Finishing in the Mountains & Digging into the past

  My previous post was regarding the prints i made from a roll of film i shot whilst away on holiday in Glencoe, Scotland... and so is this post!  This week has been one of those wonderful weeks where Jess has had a lot on in the evenings, so i've been pretty much left to my own devices.  An we all know what that means don't we - key out, gate open, electric cable in, red light on!

  On the roll i shot there were two more prints i wanted to make.  I may end up printing some of the other frames at some point in the future but at the moment i don't find the "subjects" particularly interesting on one of them and the other one is ever so slightly out of focus (dammit)! 

  I started off in my usual manner on my first print - test strips, proof prints etc but after an hour or so i couldn't seem to get a decent looking print.  I knew i wanted to lith print the other two so i decided to try and lith this first one as well.  I mixed up some LD20 (15A, 15B, 10 old brown and make it up to an 800ml solution).  For the first print i decided to dig into my mini-stash of Orwo BN118 which is a paper i know nthing about except i have used it on a few prints previously and it tends to give a nice brown colour overall with not very much infectious development (much like Agfa Brovira which i'm a huge huge huge fan of).  Previous prints i have made on this paper didn't really have many highlight tones so i was interesting to see how it would handle the sky in this shot.  I did a test strip, determined the correct exposure, added 3 stops, exposed and started developing.  Eventually i pulled the print, stoppped, fixed and rinsed as usual, gave it a little dunk in selenium toner (1:9) and this is what i got:

  Not the greatest print i've ever done i reckon but a good start.  The paper has handled the highlights well (not that there are tonnes) and the shadows are nice and gritty.  To be honest the composition and light on this shot isn't the best but not much i can do about that now is there?!

  My next print was one i took on the road to Glencoe.  There's a huge layby on a sweeping bend of the road which was practically made for tourists.  I was there for about 45 minutes and i think at least 5 coach loads of people came and went in that time, compact cameras a-flashing.  I found myself chuckling when i pondered how their images would turn out.  For some reason people's holiday photos just amuse me - "here's a lovely landscape with my wife stood in front; here's an interesting statue with my daughter in front, here's a hedge with my brother in front".  Bizarre how most people seem to think shots are improved by having family members stood in front of them.  I think it may stem from my parents who overload on holiday photos, every single one having my mum or dad stuck right bang in the middle of the scene!  Anyway - back on track!  I did two exposures at this scene, one standard and one using a cheapo 10 stop filter i got off ebay/amazon (i can't quite remember).  After inspecting the contact sheet i decided to print the long exposure one (seriously, the exposure was like 8 minutes or something - i'd give you an exact figure but my notebook is buried in the under-stairs cupboard and going in there is an undertaking that requires at least half a day and a hearty breakfast, neither of which i have), predominantly because the sky had a better looking shape and also because there was a huge drying mark on the standard one.  I decided to use my precious precious supply of Fotospeed Lith paper for this print.  This paper is long gone but i got 20 sheets on ebay months ago and i'm saving it for very special prints and this felt like one of those.  In my mind i pictured something dark with emphasis put on the lake and sky.  I chose an exposure accordingly and started to develop.  When the time seemed right i pulled the print, processed and selenium toned in 1:9 again.  This caused a boost in the blacks as usual which resulted in some slight loss of detail in the foreground landscape - i expected this though and it was what i wanted.  I wanted the foreground to look almost blocked up so as to add further emphasis to the lake (which took on a lovely pale lilac type colour).  Here's the final result:

  I think it works well and i like the pale pastel tones taken on by the highlights.  Now if only Fotospeed would bring the lith paper back out (only 16 sheets left)!  On your screen you may be seeing some brownish areas in the dark foreground, that's just come from scanning - the print wasn't entirely flat and so some light got in, a bit of a pain but i'm not going to rescan and edit it all over again - just imagine everything in the balck areas is entirely black!

