Josef Hoflehner's prints - What kind of process is this?

Hi there!

Today i stumbled upon the images of Josef Hoflehner and the next hours i spend squeezing everything out of Google that i could find about his printing technique and his process in general. It wasn't a lot i could find and the very basic question remains open for me (as a starting point to get further).

Most of his images have a lot of contrast (global and local i guess) and i am not sure how he gets there.
First i thought it might be a lith process but hm...it doesn't really look like lith doesn't it?

So my best guess as a darkroom beginner would be: Multigrade printing and some kind of bleaching/toning afterwards?

I really appreciate every hint and link you will be willing to share! Thanks folks!

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZSOroKv-L...lose+to+Beachgoers+by+Josef+Hoflehner+(1).jpg

Probably he used meduim format cameras before, now digital. Good master art printer, maybe with some selenium or sepia toning.

High contrast paper + flashing to bring in the high tones ??

Plus one with bleaching and variable sepia toning. Long exposures as seen in the moving water and clouds.

http://www.jeffreyglasser.com/

CHHAHH said:

So my best guess as a darkroom beginner would be: Multigrade printing and some kind of bleaching/toning afterwards?

Click to expand...

See if you can get Tim Rudman's book on toning http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl...kfr4r4DD-cByqR5uE=&docid=L7YnkLuSmgcosM&itg=1
and Ralph Lambrechts book on Way Beyond Monchrome http://www.amazon.com/Ralph-Lambrecht-Way-Beyond-Monochrome/dp/B00N4HR3WY

Both will serve you will. Ralph is an APUG member.

Nothing too fancy in practice there.

Contrast though can be a very tough subject to wrap your head around because it's used to describe various and sundry concepts and the various looks and qualities can be created/adjusted in various ways. If you are looking for nice a simple answer, well, sorry.

For example, Hoflehner's shot you linked to can be said to have nice snap, many people might say nice contrast. What is being "said" might be better described as "that print has a snappy contrast rate." Many people call this a pushed look and they get the look by pushing the film development and using normal paper. Others get to this look by using a normal negative with a harder paper.

A snappy print is likely to require some burn and dodge to place certain tones where you want them, like the dark shadowed underside of the plane was probably dodged to make it nice and bright in the print. (I guess you could call that fancy because not everybody likes or wants to do burn and dodge.)

Which brings up an alternative contrast definition from the zone system.

One zone system precept is to adjust the negatives contrast, by developing the film plus (push) or minus (pull), to fit the whole scene on the paper. The goal is a "straight print" which means no burn or dodge required.

In this case a "great contrast" might mean "it fits the paper perfectly without burn or dodge", not that "it has good snap". (It may even have lousy snap.)

This is by no means the only way to use the zone system.

This is just a start on the various uses of the word contrast.

us airforce

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maho_Beach

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/t...ust-overhead-people-Maho-Beach-Caribbean.html

Thanks guys for all the information, really appreciate the time you spend to answer.

CHHAHH said:

Hi there!

Today i stumbled upon the images of Josef Hoflehner and the next hours i spend squeezing everything out of Google that i could find about his printing technique and his process in general.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZSOroKv-L...lose+to+Beachgoers+by+Josef+Hoflehner+(1).jpg

Click to expand...

Squeeze harder. Benrubi Gallery (representation in USA for Hoflehner) sells the plane pictures as inkjet prints. That is not a filmor darkroom process.
His earlier work from 2007 are sold as a silver prints and likely are of film origin.

Looking at the clouds and lighting, at a basic level it appears to be a fairly low-contrast scene printed (or post-processed) to a relatively high contrast. Hence the sparkly contrast on the aircraft, and the shadows on the figures. In other words a combination of lighting, exposure and printing - which means that you can do the same, but you might need all three factors...

ic-racer said:

Squeeze harder. Benrubi Gallery (representation in USA for Hoflehner) sells the plane pictures as inkjet prints. That is not a filmor darkroom process.
.

Click to expand...

How a print is made and sold tells you nothing about how it was originated.
The source image could quite possibly have been made on film and printed in a darkroom.
That the gallery sells inkjets of the image doesn't tell you a thing

Mustafa Umut Sarac said:

us airforce

Click to expand...

Nice Cold Mountain poem in your signature

MartinP said:

Looking at the clouds and lighting, at a basic level it appears to be a fairly low-contrast scene printed (or post-processed) to a relatively high contrast. ...

Click to expand...

Agreed. Classic extended development or a higher paper grade will do this (SOP for low-contrast flatly-lit scenes). No magic here except for the excellence of the printing (not to mention the initial exposure and development).

Doremus