Lith Printing Nerga Portrene

I have returned to this old paper recently and have decided to try lith printing it again. It is a single grade warmtone paper from the 1970's. When I first bought it I found it lithed well and this has been born out again. I used Fotospeed Lith developer in that first trial and now I use Moersch EasyLith and have learned a bit more about lith printing since then. 

Everything I learned in that original post bore out in my work today. The paper develops really fast in hot lith developer within seconds for the first print at a +3 stop overexposure. The developer settled down as the developer cooled and I reduced the exposure. I actually managed to get good prints (indeed the best) with very little exposure. As a gauge of this a reasonable conventional print was made at f8 for 32 seconds. The second print was made with less exposure at f8 for 22 seconds.  

I used a negative from my Fuji GFX 50s ii digital camera made at Gammatech. This was an image I took at night during a snowstorm in Sandpoint. It has an otherworldly look as they are lit by streetlights. The resulting lith prints in their lightest form look almost like a Japanese woodblock print. 

Scan001 f5_6 22 sec burn top down 6 sec

These prints really worked out well. I needed to burn the top of the print a little extra to make sure the infectious development started in the branches as it was starting in the middle of the print without this. 

The contrast is really nice and the falling flakes turn up well. I like the soft warm color the paper gives as well. 

Scan002 f8 22 sec burn top down

A couple of the earlier versions show a very different look which are also nice. 

Scan004 f4 22 sec burn top half stop down

Scan005 f4 22 sec

For this next lith print I took some inspiration from odd scraps lying around the darkroom. Some paper has a nice lavender color after a while in room light others a nice deep blue. I have asked myself what would happen if I don’t fix the print? The highlights should take on whatever color the paper would give off. I expect the color would shift as the paper was exposed to more light.

I developed normally and put the print in the stop bath but skipped the fixing step. After leaving it out in room light the print took on this purple-magenta color. I think it looks great. I will have to see how it progresses. 

An idea I am considering is to alter this color by using a very dilute fixer. This might allow me to pull the print at some intermediate point. 

Scan003f5_6 22 sec burn from top 6 sec No Fix