  For regular readers of this blog (if indeed there are any) you may pick up on the vibe that i begrudge wasting chemicals - they're expensive and i want to squeeze everything out of them that i can.  Some would coll that anal, i call it thrifty!  I knew that would be power for at least one more print in the lith developer so i hit the negative folder hard in search of something to print from my past.  I eventually stumbled upon  roll of film i shot at Whitby Abbey a few years ago on my honeymoon (7th May 2011 - a real man remembers when he got married) and realised i had never really printed from it (at that time i was still scanning all my negatives - terrible)!  The whole roll was pretty much a write-off mostly due to lack of ability to not chop the tops of images off when using a Diana camera.  One shot looked great though (even if it is from the exact same angle that everyone seems to take pictures of Whitby abbey from) so i decided to lith it and see what we got.  I spent a few minutes pondering what paper to use (because as you should all know by now paper choice has a massive effect on final print in lith).  As i was feeling somewhat devil-may-care a decided to use a sheet of my even-rarer-than-fotospeed-lith tapestry paper.  This is a textured "art" paper that liths incredibly well and when put into selenium toner will give at least 3 colour splits.  I have used one sheet before to create a watercolour style effect - see here for details.  I decided to give it a go with this print as it was somewhat heavier on the shadows and lower midtones than i have previously lithed on this paper, i was interested to see what i would end up with.  I determined exposure, processed and dipped into the selenium toner (1:9 again) and as expected colours kept changing from the shadows up through to the highlights.  I kept the print in the selenium until i got a nice cool grey in the lower mids and lovely pale pastel yellows and lilacs in the tones of the sky.  When using this paper previously i would paint the toner onto areas i want to alter the colours of but i thought this print looked fine as it was so i left it to dry (keeping in mind that when wet it is a yellowy colour but would dry-down to a salmon pink tone).  Once dry i was pleased with how it looked:

  Again - scanning problems!  Because this paper is heavily textured it wouldn't render the blacks actually black so they have the kind of look you get when you're trying to scan through dense colour film.  Again, just imagine that the shadow areas are solid black! 

  So, a successful darkroom session from which i learnt the following things:

• I hate scanning
• Lith printing continues to rule

  All i need to do now is actually go out and shoot some more film (it's been 2 months since i've even touched my camera - naughty me) so i can crack on printing.  Perhaps in the meantime i should go back through my old negatives and see if there's anything i've missed.  until next time - happy printing!

Surprisingly Pleasing Surprises

  Most of the time when I go into the darkroom I have a pretty good idea of what I want to achieve.  This isn’t really due to any forward planning or meditation, I just can’t get in there as much as I would like and so I tend to have a few days between sessions where I can be thinking about what I want to do with certain negatives.  So when I went into the darkroom last week I knew what I wanted to do with my latest negative.

  I had taken Ellie (our dog) for a walk on the beach with Jess earlier in the week.  The tide was out so there were small pools everywhere filled with starfish, crabs, shells and seaweed.  As I had a few doggy poo bags in my pocket I decided to fill one with various shells and things from the beach so I could shoot some still life (I hadn’t shot any film in ages and I was starting to get twitchy)!  So I filled my bag, tired out the dog and headed home.

  The next day I setup my new Bronica body (yes, I replaced the broken one at last) on my new tripod, setup some lights and got shooting.  I used the S-36 extension tube to get up nice and close, then added close up filters where necessary.  Side lighting came from a table lamp shining from above and slightly to the right of “the subject”.  I used the auto prism I had received with my new body for exposure as I (shamefully) couldn’t be bothered spot metering it.

  Once done I loaded the film into the tank and mixed up my chemistry.  I developed the Pan F+ for 15 minutes in ID11 1:3, stopped, fixed and washed as usual.  Unfortunately the negative came out very thin indeed.  I’m assuming the developer stock solution had expired as I mixed it up about a month and a half ago, but maybe the auto metering wasn’t up to scratch; I don’t see why though as it was a very low contrast scene.  I don’t really use ID11 so that’s my excuse, I should have just stuck to Rodinal but I didn’t want to waste chemistry.  That’ll teach me!

