Branching Out With Slavich Unibrom

  I have made no secret on this blog and on various groups and forums of the struggles I have had with Slavich Unibrom.  I have had no end of trouble trying to get even development and retain highlight detail and I have pretty much given up on it until I can try out an alternative developer to Fotospeed’s LD20, which is all i have in my stock at the moment.

  Having a few hours free (a rare gift from Jess) to print I made a lith print using some old Agfa Brovira (see previous post).  I had to mix up some fresh standard developer for the test strip so instead of letting that go to waste I decided to try some straight up printing on Unibrom (sacrilege?) using a negative from about a year ago when I went on holiday to Scotland.  The image is of a very small plant that I discovered growing out of a bed of moss on the edge of a forest.  It has good contrast and was well exposed so I thought it would be ideal for seeing what Unibrom can deliver when it comes to straight up printing. 

  I made a test strip, chose an exposure and did a flat print.  It looked good, strong cool blacks and good highlights.  

Ignore the dust etc, my scanner is currently filthy!

   It would need some dodging and burning to get the most out of it though, and i was considering what needed to be done i found my thoughts turning to the lith developer I had just used.  It still had some life left in it so why not try some second pass lith?  I have seen some fine examples of this paper using the second pass method and now seemed like a good opportunity to try it out.  I got out my potassium ferricyanide/bromide bleach, bleached the print all the way back, rinsed it and then put it in the lith developer.  The colours were superb!  The shadows started to build up from a dark coppery red through to a vivid orange before finally cooling off into grey. 

Sorry about the orientation - blogger wont let me rotate the images!

  Unfortunately I pulled the print too late and lost the lovely copper tones in the foreground foliage so I re-bleached it and tried again.  Alas the print solarised (I’m no fan of solarisation) so I made a fresh print and tried again.  Unfortunately it failed this time too.  It is going to take a bit of work to make sure I keep the colour in the foreground at the same time the highlight detail comes in.  That’s something for me to work on in my next darkroom session – maybe only partial bleaching…

Here's the solarised version

   The only drawback I discovered is that once the print goes into the fixer the lovely copper tones disappear and turn into a pale golden yellow – still very pleasing but something of a disappointment after the copper tones.  It's something to keep in mind for future prints though.

The print after the fixing bath.  I need to try and get this lovely colour into the foreground more.  This print is going to take some work i think.

  But still, at least I have found a new use for my supply of Unibrom – it’s a lovely paper and it’s a shame that I can’t seem to get it to work for me with straight lith.  As I mentioned before, perhaps a different developer would serve me better.  Until I can try that out second pass seems to be the order of the day.  I’m looking forward to trying it out with some other negatives, hopefully this weekend.

Lithing Glen Coe

  As I STILL haven’t replaced my broken Bronica SQ-A body I am stuck without a camera.  That being the case I have hardly been in the darkroom at all lately.  I managed to get an evening a few nights ago though and decided to dig through my negative file and see if there was something I missed.  I ended up looking at some rolls I had shot on holiday in Scotland earlier this year.  I had printed most of the good frames from it but there was one frame in particular I just couldn’t get a print I liked from.  It was of some mountains in Glen Coe close to dusk and the shadows were all blocked up.  I was in a rush at the time of exposure so it’s not really the best negative I could have got from the scene, and what’s more there are spots, marks and scratches all over it (bad processing on my part)!  

  I decided that maybe it was time to give it another try.  I went through a few sheets of paper but couldn’t really get anything close to what I liked, and those spots and marks were an annoyance.  I decided to try and lith it and settled on Agfa Brovira as my paper of choice.  With Brovira I can get a good range of tones and it still retains great highlight detail so was ideal for this situation.  Plus with lith marks and spots annoy me much less for some reason, maybe it's because of the gritty nature of hte final print.  

 I mixed up the developer, exposed the paper and slid it into the tray.  It took about 25 minutes to get to an appropriate snatch point, but unlike most of my other prints I pulled it just before the shadows became too dark.  There is shadow detail in this negative that would be lost if I let the blacks fully develop – a road and the texture of the mountainside – and I wanted them to still be discernible in the final print.   

  I’m pleased with the final print, there are patches of a golden yellowy tone that appeared upon drying.  I’m not sure if that’s to do with the lith process or just down to the age of the paper, I like it anyway.  I’m starting to run low on Brovira so I need to start saving it for the most important negatives, or find someone with a huge stash for sale!

  It just goes to show how important it is to keep going back to old negatives as well as printing new ones as your printing skills improve with time and you may be able to get more from your negative than you could when you first tried.

