Another newbie lith question or two

I've just tried lith printing for the first time, using the Moersch Master Lith kit and some of my dwindling supply of Forte PWT.
The leaflet with the kit recommends 40 ml A + 60 ml B in 1 litre water at 20C, so I tried that. The target developing time is around 7 minutes according to the leaflet, and Tim Rudman recommends 10+ minutes. I was getting 3-4 minutes for my prints. Is that normal? Does it matter? I was quite pleased with the results anyway, just surprised at the time.

Second question: The later prints I made had quite pronounced slosh marks. Tim Rudman says that this may be caused by over-strength stop bath (mine was Kodak, dil 1+15 as normal). In that case why were my earlier prints ok, but the later ones suffered? Does carry-over from the dev into the stop bath change it, or was it just my sloshing technique deteriorating as I became more tired?

Any thoughts gratefully received. I can see that this lith business could become quite addictive

Hi Pete

I'm surprised that you're getting such rapid dev times but you are using a pretty concentrated level of developer which with PWT will generally produce a fairly homogenous tone. In general I'd use 1+19 upto 1+49 (my favourite) at 26C for this paper. Dev at these concentrations can be as long as 25 minutes but the differential colours and tones are really nice when toned in selenium.

The slosh marks may be where the developer is depleting. The upper mid-tones and high tones will be very fragile and may be affected by stop or fixer. I find that the slosh marks are easiest avoided by developing in a greater volume of fluid. I regularly get slosh marks if I use 1l of developer for 10x8 but by increasing this to 1.5l the problem disappears. I guess this is due to developer re-inforcement around the edges, lower concentrations in the centre and the proclivity of the paper to surface at various points during development.

Anyway, hope this helps and enjoy your liths. It's a great process. Remember that you really need to tone with selenium or gold to get the full effect.

Barry

Thanks Barry.

That all sounds like useful advice - I'll try it next time (very soon!).

Pete

Hi Pete
The dev time is determined by the dilution and temperature that you use. There are no rights or wrongs here as people use a wide range, searching for the look they want. In The WOLP I have images from someone who use times of 3 minutes and another who uses 45 minutes. Most are somewhere inbetween! Try doubling the water and see if you like what you get. Some papers - most notably Fomatone - can change a lot with dilution.
regards
Tim

Pete, the only time I get slosh marks is when I pull the print when it's really hitting the infectious development stage, and there is any delay in slapping it into the stop bath. As you probably know, you can't hold the print up and let the developer drip off, as in other processes.

Maybe off topic, but I have had better success with a water stop bath. Pull the print just as it's going infectious, as it will continue a little bit in the water. I have a little stronger safelight over the water tray, so it's easier to evaluate the print, see if it needs more time.

And just what Tim said, about the times. Making a developer is like making a good stew, lots of adding this or that and rediluting until it's just right! I love this stuff.

Thanks Rich & Tim for the words of wisdom. I thought that I was going into the stop bath without any draining, but I'll watch that next time too.

cheers
Pete