Which Oriental Paper for Lith?

Jersey Vic · Jul 22, 2007

I'm thinking of trying out some Oriental paper for Lith printing and considering the price (HIGH!) I don't want to make a mistake. I see people using G3, G4 and Seagull and am wondering if the Warm Tone Seagull is better that the Neutral tone Seagull for lith and whether they're better than the G3 or 4..?
Any thoughts or experiences you'd like to share would be greatly appreciated.

Medusa83 · Jul 22, 2007

I use Seagull neutral G2 for my lith printing. The paper lith prints very nicely but does take a bit of time.

kjsphoto · Jul 22, 2007

Try the new Fotomekia ( Spelling ) warm tone. Lith beautifully...

Thomas Bertilsson · Jul 23, 2007

Victor, I'll be interested to see which of the Oriental papers lith well too! I'm about ready for another darkroom session with lith.
Kevin, I didn't know that Fotokemika made warmtone paper. Please inform about this paper. I'm unable to find it anywhere.
Thanks,
- Thomas

George Papantoniou · Jul 23, 2007

Thomas Bertilsson said:
Victor, I'll be interested to see which of the Oriental papers lith well too! I'm about ready for another darkroom session with lith.
Kevin, I didn't know that Fotokemika made warmtone paper. Please inform about this paper. I'm unable to find it anywhere.
Thanks,
- Thomas

It's called Fomatone and Mirko in Berlin might have some in stock. The Variable Contrast one is easier to find (I am even not really sure whether they still make the graded one) but I guess the graded one will (logically) lith better. The VC is said to lith well too, though.

Travis Nunn · Jul 23, 2007

Freestyle carries Foma papers and the ones I've tried lith very nicely.

Thomas Bertilsson · Jul 23, 2007

Fomatone can be had from Freestyle as well, and is made by Foma. It sounded to me that Fotokemika actually had a warm-tone paper and that was news to me. I agree Fomatone prints in lith very well!
Sorry for the side track, Victor. I heard that the old Seagull was very nice in lith. Don't know about the new stuff.
- Thomas

Thomas Bertilsson · Jul 23, 2007

I'm pretty sure Andrew doesn't mind if I steer your attention to an outstanding image he posted in the gallery a while back. Oriental G3 in lith chemistry.
(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

- Thomas

psvensson · Jul 23, 2007

I've used the VC RC paper. It lithed, but not very interestingly - a fairly neutral palette.

kjsphoto · Jul 23, 2007

George, No, I am talking about Fotomekia NOT FOMA.

http://www.freestylephoto.biz/sc_search.php?rfnc=504

Fotomekia Warm Tone paper Graded. It liths wonderfully also.

Travis Nunn · Jul 23, 2007

I believe Kevin is talking about Fotokemika Emaks K-888 which is available from Freestyle. I haven't tried lith printing with it, but I've heard from others that it does lith very well.

Mateo · Jul 23, 2007

Oriental Seagull is horrible in lith, so if you have any especially the graded stuff in the blue boxes mail it to me and I'll get rid of it for you. The stuff in the grey packets and the older boxes with the black dot are worthless also, so you can send them to me too. You can keep the stuff that is currently available on the market.
(there was a url link here which no longer exists) shows what the old worthless stuff looks like in selenium and gold

Rich Ullsmith · Jul 23, 2007

This is all very interesting, because having inherited 400 sheets of 16X20 G3 and G4, and having tried both in Superlith, Kodalith and Novolith, I don't get the outstanding results I see here. It's the old stuff in the blue boxes.

Plum shades, a little brown but no infectious development. Even after titrating the KBr, sometimes salt, and the sulfite. I tested the paper for fogging, it's all good. Any ideas?

Mateo · Jul 23, 2007

Oriental definately does show infectious development but it won't look like the popular lith papers; it doesn't block up black like you might expect. That boring beige is exactly what you want it to look like straight out of the fix. I think that the size and grain of your negative has an effect on the colors with oriental and also the best colors show hints of yellows in the high lights and I haven't been able to get that with 8x enlargement. Another thing is that the good stuff only shows up for me when the dev time is at least 20 minutes. The colors come in the selenium.

kjsphoto · Jul 23, 2007

In the US where can you buy the Novalith developer. I have been using LD20 and wanted to experiment more.

Thanks,

Kev

Rich Ullsmith · Jul 24, 2007

Thank you Mateo, you give me hope because I have a stack of prints lined up for toning! My dev times were more on the order of 15 minutes, and many are the beige like you said. I am happy with the prints, but I was just asking because they aren't yet the zingers I see here and elsewhere.

Which Oriental Paper for Lith?

Privacy & Transparency

Privacy & Transparency