The Long Silence: Part 2

  A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post about exploring a local abandoned mental asylum and said I would follow up with more pictures.  Well, after hours of scanning, rescanning, stitching, rescanning, stitching, colour balancing, rescanning, stitching and re colour balancing (I hate Photoshop) I have finally managed to scan my prints and get the scans to look (almost) like the prints.  I really should learn not to print bigger than 8 x 10 because my scanner can’t fit the print in and my computer struggles to run photoshop (I really need to get round to wiping it and reinstalling everything).

  First things first though, a little bit of history (Wikipedia based of course).  Construction on the asylum began in 1869 as the three Lancashire asylums in Prestwich, Rainhill and Lancaster were deemed to be full.  It was designed by Henry Littler, Architect to the Lancashire Asylums Board.  It officially opened in April 1873 and had an initial capacity of 1000 inmates.  Within the grounds were a church, a chapel, a large recreation hall and a farm estate.  In 1878 a new annexe was started to the north of the hospital and this was completed in 1880.  This allowed a further 115 patients to be housed and a dedicated Post Office to be created onsite.  Shortly thereafter in 1884 a sanatorium was established in the hospital grounds to cater for patients with infectious diseases.

  In 1892 works began to provide electric lamps throughout the grounds and another new annexe was started, followed by another in 1912.  By 1915 the hospital housed 2820 inmates, more than double the original capacity.  The Whittingham Hospital Railway which was used to transport coal, goods and staff between the hospital and Grimsargh was closed in June 1957.

  When the First World War struck a new annexe was commissioned to cater for war casualties.  Patients who died were buried on a private cemetery within the hospital grounds.  When the war ceased the hospital returned to private use.

  In 1923 the decision was made to change the name ‘Whittingham Asylum’ to ‘Whittingham Mental Hospital’, presumably to make it sound a little less imposing.  When the Second World War struck the hospital was again used in treating victims of the war.  In 1948 the hospital was renamed to ‘Whittingham Hospital’ after it became a part of the newly formed National Health service.

  In the late 60’s meetings were held with senior staff to discuss complaints of cruelty, ill-treatment and fraud within the hospital.  Those who held the meetings were then threatened with actions for libel and slander.  Eventually the Hospital Management Committee intervened and began inquiries into the allegations of corruption and abuse.

  The hospital eventually closed in 1995 and the hospital still sits there, fenced off.  Plans have been in progress for a number of years to build new homes on the site, but as yet have not been finalised.

  That’s the history, now let’s take a look inside.  I have included the 2 pictures from my previous post just for the sake of completeness.  As previously stated I decided to use the lith process on these prints as the high contrast and graininess would really complement the textures within the decaying buildings.  I used Agfa Brovira paper as it retains highlight detail really well when lathing and you can get a wide variety of print tones depending on developer dilution and life.  I hope you enjoy:

The Long Silence

  The title of this post has a two-fold meaning.  Firstly, i haven't uploaded a post in absolutely ages,  and i'm sorry about that.  The past few months have been hectic and i just haven't been able to get into the darkroom to do any printing at all.  I was hoping to finish the series this post is dealing with off and upload all the images together, but as it looks like i won't be back in the darkroom for (what feels like) eternity i thought i had better upload the first part now.

  This post is about one of my favourite photographic subjects - abandoned places.  Regular readers will know that i love to get into abandoned buildings and take photos.  A few months ago i finally found my way into Whittingham Asylum, a large complex of buildings not far from where i live.  This place is without a doubt the biggest explore i have done and it was amazing.  I barely scratched the surface of what was available to see and i ran out of time before i had even covered a quarter of the complex.  I definitely need to go back.  And soon.

  For me, urban exploration photography is all about texture.  Peeling paint, rotting wood, crumbling walls etc all catch the available light and enhance the texture of photographs.  When inside i shot a roll of old Portra 160NC and a roll of Ilford FP4+.  When home I developed both rolls and decided to start printing the colour first as i hadn't done any RA4 in a long time.  It didn't go too well as i kept getting light leaks on my paper (it was a sunny day, there must be a hole in my shed letting light in that i need to plug).  I got one print that i liked as shown below:

  I decided to ditch colour for a while and concentrate on the black and white roll.  The problem was that what with the roofs missing from parts of the buildings, there are areas of extreme highlights on some of the walls.  Some of the shots i took are unusable because i just couldn't retain highlight detail.  I printed a few of the other frames but i just wasn't happy with what i got.

  I decided to try some shots in lith, but i didn't want the extreme contrast you get with some papers like Slavich Unibrom - that would have resulted in even more highlight loss.  I decided to use some Agfa Brovira (G3) i had recently come into as I knew it would give a nice even development but still retain that nice lith look.  Brovira has a "softer" lith effect than some other papers and highlight detail can be retained much easier.

  I mixed up some LD20 and made the first print, which took about 25 minutes to develop:

  After a good wash i toned in Selenium 1:5 for a few minutes which altered the highlight colour from a pale yellow to a slightly pinker hue which i preferred.  Normally i use a 1:9 ratio to avoid a pronounced colour change but still affect contrast, but used 1:5 as i wanted a colour change on this print.

