Printing Holme Fen: Sunlight and Frost

I took this photo on the same day as the earlier print Rising Mist. It was a bright cold morning with mist rising from the frosty forest floor. This one was a bit more challenging to print. Again bright sunlight emanates from the top left so offers a range of light. I started with tst strips. This time I decided to divide the print in half and print soft filter intervals along the top and hard filter along ghe bottom. 

f32 Test
Soft filter Top Hard filter bottom
Intervals on top 8-64" 1/2 stop intervals right to left

I looked at the soft filter and saw it didn't look soft enough so I miss-guessed the aperture and should have opted for f45. I made a guess at f45 for the soft filter at 11 seconds which is 1/2 stop less than the lightest strip from above. I then applied a hard filter test strip acorss this guess.

f45 Test strip #00 1 second base exposure
Hard filter intervals 8-64" 1/2 stop intervals right to left. 
Rightmost band has no hard filter applied. 

.This provides useful information. I can see in the far right band good pure whites for the soft filter. I opt for the print with a hard filter of 22 seconds. 

f45 #00 11" #5 22"

Now I can see where I need to burn in more. I also became aware that I need a re-crop. Barely visible to the left of the bright area of the sun some tree trunks are becoming visible and these fragments I fear will distract from the image. I could dodge this out and this might be a better answer than a re-crop. 

I cannot merely move the easel to exclude this part of the image as there is no more image off the right side of the image. So I lower the enlarger and decide while I am at it place the sun directly in the upper left corner. This has the effect of zooming in the scene which I am not altogether happy with. The trees on the right get missed and this changes the composition. 

I also see I need burns across the top and around the sun. 

Re-crop. f45 #00 11" #5 22"
Burn top 1/4 #00 11" #5 22"
Burn around Sun #00 11" #5 22"

Something happened during my re-crop the print turned out much light despite bringing the enlarger closer to the easel. I may have bumped the aperture while adjusting the enlarger. I made another print with longer times. 

Re-crop. f45 #00 16" #5 32"
Burn top 1/4 #00 11" #5 22"
Burn around Sun #00 11" #5 22"

i decide I need more contrast in the ferns in the foreground. This lead me to this final or nearly final print. 

Final Print (?). f45 #00 16" #5 32"
Burn top 1/4 #00 11" #5 22"
Burn around Sun #00 11" #5 22"
Burn ferns #5 22"

I say nearly, because if I can find time, I am inclined to dodge the #00 filter in the sunlit areas between the trees on the right as well as the sunlit areas of the ferns to add more highlight there. 

I may also undo the re-crop and dodge the messy tree problem on the left of the sun. 

Liths

I used this information to make a couple of lith versions on Oriental Seagull #2 paper using Moersch EasyLith.

f22 32" No filters
Burn Sun 16"
Burn Top 16"

f22 32" No filters
Burn Sun 16"
Burn Top 16"