10×10″ Collodion Negative meets Lith
Easter gave me the opportunity of making some collodion images and to print them in the darkroom. I started the day with cutting the plates. I have a lot of clear glass left over from some frames of which I didn’t use the glass (back then) and was so smart as to save it. I cut some 10×10″ plates and started on a series I’ve been having on my mind for quite some time now. It’s about nightmares, paranoia, etc. I still have to come up with a title. These are the first shots in this series. Luckily I still have to practice on my negatives (subbing them with albumen for example, had lifting of the collodion, or perhaps, cleaning them even better) so they came out anything but perfect. The exact raw feeling that I was after when thinking out the images in my head.
I shot the plates on the first day of Easter and varnished them that same very day. I was ready for the second day of Easter. Darkroom. Lith printing. I wanted that grainy and raw feel lith can give you so it wasn’t too hard figuring out which way to go with these. The images are contact printed (I love the 10×10″ size) on Rollei Vintage Paper 131 developed in Rollei Superlith developer 24+24+600.
I still have a lot to learn regarding the making of decent collodion negatives but for lith printing they work out just fine so far. If anything I’m having fun!
Ilfobrom Meets Lith
A while back I bought a batch of Ilfobrom paper online to try out with the lith developer. I bought to packages, grade 0 and grade 4. Yesterday came the day I was ready to try it!
The first print I made I had the paper upside down under the enlarger (lol) so when after 5 minutes no image showed in the developer I figured I made that mistake and ditched it. Number two developed for over 17 minutes (eek!). Number three is what you see here, developed for about 20 minutes and number four I tried the grade 4 paper which took a development of around 15 minutes. As you can imagine the already short amount of time I had in the darkroom flew by and before I knew it it was time to call it a day.
I’m not too sure how to feel about it. Obviously more tests are required but the paper feels kinda cool. Like pearl paper but much more sturdy like you would expect from FB paper. The print on grade 4 required a longer development time in my opinion and apparently I smudged it with my finger tips (never had that happen in all the years I work in the darkroom) but the proof is hard to deny 
Also, grade 4 looks to have a lighter streak in the middle of the image. Not sure why this happened so more tests will be required to see.
I hoped my new chemistry would arrive before Easter but unfortunately that won’t happen. I ordered, among A LOT of other things, chemistry to make a sepia bleach. Next time I try this paper I want to process it the normal way, bleach and redevelop in lith. Looking forward to what that’ll give me! On to the uber-fantastic photos
Normally I wouldn’t leave the borders around the images but I thought it be cool if I showed the finger prints as well. They also fall under copyright
Lith Prints: On the Nature of Daylight
The last two days I had finally had the evenings for myself! First time this year I could actually work on my own photos. Sometimes I think I ought to quit my job
Not long before those evenings I also finally came around to developing some film I had laying around from last year. The contact prints made me wanna grab my lith paper so I did. The prints are untoned and so on, test prints actually to see which way this series would go on lith but I love them already. This will be continued but I felt like sharing them anyway with some more inspirational stuff.
Kodak T-Max 100 I Hasselblad 500C/M + 50mm CF FLE I Paper: Rollei Vintage 131 FB I Developer: Rollei Vintage Developer (Lith) 1+1+24 I Exposure: f5,6 5 sec I Development: about 7 min. 36 sec I Untoned
Kodak T-Max 100 I Hasselblad 500C/M + 50mm CF FLE I Paper: Rollei Vintage 131 FB I Developer: Rollei Vintage Developer (Lith) 1+1+24 I Exposure: f5,6 5 sec I Development: about 7 min. 35 sec I Untoned
Kodak T-Max 100 I Hasselblad 500C/M + 50mm CF FLE I Paper: Rollei Vintage 131 FB I Developer: Rollei Vintage Developer (Lith) 1+1+24 I Exposure: f5,6 5 sec I Development: about 8 min. 06 sec I Untoned
Kodak T-Max 100 I Hasselblad 500C/M + 50mm CF FLE I Paper: Rollei Vintage 131 FB I Developer: Rollei Vintage Developer (Lith) 1+1+24 I Exposure: f5,6 5 sec I Development: about 7 min. 20 sec I Untoned
Kodak T-Max 100 I Hasselblad 500C/M + 50mm CF FLE I Paper: Rollei Vintage 131 FB I Developer: Rollei Vintage Developer (Lith) 1+1+24 I Exposure: f5,6 5 sec I Development: about 7 min. 35 sec I Untoned
Kodak T-Max 100 I Hasselblad 500C/M + 50mm CF FLE I Paper: Rollei Vintage 131 FB I Developer: Rollei Vintage Developer (Lith) 1+1+24 I Exposure: f5,6 5 sec I Development: about 7 min. 35 sec I Untoned
The title of the series comes from Max Richter. I’m such a big fan of his work. He made a remix of his original song combined with the lyrics of Dinah Washington’s song dating from 1960.
