Black and White Posterizatize

I am trying to do the Posterization.
But I only find one article about it.


The process need the ortho film and three image.
Does anyone know the full process?
Thank you.

Posterization is the process of exposing a partially developed print to white light and then continue the process to finish. Posterizing a print is easier because you can try different times of white light exposure to get the effect you want. I've never tried it with film, but I suppose similar methods can be used.

Pieter12 said:

Posterization is the process of exposing a partially developed print to white light and then continue the process to finish. Posterizing a print is easier because you can try different times of white light exposure to get the effect you want. I've never tried it with film, but I suppose similar methods can be used.

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My mistake.
I want to Posterizine the paper.
Have you tried before?

Pieter12 said:

Posterization is the process of exposing a partially developed print to white light and then continue the process to finish.

Click to expand...

Are you sure? Sounds like you're talking about solarization, which is a fairly common technique.

As to posterization, I don't think I've ever met someone who did this in the darkroom. I certainly haven't tried it...sorry. Don't recall it being discussed here either.

Pieter12 said:

Posterization is the process of exposing a partially developed print to white light and then continue the process to finish. Posterizing a print is easier because you can try different times of white light exposure to get the effect you want. I've never tried it with film, but I suppose similar methods can be used.

Click to expand...

Koraks is correct, you are talking about solarization. Posterization requires enlarging on to ortho film in high contrast and processing the final image in mostly line art or a combination of line and dot screen matrix, a process I haven't done since the early 70's.

Rick A said:

Koraks is correct, you are talking about solarization. Posterization requires enlarging on to ortho film in high contrast and processing the final image in mostly line art or a combination of line and dot screen matrix, a process I haven't done since the early 70's.

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I have made some solarization pictures.
Now, I am trying to make some Posterization.

That's very interesting; have you already tried it, or are you still in the planning phase?
I never really looked into it, but is litho film still available? I guess if I were to try this, I'd use x-ray film because that's what I have on hand. Have you managed to find suitable materials yet?

Did color posterization long long time ago...




This was a positive process from an original Kodachrome. If I remember correctly, there were 3 ortho 4x5's each with different exposures - don't remember how far apart. You also had to expose the 3 in registration to each other - there was a pin registration in this case but if you don't have that you can probably do a corner or side registration. Once I had the 3, in this case negatives, I then contact printed them on Ektachrome paper dialing in different color each time (as you can see I went crazy) - I didn't care to flip them back to positive since I was using colors to represent each tonal range. In case of B&W silver gelatin, you will first get positives from your negatives and then they will have to be converted back to negatives. Or you can print from a slide, in which you won't need that intermediate step. When you contact print them on regular paper, you will need to keep all 3 negatives in registration again.

I don't know if I am making sense, I haven't thought about it in decades.

Have fun!


:Niranjan.

Addendum: Looking at the picture again, I think I might have used 5 ortho's - one each for red, green, magenta, yellow and the shadows.

Very nice. FYI Canon F1 cameras enjoyed nearly perfect registration for those of us who made title slides via duplication. Nikon F was too sloppy until F2, but original F could be modified to accomplish that.

This is a print made by sandwiching, with a slight offset, the original negative with a positive contact-printed onto Ortho. Is that the kind of thing you're looking for?

I recall watching posterization done in a B&W darkroom around 1974 (high school photography class). Three (four?) sheets of ortho lith film were exposed at different levels and developed at high contrast, to give separate positive films with only black and clear regions (of different sizes, more exposure giving more black area). These were then contact printed to internegatives, which were sandwiched together. A contact print was made, with four exposures and one internegative removed from the sandwich each exposure (or using successive internegatives for each, with this density it should be the same), producing a print with three sharply defined gray tones, solid black, and solid white.

If you get hold of this Kodak book, there is a whole 20 page chapter on this subject:


:Niranjan.

If you are talking about using litho film to do tone separations, yes, I’ve done that. I learned from an article in Peterson’s back in the mid-70s. Donald Qualls gives a good overview above. What I would clarify in his comment is regarding the sandwiching together.

From my ancient memory, let’s say you made 4 positives at different densities on litho film and developed in an A+B litho developer. We’ll call them P1, P2, P3, P4. Then you contact print those and get negatives: N1, N2, N3, N4. If you sandwich P1 with N1, you will block all the light from passing though, so what you do is sandwich P1 + N2, P2 + N3, and P3 + N4. Each sandwich would then pass just one tone.

A registration system is desirable. I‘ve used registration pins I got from an art supply house and an adjustable 2-hole punch. For some work I’d make these positives and negatives on 8x10 litho film, put the sandwiches together, and then contact print them, one set at a time, onto B&W or color paper depending on the subject.

For others, I made my positives and negative in a medium format using these registration pins and then placed the sandwiches in my 120 negative carrier which I modified to accept the pins. I then enlarged them onto larger litho film, 11x14 or whatever, from which I would make silk screen stencils using a photosensitive emulsion that I’d contact print in the sun or a UV light table. Then I would, still keeping a registration system going, screen print with different colors onto watercolor paper. Here’s an example:



And another:



It’s on my ”to do” list to write up the process. Maybe this winter when it gets down to zero degrees again.

Sorry, I mistakenly thought you were asking about solarization. I have done posterization copying an original print with a process camera, PMT materials and a halftone screen.

@VinceInMT That second one looks like a good SF book cover from th 1950s or so.