Thursday, 18 April 2019

Stems by the lake

I snapped this up a while ago on a family walk through Downhill Forest, near Castlerock.  It was mid-afternoon but the light was fading, it being winter and all.  For a moment, though, the sun put in one last appearance and illuminated these stalks or stems at the edge of the lake.  That made them really stand out out from the water behind, which was in shadow:


Stems at Downhill Lake, on 11"x14" Ilford Warmtone fibre paper

Sometimes I struggle to get really deep blacks on Ilford Warmtone fibre paper - or at least the batch of paper that I have, which is matt surface and was bought from an 'old pro' who was selling the last of his paper and trays a couple of years ago.  I don't know if it's me or perhaps the paper is a bit old. I've had serious dry-down issues with this paper in the past, you might remember.  Anyway, on this occasion, in order to help the blacks along a bit I dunked the print in hot selenium for a short time - not too long as I didn't want a significant colour shift.  I think I got away with it.

If I print it again I will probably try to burn in the top left corner of the print to remove the faint trace of foliage just visible there.  Otherwise I'm reasonably happy with this one.
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3 comments:

  1. Marcus Peddle18 April 2019 at 23:52

    I like this simple composition. I often try to make photos of little stands of plants, but I can never get a good background like you've got here. Maybe someday. :)
    Does all the warm colour come from the paper? Or did the selenium contribute?

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    Replies
    1. Michael McNeill20 April 2019 at 13:16

      Thanks Marcus. I used a warm developer from Fotospeed which when combined with the Warmtone paper gives 99% of the look you see here. I don't think the selenium added too much as I only left it in a shortish time (couple of minutes). A longer time and you run the risk of getting a colour shift of the highlights to a reddish hue, which I didn't want here.

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    2. Marcus Peddle20 April 2019 at 23:58

      Thank you for the explanation. Red wouldn't be good at all.

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