What lith developer for Fomatone VC Classic?

[Fintan]

I'm looking for lith developer suggestions for this paper, I'm after a moderately cold dark brown tone.

Any suggestions/examples would be appreciated.

Fintan

 

[DrPablo]

Fotospeed developer is gorgeous with this paper. It tends to be sort of peach or salmon colored, but if you selenium tone it you get a colder brown tone.

 

[Thomas Bertilsson]

Fintan, I have used the Fotospeed LD-20 with this paper and got, like Paul suggests, a very warm pink/orange tone. That is if exposed normally. I did some photography with negs that were very thin in the low values, but had close to normal highlight detail. So to decrease contrast I exposed the hell out of the paper, probably 50s at f/5.6 for an 8x10 (compared to about 30s @ f/8) and I got some almost greenish tones mixed in with the orange.
I haven't tried selenium toning yet, but might after Paul's description.
I know of one more photographer here that uses the Fomatone paper with the Macolith chemistry and she gets similar colors.

- Thomas

 

[DrPablo]

I tend to get more intensely orange prints if 1) the developer is well used, and 2) it's very heavily exposed. The selenium imparts sort of a copper color.

This is a crop from a split toned lith print. You can see the brown color of the selenium toning in the darker areas, and the blue from the gold toning in the lighter areas.

 

[Fintan]

Thanks for the replies. The photographs I want to print are rock bands so warm pink / orange tones mightn't suit the look I want [and they might sue ]

Selenium sounds interesting, thanks again for the posts.

If anyone else has other ideas I'd be glad to hear them.

Fintan

 

[Travis Nunn]

Naccolith has given me brown tones on Forte Fortezo and Kentmere Art Classic but I haven't tried it in combination with any of the Foma papers.

 

[Thomas Bertilsson]

Fotokemika Varycon (glossy)

Try printing with Fotospeed LD20 on Fotokemika Varycon. Gives a very nice brown/green tone that isn't the 'cutest' around. You can build some really impressive densities with this too, so check it out. It's also pretty cheap, available from Freestyle. Here's an example. Hardly a rock band, but you get the idea.
The second example is of the Fomatone in the same chemistry. I used 15+15+970 dilution at 70*F.
- Thomas

 

[Silverhead]

You can see an example of Fomatone Classic 132 processed in Fotospeed's LD20 lith developer 1:14 in Freestyle's current catalog. The tone is a very warm peach/sepia color.

 

[VincentM]

Naccolith has given me brown tones on Forte Fortezo and Kentmere Art Classic but I haven't tried it in combination with any of the Foma papers.

Do you know where to buy this Naccolith? even in the US I don't find it !

Thanks

 

[Mark Layne]

Fomatone MG is very dilution sensitive. I am usually looking for the pinky colours which are best in very dilute developer, say around 1+1+40 with LD20.
Stronger developer will give colder browner colours
Mark

 

[RobertV]

Lith developer from Moersch will give a pink/orange tone.

Here some examples:
Dead Link Removed

(Sorry for the Dutch translation).

 

[Lowell Huff]

I have seen some very attractive results with the Clayton LiquidLith A&B and both the Foma paper and the Kentmere papers.
What I have really found intrigueing is the " CHROMOSKEDASIC" PRINTING technique. It is a novel method for producing color images on black and white photographic paper without using pigments or dyes.

 

[rst]

I use the Fomatone with Wolfgang Moerschs SE5 Lith developer. In this developer (I have not tried others) the paper tends to get warm yellow to reddish highlight tones and greenish to brown shadow tones. To get away with the warm tones in the highlights I use two bath lith with a strong lith developer in the first bath (1+10) and a very dilute normal print developer in the second bath (e.g. Moersch Eco 1+100) The strong lith developer brings down development times (e.g. 3-4 minutes in the first bath 30-60 sec in the second), the second bath deepens the shadows a bit. But I am sure there are plenty of better methods to get to a similar result.

Cheers
Ruediger

BTW: I also tried to get a cooler tone by using Wolfgang Moerschs Finisher Blue additive which he ships with his Separol developers. I am at the very beginning of trying this. Finisher blue 1+100 as a second bath removes the light warm tones and gives a slight blueish tone in the highlights. But you have to make sure that the shadows are well developed when moving into the second bath. And I do not know what it means to print stability etc.

 

[conorific]

also: i use this same paper. when i first opened the fotospeed lith developer, i got beautiful colors, but the next day when i mixed up my lith developer, the colors were total crap. and worse the next day, and the next. i own all tim rudman's books on lith printing, so i know it's not something i'm doing, but why does that happen? i can't buy a new bottle of ld20 for each printing sesh.

 

[Rich Ullsmith]

That is a great question.

It took me a couple years to work through the 5L jugs of LD20 A and B, and at several points along the way I swore the stock had gone bad (it did have an expiration date printed on it). Weak infectious development, no colors, etc. Other times, it was automatic tone splits.

I generally avoid logic and analytical thinking during my play time, but obviously if it was working sometimes and sometimes not, it must not have been the stock developer.

Toss a strip of your paper into the tray, with the lights on, and watch what happens. It's really the greatest demo of how your particular batch of lith developer is working, and it will give clues as to what needs to be added, and what needs to be diluted.