  I then decided to print the chair photo mentioned earlier (i shot it on b&w as well as colour, just in case).  This took 45 minutes to develop, fortunately i had my stool and stereo with me (possibly the 2 most important items in any darkroom)!

  As before i toned in Selenium 1:5 but i cut toning short once the highlights were being reached (selenium toning starts in the shadows and moves up) to retain the yellow hue.  This image is naturally contrastier due to the light coming in through the windows and i think the cool greys of the shadows works well will the warm highlights.  The straight print of this is nowhere near as good as the lith version in my opinion.  Sometimes an image just needs lith.

  I have still got a few more frames to print which i will hopefully be able to do this weekend, failing that next week.  As soon as they're done ill get them uploaded and posted here.  In the meantime keep printing and ill see you again soon.

A Reasonable Excuse For Being late?

  On Thursday Jess was working the morning shift, so what with her being lazy unable to drive it fell to me to drop her off.  A quick ten minute journey and i was back home with an hour and a half to kill before i needed to leave for work.  Plenty of time to fire off a quick lith print, yes? Yes?  Well, no not quite.

  Everything was all set up from a session a few days earlier butt he print had turned out to be a dud.  I was using old Agfa paper i had won on Ebay and it had developed very unevenly (which can sometimes be pleasing but in this case wasn't).  I decided to use my ample morning time to make another print, have some breakfast, have a wash and then head off to work satisfied in the knowledge that i have had a fruitful morning.  I started the print but ten minutes in noticed a thicker, darker band running across the centre of the print.  I ditched it and exposed another sheet.  Guess how long it took to develop... 20 minutes?  Half an hour?  No... 56 minutes!  Talk about slow!  I guess next time i use this paper ill try a stronger solution.  The problem now was that i had 5 minutes before i needed to be out the door.  Right, lock the shed, leave the print under the wash, brush my teeth, no time for a shower, deodorant on, clothes changed, hair and beard combed, shoes on, tap off, print drying, out the door, in the car, on the road!  In the end i arrived at work 2 minutes earlier but it was a push.  What do we learn?  Never try and lith on Brovira paper within the space of an hour!

  Anyway, here's the print.  I like the softer lith look this paper has given (compared to Slavich Unibrom).  I haven't experimented with toning it yet so not sure how it will react. I'm sure ill be doing some toning on it soon though so i'll let you know how it goes.

Fruits

  Sometimes Ebay is a wonderful place. I tend to go through phases, winning nothing for weeks then getting 5 things at once. A few days ago I took a gamble and won an auction for what was described as "10 opened 12" x 16" packets of Agfa paper, mostly Brovira" for £12. It was a gamble because I didnt know the storage condition of the paper and didnt know if there was 1 or ten sheets in each pack.  Well the paper arrived yesterday and I must say im chuffed. I got sent around 20 packs with some Portriga and Record Rapid thrown in too! There are a few unopened packets and some smaller packs of 9.5" x 12" and 7" x 9.5" too which is great. And to top it all off there is a pack of Fotospeed Tapestry 8" x 10" paper. A bit of research and asking around led me to the discovery that this is basically the legendary Kentmere Kentona paper under Fotospeed branding! Hopefully it will be in good condition and ill be able to get some decent prints out of it. I believe most if not all of these papers lith to varying degrees so it is going to be interesting to experiment.

  Anyway, boast over! It always pays to keep an eye on Ebay. But then again, dont - more for me!!!

The Curse of the Big Print

  Months and months ago i made a 16 x 16 lith print on a sheet of Afa MCC 118 paper which turned out perfect.  I plan on framing it and (hopefully) getting it into the Harris Museum open exhibition which is where "artists" in and around the Preston area get to submit a piece of their work for display in the museum.

  Meanwhile i have literally spent the past two months trying to get this print scanned.  Big print and small scanner is not a good combination.  I am using an Epson V500 to scan with and i will take a sheet of A4 size paper, so i'm having to scan the print in several separate sections.  The problem comes when trying to stitch them together in Photoshop.  I have been having computer issues lately (its getting old and i think i just need to wipe it an reinstall everything again) and so Photoshop keeps having a sulk whenever i try and do anything with large files.  It's a shame really as the negative i made the print of is one of my favourite ones to print, i love everything about the image; plus, it works great in lith.

  Anyway, in the end got so fedup im decided to relith it using some smaller paper (7 x 7 Orwo BN 118 to be exact) and post it here and on Flickr.  So here it is, finally online:

  The print on Agfa paper has a more yellow colour to it than this pinkish one but i think it still works.  Im looking forward to framing it and getting it displayed.