographic paper (not all of them work - best are classical warmtone emulsions, like Fomatone, Forte Polywarmtone, and a few others), then developing the print in highly diluted lith developer (usually spiked with potassium bromide or sodium sulphite to make it work the way you need); prints are not developed to completion (they would go completely black, due to the overexposure), but 'snatched' & stopped at the right time; the results are prints with rather blocked up, grainy shadows, compressed mid-tones, and very soft, creamy highlights, and everything is very colourful (from pink to orange to brown); lith prints are also very susceptible to various toners.
The procedure was invented in the 1970s, and has been re-popularized in the mid-1990 by star-photographer Anton Corbijn. Tim Rudman is kind of the guru of lith prining, Wolfgang Moersch from Germany is another famous one: http://www.moersch-photochemie.de/ (on this site's gallery you will find many examples).

Here are some of my attempts at lith printing:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/romansonnleitner/11262475/
http://www.rangefinderforum.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=2771&cat=3622&page=2
http://www.rangefinderforum.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=2770&cat=3622&page=4
http://www.rangefinderforum.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=1541&cat=4706&page=1
http://www.beststuff.com/forum/download.php?f=26&id=2317&fileid=1376&file=tihany1.jpg
http://www.beststuff.com/forum/download.php?f=26&id=2318&fileid=1377&file=tihany2.jpg
http://www.beststuff.com/forum/download.php?f=26&id=2319&fileid=1378&file=ciprian.jpg
http://www.beststuff.com/forum/download.php?f=26&id=2323&fileid=1382&file=myrafaelle.jpg
http://www.beststuff.com/forum/download.php?f=26&id=2322&fileid=1381&file=semmering.jpg

Roman
 
Hello Roman,

nice pics you did ... which developer and paper do you use for those strong pink like colors? I use the Polywamtone paper from Impex together with Moersch Easylith or LP Lith, and I get always more or less browns with a small touch in some direction (yello, pink, olive).

http://24x30.de/image.php?page=101.05.01
http://24x30.de/image.php?page=97.11.01
http://24x30.de/image.php?page=71.11.01
http://24x30.de/image.php?page=56.06.01

I curious how Marc likes it, because I send him a lith print at the print swap. It's because he wrote those article about digital lith images.

/rudi
 
Rudi,

yours are nice, too, esp. the 2nd and 4th!

I use Maco LP Lith chemistry (still got some old stock left, not the new Superlith), but I use rather higher dilutiona (about 2+1+15 to 20), with about 1 to 2 parts of 10& Potassiumbromid (Kaliumbromid in German) added for extra color (careful with that - too much and your shadows will be flat), and sometimes a bit of sodium sulphite to prevent pepper fogging, if necessary.

The first and the two last pics are on Fomatone MG FB (the easiest paper to work with in lithing - nice orange-pinkish colors are reached easily, and shadows don't block up as fast as with other papers - just the slightly greenish mid-band is occasionally distracting), all the others are on Forte Polywarmtone (or ClassicArts Polywarmtone, which is the same) - yes, the PWT gives more brownish tones, you'll need really dilute developer (which means that with tests and all you can make about 2 to 4 prints max before the developer hass gone bad) plus KBr, to get the pinkish tones you see e.g. in my Lake Balaton print - also, contrastier negs help a bit, since you have to expose those longer on the paper, which will also bring more color. And as last resort for ornage-golden-pinkish tones, you might try first toning in a 2-part sepia kit (you know, those with seperate bleach and tone stages), and then dip the print into gold toner.

I also made a lith print first for Joe - but sent him a regular print instead (was not completely happy with the lith print, it was too dark and brooding, and also I wasn't sure whether he'd like it, since most of his own pics are rather straightforward B&W).

Roman
 
Hi Roman,

thanks for clearing that up for me. Yes I was definitely in the wrong ball park with my comments. Still now that I know I'm kind of interested. I know a guy here in Ontario, David Lewis, who does prints by a process called 'Bromoil' the prints are fascinating to see. Not like any commercial / professional lab processing normally available.

http://www.bromoil.com/index.htm

I appreciate the tip off.

cheers, Jan
 
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Yep,
I agree, once you have understood the basic principles of lith printing, like controlling contrast through exposure and development (which is closer to film development than 'normal' printing), and color through dilution and exposure time, the process yields good results pretty fast - with a lot of hit-and-miss, though. The real tough part is gaining so much control that you can get repeatable results (or approximations of such - lith prints are always unique one-off pieces).

Roman
 
24x30 said:
Hello Roman,
... which developer and paper do you use for those strong pink like colors?
Click to expand...

Ha, now I got also those colors ... yesterday I tried to get some yellows using the Moersch Easylith and the CA PW Paper. In the Water eg. the fix-bath there were a strong yellow :) ... but after drying everything went to pink-brown :-|.

http://24x30.de/image.php?page=159.11.01
http://24x30.de/image.php?page=159.13.01

I didn't put the images to the gallery, because they were taken with a Minolta X700.
I took them during a morning bikeride to work (6:00) strong fog and first sun.

Maybe with some more solution B to get the yellows ... :rolleyes: , next try ...

/rudi
 
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