Any lith printers here?

Efergoh · Oct 25, 2008

I fell in love with lith printing about a year ago. The college I attend had a bit of Kodalith part A and B, but it is in limited supply. I am the only one in the program with the interest or patience for lith printing, so what I have will last me a while, but it will run out sooner or later.

Kodalith simply isn't available anywhere I've looked. I've noted that fotospeed has an alternative developer to Kodalith. I'm wondering if anyone here has given it a go with positive results, or if they are using something else for lith printing...

E76 · Oct 25, 2008

I have been using Arista Liquidlith and Fomatone Classic MG at a dilution of 1:20 with great results. From what I understand, however, it will not give good results with some papers, so testing may be required.

Efergoh · Oct 25, 2008

As is the same with Kodalith.

If anyone out there gets their paws on some, it is fantastic stuff. It only gets better with age.

I mix the Kodalith as 1 part A, 2 parts B, to 30 parts water, then I expose it to open air for two days before using. Exposure times run around 10-20 minutes with development anywhere from 30 minutes to and hour and a half depending on the level of exhaustion.

The best papaers I found for Kodalith are Fotokomeka, Slavich, and Kentona.

Illfod is a no go. It works, but is not favorable.

Thanks for the tip on Arista.

naaldvoerder · Oct 25, 2008

There is many a lithprinter here.
Even the grandmaster of lith himself i.e Tim Ruthman is joins the discussions regurarely.

Jaap Jan

Efergoh · Oct 25, 2008

naaldvoerder said:
Even the grandmaster of lith himself i.e Tim Ruthman is joins the discussions regurarely.

Now there is a brain I'd like to pick...

Travis Nunn · Oct 26, 2008

I've been lith printing for about 3 years. Maco SuperLith (now called Rollei Vintage Creative SuperLith) and Nacco Naccolith are my two preferred developers. I started out with Fotospeed's lith developer, but honestly I got almost the same results with Maco and it was quite a bit less expensive so I switched.

Jarvman · Oct 26, 2008

Yep, I've been dubbed 'lithboy' on my uni course! It's all I've been printing for the last 8 months pretty much. Try the fotospeed with foma paper, it's yummy.

JBrunner · Oct 26, 2008

I'm no lith printer, but I have been graced with a lith from APUGer Thomas Bertillson. Absolutely sublime. So there's another. Perhaps he'll chime in.

mooseontheloose · Oct 26, 2008

Another lith-er here! I switched almost exclusively to lith printing earlier this year when I did a lith printing workshop in Ireland. My only disappointment was that I hadn't started earlier! It was also something new to the photography instructor at my darkroom, and I think he's experimenting with it as well since he's seen what I've done with it. At the time I was living in France so it was quite easy for me to get a hold of Wolfgang Moersch's lith developers; as a result that's all I've ever used. I usually overexpose by 3-6 stops and develop at high dilutions with hot lith developers. Luckily I brought a good stash of that chemistry with me back to Canada, although I'm sure other lith developers would give me more than acceptable results. My favorite papers have got to be the Foma papers (esp. 132 and 542) but I managed to find some Forte Polywarmtone hiding in a French shop online so I have three boxes of the stuff waiting in my freezer for something worthy to print on it.

Unfortunately I'm in the early stages of putting together a darkroom so I haven't printed since I left France in late June. And since I'll be moving for the third time in almost four months I'm not sure when I'll be able to get back to those slightly weird smelling lith developers! ;-)

Check out the technical gallery here at APUG as well -- Wolfgang (and others) often uploads lith print comparisons to that gallery which will give you real inspiration.

Guillaume Zuili · Oct 26, 2008

I also lith almost exclusively. Foma, Slavitch, Emak. Developer is Arista (Clayton), terrific and cheap.
Moersch products are now available here and are absolutely amazing.

roy · Oct 26, 2008

Have a look at this link :-
http://worldoflithprinting.com/

Mark Fisher · Oct 26, 2008

I've stuck with the Maco/Rollei developer from Freestyle. I haven't messed around with different developers....but I sure have a ton of paper I've used. It is definitely a ton of fun......

ic-racer · Oct 26, 2008

I had excellent results from my first try onward, with some commercial grade Lith A&B concentrate I got from a graphics arts shop going out of business. The 5 gallon boxes I got say "Photo Warehouse, Oxnard, CA" and it looks like this is the same company as "ultrafineonline.com" So, I can highly recommend their lith developer.

http://www.ultrafineonline.com/abdeco.html

jgcull · Oct 26, 2008

I bought chemicals to try lith printing 2 or 3 years back after I read one of the lith-printing books, but haven't tried it yet. I want to, but have been a bit intimidated. Don't know why. But I'm watching this thread! In fact, I've been reading the book again recently. Maybe I'll get the guts to step in and just try it! I'm surely inspired by some of the stuff I see posted here.

