First attempt at lith printing.

My first attempts at lith printing. I used Arista Lith 1:24 as recommended and the temperature was 19.8C for #1 and 18.3 for #2. I've included a scan of the original image for comparison.

#1
Luminos Ultra Gloss Paper (unknown expiration)




#2
Kodak Ektalure expired 1977


What do you think?

The results with the Luminos paper appear more like classic lith but the Ektalure has a charm of it's own. If you want more contrast but less colour use shorter exposure times. From an image point of view I prefer the second one (Ektalure) it is just more interesting photograph. It would be even better imo if you were to crop out the upper stones/land part (just where to foam starts).

Nice results for your first try.

MDR said:

The results with the Luminos paper appear more like classic lith but the Ektalure has a charm of it's own. If you want more contrast but less colour use shorter exposure times. From an image point of view I prefer the second one (Ektalure) it is just more interesting photograph. It would be even better imo if you were to crop out the upper stones/land part (just where to foam starts).

Nice results for your first try.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice. When I get time to try it again I'll revisit the crop as I try out different temperatures and dilutions.

I've ordered Tim Rudman's Master Lith book and look forward to trying more of this.

I think your exposure and snatch point were right on the money. As a first attempt, I'm pretty sure you had no 'old brown' with which to season the developer. Your second attempt should give you at least a little different result (the beauty of lith).

That's correct, I started with fresh developer. I did keep what I had mixed up so this weekend when I'm in the darkroom I'll be trying again on the same negative and maybe 1 or 2 others.

The Rudman books are dynamite... except for one thing. The large amount of data and info regarding the world of lithable papers - all of which are out of production. Makes you want to go have a good cry.

Sign up for Tim's mailing list though - Foma was about the last line of truly lithable papers (except for the Slavitch which is hard to get in the US)... then they changed their gelatine and POOF, no more infectious development. Supposedly they're working on a fix. The Foma 123 was nice - gritty, not a lot of color (the Slavitch is gritty as hell). Fingers crossed - Lith appeals to me like nothing else, I'd gladly make it my main printing style if there were a good range of papers.

I got one of those vintage food warmers on eBay and it's great for experimenting with warm developer, and (what Mr. Rudman calls) "hot and strong" selenium toning. Which you really want to do outdoors, by the way - ouch!

On Saturday Tim Rudman's Master Lith Course finally came in the mail. I ordered it on 1/15. I've thought about getting his other book but figure I'll do that once I understand the process a little better.

The food warmer is interesting. I'll have to keep an eye out for one. As for papers I'm using some old papers that came with a darkroom purchase thought just from giving the list of lithable papers a once over in the book I wish some were still around.

Thanks for the advice and I just signed up or the mailing list.

I'm glad to see people are still doing lith printing. A lot of the post I have found have been years old. A couple of weekends ago I did my first try. Not too good. Pepper fogging creeped in. Using Fotospeed and in theory sodium sulphite was included. I don't remember seeing it in the box and can't seem to find it anywhere on the internet. I'll keep trying and will definitely be keeping up with any lith post here.

Allegedly Foma has re reformulated its papers to be more like lithability of old - see Tim Rudman's March 2013 'New guide and updated product listing.' I don't get that much of a kick out of straight lith any more but I am continually mesmerized by 2nd pass lith.