Tree Rindoon Walled Town

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  • epi
Lith print -
Experimenting with Slavich paper for lith printing.
Location
Rindoon Walled Town, Roscommon
Equipment Used
Bronica SQA
Film & Developer
Efke Aura 820 & Rodinal Spezial R09
Paper & Developer
Slavich - Lith FotoSpeed
If the goal here is to celebrate blotchiness, then this succeeds very well. For me, that's not a standard I'd subscribe to.
 
Hi just moved the image to "critique" gallery. First, thanks for the comments. - Based on my limited experience as lith printer, and comments from people with much more experience than I. This kind of "graphicness", "crayons" , "blotchiness" is very particular of this paper, Slavich, when used for lith printing. Hence, I might agree that the subject is not the most suitable for this kind of treatment, but unless I give a try I will never know which subject might be more suitable or not--c.u. Epi
 
Don't be deterred! Comments are just personal opinions and nothing more. Slavich is a great paper for lith, and yes, that's how it behaves. It can be very graphic, and unpredictable..and beautiful! If you want better control and less "funk", try Rollei Vintage Lith (harder to find in the US now but still available in Europe). Your result there is typical of the paper in that developer, which again may suits certain applications and please some people, but not everyone. That's just the way it goes for everything. I am not a fan of doctored negative scans that may, or may not represent a final "real" print but again, that's just my personal opinion.
 
Great seeing you doing this work EPI, did you use a filter with the holga ?, must visit that walled village, looks like it would be worth the drive.
 
Thanks Max for your comment and advice, I've looked your web site, impressive quality collection you have. Currently I'm using Moersch Easy Lith, I'll give a try with this same negative and paper to see what I get.
Thanks Michael R, your comment was clearly understood
Thanks Paul, without a doubt the visit is a must and please don't leave without stopping by Roscommon castle. ( I didn't use any filter with the Holga ) -- With this negative I did use a Heliopan RG 715
 
Thanks, Epi. Slavich is worth mastering in lith, as it is very unique. Every part of the equation will impact results..negative density, exposure, developer dilution and temperature. All are intertwined together to give the result you may envision. The problem with Slavich is that it has a very narrow sweet spot, until things start getting too funky. As developer exhausts, you get more erratic blotches and spots, and it all also depends on agitation. Do experiment there because the common wisdom of sloshing developer around by rocking the tray is not always necessary AND Slavich actually behaves wildly because of that. That paper reacts ferociously to semiquinone and the "normal" lith agitation compounds the problem. Basically you have fresh semiquinone at the edges (hence the explosive development that starts at the edges) and spent developer over the print. Not good obviously. That's how you get streaks, blotches, etc, which also have to do with developer exhausting as well. I will PM you to let you know my trademarked secret on taming Slavich with LD20 and Moersch Your image here actually looks nice, although it may look better as the developer is a bit fresher, with maybe a stronger dilution and shorter exposure. Snatch point is critical here, because as blacks run away fast, you will also start getting the blotches and streaks you may not want. Again, it depends on the image itself. Sometimes that look works and sometimes it doesn't.
 
Thanks Max for you advice and tips I'll persevere with Slavich and lith.
 

Media information

Category
Critique Gallery
Added by
epi
Date added
View count
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Comment count
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Image metadata

Device
Canon MP640 series
Filename
tree_rindoon_walled_town.jpg
File size
465 KB
Date taken
Mon, 25 June 2012 7:24 PM
Dimensions
800px x 800px

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