Which Way To B&W Lith Prints?

I find color a distraction. In my mind color conflicts with
content and composition. A few years ago I played around
some little with lith printing using a Home Brew developer.
One paper yielded Very warm browns, another paper,
reds. The brown prints were OK. The prints were
actually monochromatic. The red one's though
were a mix of red overtones and pure black.

BUT, I like the contrast control lith printing offers.
So how, at least eventually, to insure B&W results?
Or perhaps, at end, tone to some desired overall
monochromatic color?

My little acquaintance with the subject suggests lith
development for contrast control then a bleach, expose,
redevelop in usual developer sequence. Would such a
print turn out as it would have had it been given just
a usual print developer treatment? That is, with
allowance for the contrast adjustment. Dan

Selenium alone is a good color killer for lith.

I was trying to accomplish much the same thing. I found that Kentona in Maco/Rollei lith developer toned in very dilute selenium worked well. If you leave it in the selenuim, it then goes to a brown. I found the same thing to be true of Slavich, but it started a nasty green/black. I suspect the developer used will make a big difference.

Re-develop in print dev

Try bleaching a lith print, wash and then re-develop in conventional print developer. You will get a neutral tone which is often a very pleasing olive or purple black depending on the paper. It may intensify the image slightly. Best to use quite a strong Potassium Ferricyanide bleach with no Potassium Bromide, (restrainer) in it. Bleach as much of the image as possible then wash till the paper stain is away and then develop. I am never sure if the prints need to be refixed or not. Perhaps someone here will have a definitive answer.

I use the Moersch Master Lith kit which comes with two additives. By adjusting the amount of additive you can adjust the 'lithness' of the print. I've just lith printed one of my favourite images of two trees in the snow that's in my gallery. The print in the gallery is a traditional print split toned in sepia. I wanted the lith print to give a similar tone but greater contrast without the wilder colours and gritty shadows I normally go for with lith. Increasing the amount of additive D and developing at 30 degrees C I've produced a print that looks ostensibly like a split-tone traditional print with nice dark shadow areas and very subtle, creamy highlights and upper mid-tones.

dancqu said:

I find color a distraction. In my mind color conflicts with
content and composition. A few years ago I played around
some little with lith printing using a Home Brew developer.
One paper yielded Very warm browns, another paper,
reds. The brown prints were OK. The prints were
actually monochromatic. The red one's though
were a mix of red overtones and pure black.

BUT, I like the contrast control lith printing offers.
So how, at least eventually, to insure B&W results?
Or perhaps, at end, tone to some desired overall
monochromatic color?

My little acquaintance with the subject suggests lith
development for contrast control then a bleach, expose,
redevelop in usual developer sequence. Would such a
print turn out as it would have had it been given just
a usual print developer treatment? That is, with
allowance for the contrast adjustment. Dan

Click to expand...

I have to confess that this is something I have not done for a while as my work has moved further into the coloured spectrum for the toning possibilities this opens up. However, not sure how useful this might be, but I used to do this with the long gone Sterling paper - lith printed, then into strong (1:1 or neat) hot selenium. Result: Watery eyes and an instant snap to cold grey B&W print but with the lith contrasts. This took seconds and if the print was toned on it would soon start to split into a beautiful duo tone warm beige and cool grey. Now, I haven't tried this with current papers but you might like to try and see. You'll have to test them all though!

An alternative option would be a B&W print (MGWT works well) in MG dev. Bleached, Redev in Lith. It will come back in lith colours and then start to return to B&W but with lith tonal properties. You can stop it at this crossover to get a hybrid B&W/Lith, which is what I do, or let it go on to B&W.
Tim

Mike Crawford said:

Try bleaching a lith print, wash and then re-develop in conventional print developer. You will get a neutral tone which is often a very pleasing olive or purple black depending on the paper. It may intensify the image slightly. Best to use quite a strong Potassium Ferricyanide bleach with no Potassium Bromide, (restrainer) in it. Bleach as much of the image as possible then wash till the paper stain is away and then develop. I am never sure if the prints need to be refixed or not. Perhaps someone here will have a definitive answer.

Click to expand...

It depends how far the redevelopment is allowed to go Mike. If complete, no fixing is required as there are no undeveloped silver halides around (like when you sepia tone - same thing). If you pull before completion then you must refix and there will be lightening (and commonly colour shifts with a lith dev) in the fixer. If not sure, refix anyway. It can't harm.
Tim