“This bitter Earth
Well, what fruit it bears?
Ooooh
This bitter Earth
And if my life
Is like the dust
Oooh, that hides
The glow of a rose
What good am I?
Heaven only knows.
Lord, this bitter Earth
Yes, can be so cold
Today you’re young
Too soon, you’re old
But while a voice
Within me cries
I’m sure someone may answer my call.
And this bitter Earth
Ooooh, may not
Ooooh, be so bitter
After all.
This bitter Earth
Lord, this bitter Earth
What good is love
Mmmm, that no one shares?
And if my life
Is like the dust
That hides
The glow of a rose
What good am I?
Heaven only knows.”
I hope you enjoy this post!
-Indra
Lith Print of a Clear Glass Ambrotype
As said before I also made my first real clear glass ambrotype, aka a glass negative, in Montzen. Yesterday I tried to make a lith print out of it. Very much to my liking! The grain really adds to the ambience and feel of the image.
I used Rollei Vintage 131 Fiber paper and made the first print on 18×24 cm paper to try it out. I loved it so much I”ll be making a large print as soon as the paper arrives: 50×60 cm. Also, this was my first go with the Omega D2 enlarger…wow..that thing is awesome!!! Beautiful machine which I’ll use a whole lot more often now that I got it working with the 4×5″ glass plate holder.
The only thing needed to be done was the toning part. I always used selenium toner before but also bought gold toner a while back. With selenium the tone, or wouldn’t hardly change, or make it more red. Both was just not what I had in mind. Luckily I remembered my gold toner in time so I ordered 2 more liters for the large print and tonight tested it. The prints are still wet so I’ll scan and post them tomorrow. Impressions: 4 minutes were too long; too blue. With 2 minutes I kept a little warmish yellow and got a little blueish and that was exactly what I was after.
Sure, with lith printing the true characteristics of Collodion have practically gone (though not really if you look carefully) so you might wonder why. First of all, because I couldn’t wait making and printing my first collodion negative! Secondly, lith printing is what I know (a little) and came to love (traditional bw printing has gotten boring to me) so this was the way to go for now. I’m still trying to figure out which processes I’m going to dive into for printing the collodion negatives but time has not really been on my side so far. Thirdly and most importantly, because I like it! So eat it!
Anyway, a happy goose here and I’m looking forward to the big print!
-Indra
Toner vs No Toner
I promised I’d show the difference between a toned and an untoned image. Please keep in mind that the untoned and toned images are slightly different prints so there’s a difference there as well, albeit very small. You can see the coloration and the -coming-to-life of the image. Both images were printed on Rollei Vintage paper 131, developer in Rollei Lith developer 1+1+24 and the toned images are on the left and toned in Selenium 1+4 at approx. 20 degrees.
Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia on Seleniumed Lith
We went to Barcelona at the end of 2010 and visited Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia again. Wonderful to see this building evolving every couple of years. It’s such a fascinating creature! If you ever get the chance to visit it, please do. Despite the price of the tickets it is sooo definitely worth it (also because it enables the build to move forward)!
I am working on an exhibition with the theme “Light creates Life” or something in that spirit. This series came to mind as light is so important to a building, and most certainly this one with its high ceilings and beautiful glass-in-lead (stained?) windows. Anyway, see for yourself if you like them for the same reasons I did. Different reasons are also fine though
All the photos are made using a Hasselblad 500CM with 80mm CF 4,0. Film used: Kodak T-Max 100. Developer used: Kodak HC110 Dil. B.
Paper: Rollei Vintage 131 FB Developer: Rollei Vintage Developer (Lith) 1+1+24 Exposure: f5,6 20 sec. Development: about 7 min. 14 sec. Selenium Toned: 1+4, 1 1/2 min.