Janet

Efergoh · Oct 26, 2008

Here is the most recent one I've printed.
This is from a wedding I shot this past summer...
It is a bit heavy handed, but the bride liked it.

mooseontheloose · Oct 27, 2008

Janet -- Just do it! I was in the same situation as you, waiting, waiting, waiting... you know what? It's not any more difficult or easier than regular black and white printing and developing. Just different. And fun! There's no right or wrong -- different dilutions, different exposures, different development times -- they all give different, and equally valid, results. I find it keeps me on my toes...and my eyes focused on the print, rather than the clock (generally speaking). It also made me think differently (in a good way) about the regular B&W printing I was doing in the darkroom.

2F/2F · Oct 27, 2008

I use the Arista powdered A and B stuff, because it is so cheap. However, in the future, I may just buy their pre-mixed variety instead as a convenience. I mix up 50mL of A stock, 50mL of B stock, and 900mL of water, and it works well. This is a ratio of 1:1:18, while for printing for high contrast on litho film, I would use a ratio of 1:1:6.

cdhauber · Oct 28, 2008

I have all the books and the want to do lith but it is overwhelming...more so making the jump into paper/developer purchases. And each of you all use different stuff but I'll figure it out.

rst · Oct 29, 2008

I use the SE5 from Wolfgang Moersch with ADOX Fineprint Classic (I think this is a paper produced by efke), Kentmere Kentona and Fomatone MG. With the forst two papers lith printing can be a bit of an adventure but the Foma paper liths very well in nearly every setup and dilution of SE5.
Whenever I print with Kentona or an other paper, at the end of the session it is time to try at least one sheet of Fomatone, just out of curiosity.

Before I started with lith printing I was also a bit reserved, two bottles of developer and two additives, find out the right amount of light for the dilution and then again find out the right dilution for the contrast on your negative - so easy to make something wrong. But it is as often in life. You just have to jump into the cold water and then you get warm while swimming.

Cheers
-- Ruediger

Rich Ullsmith · Oct 29, 2008

Message being, for us lithers, is there is only one paper available at this time that appears rich in cadmium, and that is the Foma. Thus the pink/orange/brown/green splits possible even without toning. The question is, how much longer can a product be kept on the international market that is considered both toxic and disposable. EU restrictions will soon be the demise of this paper. If you lith, this is a deep-freeze item.

I recently had a chance to play with several UK and european papers, all lithable, and they were all basically different flavors of the same punch. Same with developers. The Foma MG is a different cat.

Justin Maramba · Dec 9, 2008

For lith developing, I'm using Fotospeed Lith Developer. I found that Ilford lithed slowly without a great range of tone, so I've switched over to Arista FB VC. Anyone have previous experience with this paper?

Mark Fisher · Dec 9, 2008

Justin Maramba said:
For lith developing, I'm using Fotospeed Lith Developer. I found that Ilford lithed slowly without a great range of tone, so I've switched over to Arista FB VC. Anyone have previous experience with this paper?

Yes, it does not have much color and is very, very grainy. Great for the right image, but not so good generally. If you are looking for a general purpose paper that liths well, try a warm tone paper other than Ilford (Foma, Kentmere are favorites).

Robert Hall · Dec 9, 2008

My China portfolio was done in lith if you would like to see it, check my website. It was done with Fotospeed paper and chems and a toning process after the fact. The changes in toning are really the reason I lith in the first place. I have used several developers and they can all be quite different. I like the results i have gotten with most but find that the Kodak AB can be kind of flat and sometimes a little too grainy.

I have quite a collection from the recent Europe trip and plan to do quite a bit of that in lith chems.

Foma papers have a great lith look to them as well (when lithed, of course) and they are quite quick in the soup!

All the best,

michaelbsc · Dec 10, 2008

I have an old box of Kodalith sheets someone gave me, and I have been thinking of trying to make some line duplications, not continuous tone prints. Frankly, I don't know if the film is any good, and I don't want to spend a bunch of money on lith chemicals to find out it's not.

If I contact expose this under my enlarger with the line drawing I want, can I simply develop the daylights out of it in a high concentration of regular developer, something like DD-X? Or will that give me fogging in the parts that should be clear? Is the two part lith developer required to get the totally black/white separation it's designed for?

MB

Jason Mekeel · Dec 18, 2008

Rollei makes a vintage lith chemical: http://www.freestylephoto.biz/65860...-x-250ml-AandB-Developer-.25-liter?cat_id=301

Any lith printers here?

Efergoh

E76

Efergoh

naaldvoerder

Efergoh

Travis Nunn

Jarvman

JBrunner

Moderator

mooseontheloose

Guillaume Zuili

roy

Mark Fisher

ic-racer

jgcull

Efergoh

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mooseontheloose

2F/2F

cdhauber

rst

Rich Ullsmith

Justin Maramba

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Jason Mekeel

Any lith printers here?

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