Been a tad busy with other stuff recently, but I managed a quick darkroom session this morning. Nothing new, just picking out a few negs here and there from the Archives and trying to bring them to life on 8"x10" Ilford Warmtone RC paper in lith. Without much success, I hasten to add.
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| Rathlin Island sea stacks, last summer |
Not quite sure what's going on with those strange-looking bands towards the bottom of the print, as you can see. And along the bottom edge looks like a paper fog - which I'm sure it isn't. Very odd.
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| Mussenden Temple, at Downhill |
This one looks a bit more traditionally lithy, but I'm not too sure about the horizontal streaking visible on the building and in the sky. Over-enthusiastic agitation, perhaps? I've a feeling that it all stems from over-cooking the developer - maybe need to take the temperature down a notch or two.
Comparing the two prints the first one is all cold whereas the second one has that warm lith-like appearance. Like I say, no consistency...
No consistency... Well, was the Lith process ever made for consistency anyway? Just got to ask, as I know nothing about it from first hand experience. I have read about it a few times here and there though, and consistency has never been mentioned as one of the pro's for this process :))
ReplyDeleteThey look great though, your prints. I might like the last one a bit better, but I'm not too sure why.
I tend to agree with you that the horizontal streaks on the upper one maybe is a tad too visible... at least on my monitor anyway. I just love the sky on it, by the way!
Strong prints, and I can't wait to get my hands on some Lith chemicals. I finally found some down south in old England somewhere. I might order and see what it's like.
Oh, and I found bleach as well. For a couple of my prints, you know. I'd like to try that as well. Spot bleach... you know.
Haha well you've hit the nail on the head as usual Roy, although I would expect a little more predictability with lith than I'm getting at the minute. It's true that half the fun is the uncertainty - although unlike this Warmtone paper with the Foma 131 paper I usually have a fair idea of how things are going to turn out.
DeleteGood news about your source of lith chems...I'll be very interested to see what happens when you try it out with some of those great negs you have - I suspect something masterpiecey :)
And the bleach too - I'll look out for those stories in the usual place.