Paper: Rollei Vintage 131 FB Developer: Rollei Vintage Developer (Lith) 1+1+24 Exposure: f5,6 15 sec. Development: about 5 min. 10 sec . Selenium Toned: 1+4, 1 1/2 min.
Paper: Rollei Vintage 131 FB Developer: Rollei Vintage Developer (Lith) 1+1+24 Exposure: f5,6 25 sec. Development: about 6 min. Selenium Toned: 1+4, 1 1/2 min.
Paper: Rollei Vintage 131 FB Developer: Rollei Vintage Developer (Lith) 1+1+24 Exposure: f5,6 20 sec. Development: about 7 min. Selenium Toned: 1+4, 1 1/2 min.
Paper: Rollei Vintage 131 FB Developer: Rollei Vintage Developer (Lith) 1+1+24 Exposure: f5,6 10 sec. Development: about 11 min. 44 sec. Selenium Toned: 1+4, 1 1/2 min.
While the 2 former posts I had my reservations regarding color, with these I simply love it. It works very well for this as the building itself is also very warm with the materials used and the colors that are created by the colored glass in the windows. This conveys the feeling the building gave me spot-on!
Next step: printing them on 30×40 paper and framing them for the exhibition. Wanted to go bigger but the frames have to stay a bit affordable…so..here’s my concession Anyway, once framed I’ll post the result. I’m looking forward making them, seeing them, everything!
-xxx- Sleep well everyone…I know I will !!!
“Weird-Square-in-Florence-But-Good-For-Portfolio” Liths Toned
Hmm, weird title but I mentioned it somewhere before when talking about this particular series. Where would the world be without consistency, right
Anyway, the prints finally received their toning. I used Kodak Selenium 1+4 for about 1 and a half minutes per print. Besides the archival aspect of toning it would be cool to see what the coloration would be like…nothing short of color with the combination of Rollei 131 & toner! I’ll most likely print these again and try some split toning when I receive my Tetenal Gold toner which makes things even more exciting. I can then combine blue and brownish on one print which offers a broad range of possibilities on its own again. Enough talking…
Paper: Rollei Vintage 131 FB Developer: Rollei Vintage Developer (Lith) 1+1+24 Exposure: f5,6 22 sec. Filter 3, Development: about 6 minutes, Selenium Toned: 1+4 1 1/2 min.
Paper: Rollei Vintage 131 FB Developer: Rollei Vintage Developer (Lith) 2+1+24 Exposure: f5,6 16 sec. Filter 3, Development: about 4 minutes, Selenium Toned: 1+4. 1 1/2 min.
Paper: Rollei Vintage 131 FB Developer: Rollei Vintage Developer (Lith) 1+1+24 Exposure: f5,6 20 sec. Filter 3, Development: about 5 1/2 minutes, Selenium Toned: 1+4 1 1/2 min.
The toning causes them to jump to life even more, even though they were not lame before but still. I like it quite a bit although I wouldn’t mind further fine-tuning even if it’s just for experiment’s sake. I’ll even HAVE to fine-tune and experiment to get better and gain absolute control of what I do. Theory means nothing on its own but you’ll need the theory to support your creativity and to be able to use in your advantage. So…I’ll be spending some more hours in my kitty-dork-dungeon
Oh, and not to be like an advertorial person but the book of Tim Rudman that I bought…wow….contains lots of useful information and give you a glimpse of how easy and foremost, how difficult the process is. Lots of variables and such… To anyone wanting to play around with lith printing I can wholeheartedly recommend it!
Emotional Film Part 2: Selenium Toned
It took me a while but I now that the holidays, birthdays and the likes (or dislikes) are over I finally have time to spend in my lovely darkroom. This part I spent toning already printed images. I’ll post the results of the first series here (see former post for more details on them).
Toner used is Kodak Selenium dilution 1+4 for about 2 minutes. With this Rollei 131 paper the toning happens very rapidly and the color was even more evident while wet. The images also became a lot more powerful, not only because the blacks became a tad blacker but it also seemed to affect the highlights as if these parts got a bit lighter. I’m not completely happy with these images qua color (a tad too warm for my taste), but also when looking at the images themselves. I think this will be the last time I’ve printed them anyway.
I toned Ilfords MGW.1K paper before and there it was very easy producing split toned images by diluting very moderately and leaving them relatively short in the bath. With this Rollei paper I have yet to find a proper manner to get them split toned without having Selenium followed by another toner such as Gold for example (which I have also ordered). They just seem to absorb the color like mad!
