Printing and Framing: Conventional and box frame

I am catching up on some work these past couple of days now that my initial digital intensity has subsided. A result of my earlier project around Houghton meadows was that there were some printable images that I wanted to lith print. One did not turn out well, but a couple of others did. 

One obvious candidate was the Heron viewed through the reeds in the water. I printed this conventionally to include in my photo books. The negative does not have much contrast despite being pushed because of the mist and early morning light. The conventional print was done entirely on the #5 filter, and I was not able to get completely black shadows without losing the highlights in the water. I compromised somewhere in the middle. It makes for a good print despite this as the print reflects the conditions on a foggy morning.

I made some lith prints on Oriental Seagull paper as well as Fohar Raster which I have to think of as having more soul especially when toned. Since the Rater paper is 5x7" (13x18cm) I sized the image to fit and used half sheets of 8x10 Seagull paper. Some results are below. 

Oriental Seagull
f11 32 seconds

Fohar Raster 
f11 16 seconds

Oriental Seagull
Pot Ferri bleach + Selenium 1+3
Toning stained borders due to lack of sufficient washing time)

Finally, I tried a little Sulphur toning on a Fohar version. I only submerged the upper part of the print in toner up to the waterline. The toner starts with a light blue tone before proceeding to a warmer color over time. Since the toner may have lapped onto the watery part of the image it imparted this blue tone there. Once I saw this, I pulled the print and placed it in water and typo to stop the toning process. The result was a genuinely nice shift of tone which gives the image some extra depth. The tone shifts are very subtle. 

Fohar Raster partial Sulphur toning

This was the first image I had to frame. I built a new frame in my conventional fashion and used a traditional matte board.

Framed Toned Print

Box Frame

I was looking at framing some early lith prints from Aversley Wood at this time. The prints came out very nicely with lots of great tonal gradation and separation enhanced by the fog. Somehow when playing with the matte board window I got the idea of a box frame to stand the matte away from the print to emphasize the depth of the image. I cobbled a frame out of 4mm plywood for the back and box sides. 

While playing with the box frame and a print that had a light curl to it, I decided to experiment with leaving the paper curled. I anchored the bottom of the print to the back of the box and let the top with the nearest treetops curl toward the matte board, just touching it. The top of the box is merely the matte board window held in place with some hockey trim. The result works pretty well. Looking straight on the curled paper enhances the 3D effect. I am not sure the two photos below do it justice. 

One more final image is the teasel and fence. This I printed on Oriental Seagull paper. I have a 4"x4" matte board window that I used for this and framed only the lower left corner. 

Oriental Seagull
f8 16 seconds

Framed version

I love the generous matte board for these smaller prints. It really helps isolate what you are viewing and concentrate one's thoughts. 

Finally, I hung these in my 'gallery' which is my downstairs bathroom/toilet. 

Gallery Wall