Fujibro does lith

[mooseontheloose]

A new lith paper: Fuji Fujibro

It does lith, but...it's very slow!

I've decided to start a new thread just to post the results of my tests from this paper. As I've mentioned before, I'm far from being an experienced lith printer, so am just starting out with some basic dilutions and exposures based on my own experiences. I was hoping to try both sets of lith developers that I have (Fotospeed LD20 and Moersch SE5) but the development times were so long I called it a night after the Fotospeed.

Test 1:
Paper: Fuji Fujibro WP KM2 (Med. Weight, White, Near Matt, Normal), 5X7
Exposure: Normal black and white is 10 sec at f/8. For lith the first set was (+2 stops), second set (+3), third set (+4). Each pair was exposed at the same time and developed at the same time.
Developer: Fotospeed LD20. Two dilutions used (1+19) and (1+32).
Temperature: First set of prints (1a+b) around 24 C, 2nd set (2a+b) at 32 C, 3rd set (3a+b) around 28 C.

Comments:
1. The paper is slow....slow...........slow. The prints developed in the 1+19 dilution went from 32 minutes to 22 minutes (increased temp) to 44 minutes. The prints developed in the 1+32 dilution went from 54 minutes to 38 minutes to ...unprintable. The third print did not come up at all after 45 minutes. Adding a replenisher did not help. Eventually I put it in the 1+19 mix and a colourful, but faint image came up; however, I gave up after an hour since I knew it would take at least another 30 minutes for the blacks to come up. I cannot include this picture in my results since the scanner can't scan it.

This extreme slowness could be a result of the developer. My initial tests with the Moersch SE5 had developing times of around 17 minutes.

However long it takes an image to come up (say, 20 minutes), it will take equally long to get the blacks (so will finish around 40 minutes).

2. This paper suffers from serious pepper fogging in the Fotospeed LD20 developer. I've never seen it before and was quite curious about the effect, so I didn't add anything to the mix to stop it from occuring. The first print has a mild rash of pepper, the second a lot more, and the third has very large coarse grains.

3. I really like the colours this paper produces -- a very creamy, slightly pinkish colour with black blacks (no olive tint). However my scanner does not pick up the colours at all, so I've tried my best to match the colours on screen to what I have in hand. It's not exact, but since I'm not a photoshop expert it's the best I can do.

4. If you are living in Japan then you have access to this paper. If you aren't well...as far as I know it's not available worldwide at the moment. I think it's exciting to have a possible 'new' lith paper, but its lack of availability will probably keep it out of the hands of most unfortunately.

So...here are the results from last night. In order of upload the pictures are:

Image: Statue at Pere Lachaise Cemetery, Paris. Kodak HIE film.

1. Black and white, in Ilford Multigrade, 10 second exposure
2. +2 stops exp, 1+32 dilution, 54 minutes (24 C)
3. +3 stops exp, 1+32 dilution, 38 minutes (32 C)
4. +2 stops exp, 1+19 dilution, 32 minutes (24 C)
5. +3 stops exp, 1+19 dilution, 22 minutes (32 C)
6. +4 stops exp, 1+19 dilution, 44 minutes (28 C) -- replenished at 30 minutes, serious pepper fogging

PS. I'd appreciate any thoughts on any part of the process, why the paper is so slow (and exhausts the developer so quickly?) and what I might try next.

 

[Jerevan]

As I hinted at in the earlier thread, my impression (just a hunch, mind you!) is that it is the bromide in the paper that makes the paper slow and prone to pepper fogging. Without having tried this yet, I have been given the idea/advice to preflash the paper to bring down the peppering when doing lith printing. Redevelopment lith could also be worth a try, as you are getting rather long development times with normal lith. Of these examples you show, I think I prefer the third one (named FB-2b). I think the paper works well in lith, with the right subject. And the right amount of... uhm... patience.

 

[mooseontheloose]

Thanks Jerevan,

I like the pre-flashing idea, and I also agree that redevelopment is something that might work better for this paper. I am going to try it in straight lith a couple of more times though -- my guess is that the pepper fogging is from the Fotospeed developer, as the paper did not exhibit that problem with the Moersch developer. Also, I think if it's going to be done in straight lith, then it would definitely have to be in hot (much hotter than I tried) lith to keep development times within a normal range. Since I'm just testing it, I wanted to have a normal starting point (normal dilution, temperature, exposures) to have a basis for comparison.

 

[thefizz]

Well done Rachelle, your time and patience has been put to good use. You are making great prgress with this paper.

 

[mooseontheloose]

Test 2: Moersch SE5

Okay,

So I've finally been able to get back into the darkroom to do a little more testing with this paper. I used the same exposure times as the previous test (40s/80s/160s) but this time I developed the paper in Moersch SE5 lith developer. I had two dilutions: 1+20 and 1+32, and started with hot developer: 40 C (it fell to 28 C by the time I finished the last pair). Each pair of exposures was developed at the same time.

First of all, it was much faster to develop this paper in hot lith -- exposure times ran between 3.5 minutes to 5 minutes. Interestingly though, the colour and lithability of the paper did not change much between dilutions or exposure times. Therefore I only really need to show two examples. The first was exposed for 40 seconds (+2) in the 1+20 dilution. There is very faint evidence of pepper fogging here (I didn't notice till it was dry). The second example was exposed for 160 seconds (+4) in the 1+32 dilution. It took about 5 minutes in the devloper, and there is a rash of pepper fogging -- I've included a crop to show it. It's not as bad as what occurred in the Fotospeed developer.

Finally, as you can see, the colour is still a very subtle creamy colour with hints of yellow and lavender (it doesn't really show up on the scans).

Film: Same roll of HIE as the previous image.

1: 1+20, 40 seconds exp, 3.5 minutes developer
2: 1+32, 160 seconds exp, 5 minutes developer
3: crop of #2 to show pepper fogging

 

[paul_c5x4]

What happens with the colours if you dunk the print in selenium toner ?

 

[mooseontheloose]

Paul,

That's my next test! That, and maybe two-bath development, or re-development in lith. So many possibilities for experimentation!

I do have selenium toner, but not gold. I do hope to do some more testing and toning next weekend (university finishes this week so I'll have more time after Thursday) and in the weeks following. I'll definitely keep you all posted.

 

[Mark Fisher]

Nice work.....now if they'd import to the US/Canada!