Drip Development

I got to thinking about how to create images that incorporate this Japanese concept of 'Ma'. The idea that what isn’t visible is as important as what is. The Wikipedia entry for 'ma' gives this image by Hasegawa Tohaku as an example. It can be hard to find images that incorporate this idea so I thought how I could achieve this in the darkroom. 

Pine Trees by Hasegawa Tohaku
Inspiration for this process.

I took a recent print...

Example print of starting point.

I had made and then exposed a fresh sheet of Ilford MGRC paper with this same image. I placed this exposed paper in a tray and added enough water to keep it just under the surface. 

Next, I took a pipette and loaded it with about 5ml of developer (Moersch ECO 4812 1:10) and dribbled the developer over the exposed paper. In this first example I tended to focus on the first pass along the long central axis. One wants to be careful not to disturb the water bath too much as the objective is to keep the developer concentrated in the area where it is dripped and let it diffuse slowly. 

As the development proceeds one can then see where more detail may be desired and drop more developers on those areas. Patience is key. My developer normally takes 3 minutes to develop the full tonal range. I run a timer in the background, so I am aware of how much development time has elapsed. For instance, I only made a second pass of drip development after 2 minutes when I knew most of the development detail had occurred.  A second (or third) pass can help fill out areas you want to reveal detail.

This is basically development my inspection and is done under the safelight. You pull the print when you are satisfied with the result. Then onto to the normal stop and fix steps. 

What you get is a partially revealed image where each version is unique. Much like a lith print. 

The first trial I call a success. 

First Drip Developed Print

I made some follow-up versions. of the print. The next selected development emphasized more the lower foreground and isolated the aspen tree on the left. 

Eco 4812 Developer

The effect is pretty good. It isn't terribly predictable and the falloff from the fully developed areas to the less is surprisingly steep. I dripped the developer at 1:10 dilution all over the dark area around the tree and along the entire bottom area which has naturally less exposure. 

The next thing I wanted to try was to repeat the same Eco 4812 developer plan but perform a second development with lith developer for the remaining area. The idea is to bring up the detail in these areas and change the image tone. I heated my usual refresh of Moersch EasyLith and developed the print again.  

Eco 4812 + Lith Development #1

Eco 4812 + Lith Development #2

This worked pretty well. The lighter background has had the detail brought up and developed into a nice light brown. This is not a conventional lith print as one cannot overexpose the image due to the conventional developer which would render the entire area developed black. This means there will be a limited density of these lith developed areas. This is really nice as this is closer to the desired effect. 

I also made conventional lith version of the print just because I could... 

EasyLith Version (Oriental Seagull)

Alternative Approaches

In thinking about this I could see some other ways to achieve a similar effect. I have not tried these, so these are thought experiments.

Fixer-Drip fixer on the exposed paper again submerged in water. In this case you will drip where you wish the image obscured. Then wash it thoroughly and develop and fix the image as normal. This method is more difficult as one cannot see the progress of the image like you can during development.

Lith Developer-More difficult is to use lith developer. I would probably start with lith concentrate as diluting diluted developer probably won't work. This likely will take a long time so I would probably use a hot water bath to hold the tray with the exposed paper in it. 

Bleach-Drip bleach on a developed print in the shallow water bath. You could bleach by inspection which should make it easier to adjust. Again, concentrated bleach might work better.

Toner-This might be an adjunct to the bleach drip. Though it could be dripped on a conventional print. (I did attempt this once with selenium 1+3 but failed to see any difference. I am not familiar with how much color shift I might get from selenium on RC paper however. )

Difficulties

The first trouble is the paper cups a little and tends to float a little. The RC paper also has a smooth plastic surface, so water runs off it easily if it isn't fully submerged. Developer on this dry surface creates strange artifacts in the image. 

Since the water will dilute the developer, I want a very thin film of water over the paper surface. Otherwise, the developer dilutes too much and the time for development will be lengthened too much or might not develop at all. I ended up using some scotch/cello tape to hold the paper to a peice of Perspex/acrylic that I could then place in the tray. This kept the paper in place and flat. 

I tried FB paper, and the tape technique does not work well as the paper swells when wet and bugles up and puckers. I found weighting the edges on the borders worked and allowed the paper to expend without buckling.