1+4 Selenium Toner +- 2 minutes
1+4 Selenium Toner +- 2 minutes
1+4 Selenium Toner +- 2 minutes
Anyway, I like them a whole lot better than the untoned versions but the color is a but too warm with this subject.
Emotional Film Part 1
Some time ago I wanted to wind a film onto my reel for developing but something went wrong. I can not really stand things going wrong especially not when I’m in the dark (kind of scared of the dark, very handy when working darkroom and stuff ) Instead of the film getting winded I got winded and it turned out in me abusing the film vigorously, finally slamming the film in my developing tank and leaving the dark in a furious mood. My boyfriend was so kind to enter the dark and put it on the reel for me instead. Actually, he does it with all my films now as I just can’t stand being in the dark, failing to get that film on the reel. Saves a lot of stress on both sides!
Anyway, I developed the film and of course it was completely damaged with cracks, dents, oysters, strikes, you name it. But despite all that I kind of liked the results and decided to keep it for further use under the name: “Emotional Film”. Yesterday I thought it to be nice to lith them. And I did. A bit more difficult negatives to print properly and I am only really happy with one so far. I’ll post the other 2 as well for experience-sake and to show you what flaws look like On to the good one:
Paper: Rollei Vintage 131 FB Developer: Rollei Vintage Developer (Lith) 1+1+24 Exposure: f5,6 22 sec. Filter: - Development: about 5 minutes Not yet toned
The two next ones still require some work but I was too tired to finish the session. They are a bit too dark, don’t like the contrast = closing up blacks.
Paper: Rollei Vintage 131 FB Developer: Rollei Vintage Developer (Lith) 1+1+24 Exposure: f5,6 19 sec. Filter: - Development: about 6 minutes Not yet toned
Paper: Rollei Vintage 131 FB Developer: Rollei Vintage Developer (Lith) 1+1+24 Exposure: f5,6 19 sec. Filter: - Development: about 6 minutes Not yet toned
Photos taken with a Rolleiflex T on T-Max 100 film
Anyway, to be continued again!
Rollei 131 FB & Lith: One More Image
Here is the last photo of the “weird-square-in-Florence-but-good-for-portfolio” series printed last night. A huge difference of the version from the former post!
Paper: Rollei Vintage 131 FB Developer: Rollei Vintage Developer (Lith) 2+1+24 Exposure: f5,6 16 sec. filter 3 Development: about 4 minutes Not yet toned
It took quite a bit of fumbling as 6 minutes were way too long for developing; blacks closed up so experimented with the time to get it correct (for me). I also have a slightly lighter version; will seen which one holds up best after being toned.
Anywayzzz, again more to follow!
Fomabrom 111 & Lith
What a surprise after the Rollei Vintage paper! Totally different in handling. Exposure time dropped by half compared to the Rollei paper. Contrast greatly diminished which I tried to compensate for by increasing the amount of part A of the developer until I had this dilution: 2+1+24. This helped but it still was less contrasty than the Rollei version of the same image which I’ll post in the next post. I could try and bleach the image a bit but will have to experiment with that (and have to order the chems too).
The thing that jumps in your eye however like immediately is the amount of grain. Grain in the most extended version of the word! Makes the photo more like pictorialism really. I’m not too fond of that; it still is a photograph but it was not all that bad either. Pretty interesting even and when I have the right photo for this kind of extreme effect I’ll definitely go for this combo. Also the coloration of the images were not that obvious as with the Rollei paper.
Anyway, on the 2 examples which I’ll keep for experimental sake.
Paper: Fomabrom 111 FB Developer: Rollei Vintage Developer (Lith) 2+1+24 Exposure: f5,6 11 sec. filter 3 Development: about 6 minutes Not yet toned
Paper: Fomabrom 111 FB Developer: Rollei Vintage Developer (Lith) 2+1+24 Exposure: f5,6 10 sec. filter 3 Development: about 6 minutes Not yet toned
Another interesting night in the darkroom, more to follow soon! I also tried my regular Ilford MGW1K paper but that was really not all that great. Hardly any coloration, very little contrast though without the adjusted developer a tad more than the Fomabrom paper and pretty much no added grain / structure to the image which really made it quite boring. At least for my taste anyway
Lith Printing: Part 1
17-11-10, Maastricht
The day my first lith printing adventure began. It was wonderful! So much more interesting that regular black-and-white. The book would’ve been handy to start with but I just couldn’t wait until it arrived. Google is your friend anyway (and the people who wrote about it of course )
The influence you have on the photo by combining choice of paper, exposing (duration), developing (snatch point, temperature etc) and toning afterwards give you much more control and enable you to fine-tune more than with a regular black-and-white print. This makes this process a hell lot more interesting. Also the grain you can get gives more structure and feel to the photo, of course depending on your subject. I have a lot to learn and experience but I love it already!
