Print Journey Part V-Foggy Path in Aversley Wood

Finally I will explore this image in Lith developer. Lith can be very slow and frustrating but my earlier experience with low contrast images showed some real potential to create a new image.

I mostly have 8x10 lith paper (Oriental Seagull) so I will have to opt for smaller images but I will stay with a 16:9 aspect ratio as it suites this image so well. This time I will go for 9x5 on 8x10 paper which is nearly the same ratio (1.8 vs 1.78 for 16:9). 

I reviewed my prior posts on lith developing here and here. I then made some notes based on results for Oriental Seagull. 

• 60W lamp
• 0xND filters
• No filtration
• 9x5 image on 8x10 paper
• Reference point f4 at Ev 2.6 in fog from earlier print
• Reference point f5.6 @ 45" with 1/2 stop burn where needed
• 30g Part A Fotospeed Lith
• 33g Part B Fotospeed Lith

I then setup the the enlarger, easel and focus. I found I got Ev 2.5 in a foggy area at f5.6 to match as close as I could what I had done before. I mixed the developer by throwing out half (of 1 liter) of the old developer and adding the Part A and Part B with 485ml of fresh water. 

First Attempt

f5.6 45" burn corners as in earlier versions of this image for 22" (1/2 stop). The image first formed around 4 minutes, shadows were well developed at 10 minutes and I snatched it at about 15 minutes. I could tell by the way the image developed that the burns seemed excessive. The infections development came up quickly and unevenly. I added 4 grams of Sodium sulfite and 2 grams of KBr (each 10% solutions) for the next print. 

Excellent First Lith Print

Second Attempt 

Again f5.6 but I ran a 64 second exposure but dodged the lighter center for 22 seconds. This came out much better. There were 'hot spots' where infectious development started early and proceeded quickly however. I pulled the print at 17 minutes. I then added 3g of Part A and Part B developer each for the next print. 

I was surprised to hit this so well on the first print. I believe this may be due to the use of my prior notes and a better understanding of what I am doing. 

Good Image

Third Attempt

f5.6 with 64 second exposure dodge center light area again 22 seconds and dodge two hotspots 22 seconds each. This suppressed the hot spots but also held up development in those areas the lower right corner in particular. This made it difficult to know when to  snatch the print as I waited for some areas to catch up. I pulled this print at 19 1/2 minutes. 

You can see where the tangle of dark limbs in the lower left is better defined. Also the underdeveloped section in the lower left corner is due to the two addition dodges. What happened during development though is the bottom did not develop evenly as there was late infectious development from the right compared to the earlier prints. 

Nice try but not very good...

Both of the first two attempts give  good tonal range. There is a bit of the grittiness common with lith prints but it isn't too distracting. The mood is more haunted and the taupe color is nicely different and subtle.