Have any of you tried lith printing and how much more time and effort is needed compared to normal FB printing? I'm trying to get an idea if I should take a look at this for infrared printing.

-- Gene Crumpler (nikonguy@att.net), June 25, 2001

Answers

Lith printing and infrared go remarkably well together. Bags of fun. Not much more trouble than FB paper processing, in my opinion - the primary issue is that everything takes longer, exposures are longer, developing times are longer, the inactivity is taxing more than anything else - suggest a music system in your darkroom. Lots of room for experimentation and different effects. Highly recommend Rudman's book. Cheers, DJ.

-- N Dhananjay (ndhanu@umich.edu), June 25, 2001.

The May/June 2001 issue of "Photovision" has a very good artical on the subject. You can contact them at 719-256-5099. BTW: This is an excellent new magazine edited by Steve Anchell.

-- Ed Farmer (photography2k@hotmail.com), June 25, 2001.

Starting with the last issue: Tim Rudman said in his book that lith and IR are definitely made for each other, and I am inclined to agree. The time and effort needed depend very strongly on how you go about it. It is true that development times can become quite long (my longest range around 20 minutes, but most are around 7 to 9 minutes), during which you should scrutinize your print so as to be able to snatch it at the right time. So you can't really use the time for other things. Exposures are typically four to eight times what you'd use for a conventional print. As you snatch, and the snatching point determines the shadow densities and gradation, test strips are not really useful as the optimal snatching point is a different one for each of the test exposures. With a little experience, however, you can become quite good at predicting the required exposure. The fact that shifting the snatch point a little this way or that will also change the image is a help here. So at least after a while, you may go about the procedure in a very relaxed (mind me: not sloppy) way working, which means it is not too time-consuming. It is also strongly addictive!

Regards, Thomas Wollstein

-- Thomas Wollstein (thomas_wollstein@web.de), June 26, 2001.

Thanks for the responses. I'm wondering about the time commitment to do lith printing. Right now I'm working, grandfathering, learning Digital, caring for aged parents, etc, so darkroom time is at a premium. However, I plan to retire in another year or so and then will have lots of time. I'm also hoping to sell some of my work then and the examples I've seen of lith printing look great. Lith printing of Infrared Images might make some very salable images.

I guess I'll invest in Tim Rudman's book as there is little information on the net about the details of lith printing.

-- Gene Crumpler (nikonguy@att.net), June 26, 2001.

Gene, I bought the book and it's well worth the money. You'll get hooked on it really easily. James

-- james (james_mickelson@hotmail.com), June 26, 2001.