Can someone explain "Lith" printing to me?

Can someone either point me to a resource, or explain what is called "Lith" printing to me? Is it just photo paper developed in ultra-high contrast developer and pulled at the ideal moment? Or what?

As a resource, I would order Tim Rudmans book online, it would be worth the investment. "The Master Photographer's Lith Printing Course: A Definitive Guide to Creative Lith Printing"

Check out Amazon.com for the book. I'm sure others will chime in on the definition of the process.

Can someone either point me to a resource, or explain what is called "Lith" printing to me? Is it just photo paper developed in ultra-high contrast developer and pulled at the ideal moment?

In a nutshell, yes ! There is rather more to it than that though, to get the results that suit you.

PHOTONE your lazy . . . . . try a Google search . . . Oh well I've done it for you:

Rudman Article

and LithPrint

Hope they help

Ian

I'm guessing that this question was triggered by a couple of beautiful train station images posted to the gallery last night. Am I right?

If so, those photographs cause a tipping point in my curiosity as well!

Obviously you mean these by Mark Mombarg:

(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

and

(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

Ian

[QUOTES=PHOTOTONE;423965]
"Is it just photo paper developed in ultra-high
contrast developer..."

Lith Lithography. Ultra-high contrast? I'd say not at all.
In fact one attribute of lith Print Strength developers is
their ability to produce a wide range of contrasts by
varying exposure and development times.

The "lith" phenomenon is a characteristic of hydroquinone.
Any lith developer we might compound or take off the shelf
will have hydroquinone as the sole developing agent.

"...and pulled at the ideal moment?"

That's true. No developing to completion. Once the
lith phase kicks in it proceeds rapidly. Dan

Lith printing is best with a A B Lith developer - Champion Nova Lith is what I use.
The dilution can be any where from 1partAB to 5 water to 1 part AB to 20 water. I use 1:8 at 68degree.
Many papers will lith well and it is fun to try out different emulsions.
The process is inspection only with no timer under red safelight.
The print will start to emerge for me around 2min and look very very flat.
around 3-4 minute in to development the blacks will start to emerge and it is your judgement when to pull and put immediately into a strong acid stop*to avoid streaking of extended development.*
Every step after dev is exactly the same as in traditional printing.
Inspect the print. Is it to flat? - decrease exposure or pull next print later
Is it to contrasty- increase the exposure or pull next print sooner.
A second enlarger for flashing is very valuable as you can really control contrast with a slight overall flash*this flash will not fog the white borders unless really severe flash is needed*
Your negative is important for the lith process. * I prefer very contrasty negs > ie tradional printing grade 1/2 paper on VC *
The different papers will give different looks.
Oriental G4 will give a very smooth creamy print*nice for portraits and fashion.*
Ilford WT will give an ancient look with a green yellow cast. *beautiful for landscape and archetecture.
Adox 2 will give wonderful brown gritty prints.
Fotospeed lith is my favorite at this moment. *this paper works well with all types of negatives and image content and has a wonderful eggshell finish.
Kentona will give an extremely warm print.
Elite if you can get it will give extremely funky tone and grain values and is also one of my favorites at this moment.
Toning- all of the above tone well and the looks are to extensive and as others point out Tim Rudmans books are the best resources for Lith Printing as well as looking at Anton Corbjins book StarTrax and the many album covers he is responsible for..

Just buy some developer, a paper that would lith and the Rudman books. The books will show you what's possible and give you a good starting point, but at the end it's just a matter of trying and discovering what you like.
To me, it is not more difficult than normal printing. I tend you use it for negatives which come out dull when printed regular, and control contrast by changing exposure time.
If you have questions a bit more specific than "explain lith printing to me please", I would be happy to help you further......

Thank you all for the explanations. I am not so interested in "doing" lith myself, as I was in just having an understanding of what the definition of the process was. ...and from all the above I guess I could summarize that it is developing b/w photopaper in certain "lith" type developers that, with careful exposure control and quick reflexes in pulling the paper from the developer, can achieve the characteristic "lith" look.

Bob Carnie said:

The process is inspection only with
no timer under red safelight.

Click to expand...

You must be in a VC paper rut. Red safelights,
or near so, go with VC paper. A much higher
level of lighting can be used with Graded
paper. Yellow to orange-ish safelights
provide the eye with a spectrum to
which it is most sensitive. Dan

Most of the papers I use for lith are VC with a few graded thrown in.
The safe light near the dev tray is red, the other two in the room are large thomsans sp. that give off a yellow glow.
Never changed this formula.

dancqu said:

You must be in a VC paper rut. Red safelights,
or near so, go with VC paper. A much higher
level of lighting can be used with Graded
paper. Yellow to orange-ish safelights
provide the eye with a spectrum to
which it is most sensitive. Dan

Click to expand...