Lith printing - Weird Intermittent streaks

[Tom Stanworth]

Hi,

I have just tried the Maco superlith kit and it seems good. It clearly has far better capacity than the Forte Lith kit that I used previously. Its is also far less keen to pepper fog....anyway

After some time of clean results, I started to get some streaks on the prints. Typical chemical swirls in random locations. I also got the odd inexplicable lighter streak rather than the detailed swirls. I have never seen this before and got it with both Kentona and Seagull papers. Any ideas?

I noticed in my excitement that at about the same time towards the end of the session, my stop had gone kapput for the last few prints where I had problems. Could it be that this is the cause (prints being arrested by fixer rather than stop) as the marks were not there in the developer. The fix was 2 bath, the second bath being recently made up, so that was in itself fine.

Any ideas?

Also, I noticed that whilst the Seagull gave me nice peachy stoney tones, the kentona was warm sienna brown with a hint of green in places. This is my first use of kentona and it is clear that is is more gritty and ''raw' than seagul (which makes up in elegance what it lacks in grit), however, others mention getting warm brick reds and peaches with this paper. Mine is nothing like that - perhaps casued by this particular developer?

Tom

 

[Mateo]

Tom,
Can't answer your question about the swirls and streaks because I've never encountered such, but I do have a bit of experience with both of the papers you mentioned. The Kentona is not the same paper that it used to be. Once upon a time it gave some vivid reds, oranges and and peaches but since the cadmium was removed from the paper formula, it has lost most of it's life. Another thing to keep in mind is that these papers really come to life when selenium toned. The Oriental Seagull goes through a progression of warm, cold and then warm again, starting with the most dense areas and working up to the highlights. With the proper dilution of selenium, it will give an incredible blue/orange split with the highlights cold and the blacks warm. The Kentona was capable of convincing flesh tones and also some of the most colorful lith prints imaginable -splits of blue,purple/red orange with all the subtle hues in between. Sorry, but that paper is gone.

 

[Neil Souch]

Tom,

I too have used both of these papers and I have to agree with Mateo about the new Kentona. I tried it and TBH didn't care too much with the results. The old Cad rich Kentona was the paper to use for really colourful results. But as Mateo has already said - sadly no longer available. I now use mainly Seagull and like the results with an after tone in selenium. I am sure your streaking problem is down to your stop bath being exhausted. I have tried a water stop bath , a weak stop bath and a full strength stop bath. Especially with the water stop bath I experienced streaking and other problems. Now I always use a full strength stop bath and change it well before it goes off. No problems at all with this when lithing Seagull. I don't think your developer has anything to do with the problem. I have used many lith devs and have found that they all do the job OK. Although at the moment I am using Champion lith dev.

Sort that stop bath out and I am sure the streaks will go away. Other than that I would look for a paper fault (inconsistent coating).

Cheers,

Neil.

 

[Les McLean]

Tom, I have never seen the effect you describe, have you considered some form of contamination, perhaps the failure of the stop bath may be the answer. If you have problems with pepper fogging a combination of bromide and sodium sulphite will help eliminate it. Make up a 10% solution of each and add 10 to 20ml to the lith developer.

 

[Kate Mocak]

Hi,

After some time of clean results, I started to get some streaks on the prints. Typical chemical swirls in random locations. I also got the odd inexplicable lighter streak rather than the detailed swirls. I have never seen this before and got it with both Kentona and Seagull papers. Any ideas?
Tom

Tom,
I don't have experience with the developer/paper combo that you used but I have similar strange results as you describe (see attachment). I've always attributed it to my home-made developer and I thought I'd made a mistake somewhere in mixing it. My developer gets exhausted very quickly and after 2-3 'normal' lith prints it starts producing swirls and light streaks. It's necessary to replenish the developer with fresh solution.
Tim Rudman's book "The Master Photographer's Lith Printing Course' is an excellent source of more detailed information.
Kate

 

[photomc]

Kate, if that one is the mistake..sure hope you will post the Good Print soon.

Nice work.

 

[Kate Mocak]

Thank you .