Is there anyone that has experance with lith printing? What papers are working with lith printing?

-- Jay Langham (langham@adnc.com), October 13, 1997

Answers

I would also like to try to print on this medium. A very good book, "Photographic Printing" by Brit - Gene Nocon, Virgin Press has a whole chapter & illustrations on lith printing.

-- John R. fowler (cpci@fox.nstn.ca), November 06, 1997.

I have done some lith printing using Sterling Lith paper (I think it is the only lith paper readily available in the United States) and Kodalith developer. The results are interesting and you'll just have to try it to see what results you get and whether you like them or not. There are a couple of difficulties that you should be aware of. One is the fact that the developer has a fairly short life and as you make each print the developer's strength decreases much more rapidly than with normal paper developers so that you can't simply come up with a developing time that works well for one print and expect to get the same results for each later print - making the one print weakens the developer so that a longer (somewhat unknown) time must be used for the next print to get the same results as the first print and so on and so forth. Secondly, my developing times were very long - on the order of ten to fifteen and even twenty minutes, which is a long time to stand there agitating a developing tray. To make things a little worse, I was concerned about safelight fog when the paper was in the tray for these kinds of times so I turned out the safelight for the first ten to fifteen minutes, thus doing most of the agitation in the dark. I liked the effect that I got some of the time but other times there was too much of a pink tinge to the color for my tastes. Because of the difficulties involved, I only use it with a print that I think will be really enhanced by lith printing, not as anything I do on a daily basis. There is a book that I have at home by an English author, whose name (and the title of the book) escape me now but it has a good chapter on lith printing. If you want to pursue this send me an E Mail and I'll get the title and author's name for you.

-- Brian Ellis (bellis@fowlerwhite.com), December 04, 1997.

I have a lot of expertese in lith printing. There is a chapt. in my book 'The Photographers Master Printing Course'on it and I have just finished a new book entirely on lith printing. It will be out in November and is to be called The Master Photographers guide to Lith Printing. It carries all the current paper/dev combinations in Europe, most of which are also in the US. I know there are one or two devs in the US that I can't get. If I can answer any particular ?s let me know. It's a beautiful and flexible process. Tim Rudman

-- Tim Rudman (tim.rudman@virgin.net), August 24, 1998.

Dr. Rudman, I have enjoyed your last couple of articles on Lith printing in Photo Techniques magazine. Short of just saying give it a try, can you shed some light on using this technique with papers other than the 4 or 5 that you listed in your article. Will any of the graded or variable contrast papers work well for this or is it a waste of time for a beginner to try or would you reccomend sticking with the papers that you outlined?

-- Jeff White (zonie@computer-concepts.com), August 24, 1998.

Hello Jeff. Thank you, I havn't seen the 2nd article yet. I hope it was OK - it was written over a year ago and things do move on. I wrote a fuller series of 4 in Photo Art International which might be helpful. Current best bets are: Most 'lithy', Sterling Lith - but watch for pepper fogging. Forte. polywarmtone and fortezo, both very warm and can go to pinks. Forte. Bromofort and polygrade, both closer to a Sterling effect with putty mid tones between black and white. NEW: Maco 'expo' series just being imported to the US via Cachet as we speak, and to UK via Mr Cad. Similar to PWT or Fortezo. Luminos - as in the articles.Pinks and reds on drying. Kodagraph Transtar TP5, clean pinks. New Oriental, also about to be reimported out of Hans O Mahn in Hamburg - possibly via Cachet they tell me - not sure yet I think. All these will work for you, all have different reactions to toning and to bleach and redevelopment techniques. thats a bigger subject - you'll have to get the book for that! Tim Rudman

-- Tim Rudman (tim.rudman@virgin.net), August 25, 1998.