The 2 golden rules in lith printing:
- Image colour and contrast are related to grain size in the paper emulsion – which in turn is related to its stage of development. Small grains of early development are soft and warm. Large grains of late development are hard and cold. The progress of development is affected of course by dilution, temperature, time and freshness.
- Highlights are controlled by exposure.
Shadows are controlled by development (‘snatch point’).
Regarding the latter point I’d like to add that the whole process of Lith printing relies on a property of Lith developers known as ‘infectious development’. This is different to the way normal developers develop a black and white image. In simple terms, infectious development means that the darker a tone becomes, the faster it develops. The faster it develops of course, the darker it becomes, and so it develops even faster still. This leads to an explosive chain reaction where the shadow tone development speeds away from the slowly progressing light and mid tones, which lag way, way, behind. The print is ‘snatched’ from the developer when it reaches the point required by the printer.
On to the photos of day 1 (well, the ones worthy of showing ) They still have to be toned. Kodak Selenium toner I’ll use for this.
Paper: Rollei Vintage 131 FB Developer: Rollei Vintage Developer (Lith) 1+1+24 Exposure: f5,6 20 sec. filter 3 Development: about 5 1/2 minutes
Paper: Rollei Vintage 131 FB Developer: Rollei Vintage Developer (Lith) 1+1+24 Exposure: f5,6 22 sec. filter 3 Development: about 6 minutes
Some links to more information on lith:
Thanks for watching and be ready for stuff to come soon! Tonight I printed some more, also tried out FomaBrom 111 and my regular Ilford MGW1K paper. Will post results hopefully tomorrow.
The book I ordered from Tim Rudman arrived, only the wrong one. He most kindly offered me to keep the book and will send me the correct one. If you want a book with great examples of lith prints make sure to check this out; it’s beautiful!
Tim Rudman's "The World of Lith Printing"
Have a good night!
Rollei Vintage 131 & Fomabrom 111 FB
Today my papers for lith printing arrived! I decided to go with the Rollei Vintage 131 paper (supposed to be the same as Fomatone MG Classic 131 FB) and the Fomabrom 111 FB. Just to see what the differences are and for that reason I might also try my trusted Ilford MGW.1K paper (if I feel like it).
As developer I’m using the Vintage developer by Rollei, as can be seen in the former post. Maybe I might try and make my own using the “Darkroom Cookbook” I have laying around here somewhere but read that it’s prone to difficulties such as streaks and all but it sounds like fun mixing some of my own.
Anyway, hope to start soon; I’m still making a selection from my negatives and have to clean that darkroom again
I also ordered a book by Tim Rudman, The Master Photographers Lith Printing Course, to help me get started. You can sign up to his newsletter via email and you’ll receive a list with all the available papers out there for lith printing including a short description. Also mentioned are the developers and their makers.
I hope to be able to show some cool stuff soon!!
A New Adventure….
I have ordered Rollei Lith developer because the examples I saw looked very promising. I have yet to start with it but the idea of going back to “standard” black & white negative printing, even though being done in a professional archival worthy manner, seems totally boring now that I’ve begun with Wet Plate.
Rollei Lith Developer
Lith printing seems like a relatively easy way to start doing another alternative way of processing and still being able to use my film footage of which I have a lot. A lot that needs to be printed too. I will post my newly acquired adventures when I do so here. I hope this blog will grow out to be a development of myself into the wonderful world of alternative photography. An interesting book that I use as a guide through the wide variety of processes is this one:
Christopher James – The Book of Alternative Photographic Processes
I hope I will get myself to start with this soon but I have a lot on my mind lately, one of them is creating a new website. It’ll be in the style of Wet Plate qua design and a bit more fun and personalized. One of them is something else to which I’ll dedicate an entire new category as I hope it to grow in the (near) future.
Indra