  So, with dry negative in hand I entered the darkroom.  I started, as usual, by making a contact sheet; I’ve been doing that a lot more lately as it’s a good practice to get into.  I could see from that that there were only two or three frames I liked enough to print so I loaded the first and made a test strip.  After fiddling with contrast filters and exposure times I settled on Grade 4 at 4.00 seconds on Kentmere VC Select.  That’s a tiny amount of exposure.  Normally my base exposures are in the 18 seconds mark at grade 3, so you can see just how thin the negative was!  Fortunately, for this frame, all the detail I wanted was recorded on the negative.

  What I had planned for this negative was some second pass lith. If you’re not familiar with it please see here.  Basically you overexpose a print, bleach it back as far as you like then put it into lith developer.  So, I made my overexposed base print as described above:

 Then I bleached it back until the border shadows were just starting to be affected:

   Then I redeveloped in lith, stopped and fixed as normal.  What I found interesting is that the print did not redevelop as much as I thought it would.  Theoretically the print should just keep developing until it is all black, but this print didn’t and I’m not too sure why.  I haven’t really done much experimentation with second pass lith, I really should devote more time to it. 

  So here is the final print.  Note I didn’t get the usual greys and pinks with this paper, but a paler grey and some yellowy highlights which, although unexpected, are still pleasing to the eye:

  So what do we learn?  Sometimes what you plan isn’t what you get.  Often something surprising can happen, and often that surprise is something good.

How To: Create 2nd Pass Lith Prints

  Second pass lith is a phrase coined by Tim Rudman and is another tool in the printers tool belt that (like lith) can open up a whole new world of possibilities.  Just like lith developing a plethora of colours are available to the printer who takes time to get to grips with the process and is willing to experiment a little.  In this how-to we’ll run through the basics of 2^nd pass lith so that you can get started yourself.

  First, we should talk about what 2^nd pass lith actually is.  Unlike lith developing where we overexpose the paper and then slip it into the lith bath, with 2^nd pass lith we develop a slightly overexposed print in our normal developer, bleach it back and then redevelop it in lith developer.  The special thing about 2^nd pass lith is that it can be used on some papers that do not straight lith, meaning that new avenues are opened up for the printer.  I like to use Kentmere VC Select as it is readily available, relatively cheap and gives lovely greys and pinks on redevelopment.  It is best to experiment with the different papers you have.  Some that lith nicely wont second pass at all whilst others will give a good effect.  Take some time to try some of your stock out and see what you can come up with.  Tim Rudman regularly produces a PDF document with the results of papers and developers currently on the market.  It’s definitely worth a read and you can sign up to get it on his website here

  To demonstrate the process let’s talk through a print or two of mine that i have used this process on.  The first print we will discuss is one i took at a wedding of the front of the wedding car.  Not an especially wonderful print but it serves our demonstration purposes well here.  I did a test strip on from 0 – 30s at grade 2 and came up with this:

 

  I chose the 30s time as it had the detail i wanted (i was only printing this to make this tutorial so was too focused on getting exposure spot on).  I had to do a little dodging and burning (particularly on the bonnet as the sun was hitting it hard on the day) to get an even exposure across the print.  I should state that when you are making a print to 2^nd pass lith it should be overexposed (made darker) slightly (around ¼ - ¾ of a stop, depending on the effect you go for) to compensate for the loss of highlight detail you will get when bleaching and redeveloping (remember the shadows will accelerate in the lith developer and so highlight detail may get left behind).  So, i developed my print (making sure it was slightly denser) and came up with this (which this damned blog hosting website wont let me rotate!):

   Nothing mind-blowing but it will do.  Note how the highlights are burned in quite heavily.  This is important because i want to retain detail in the bonnet highlights before the shadows get too blocked up.

  After the usual wash it is time to bleach the print.  If you have a bleach from a sepia toning kit that will do nicely.  Now comes experimentation time.  You can bleach the whole print back, bleach only the highlights, bleach partway into the midtones or bleach until you just touch the shadows; it’s really up to you.  Bleaching time will obviously effect the look of your final print so it is good to make a few copies of the same print and try different bleaching times, then compare the final prints and see what works for you.  The type of bleach you use will also effect the colour you get upon redeveloping.  Bleach supplied with toner kits is usually a potassium ferricyanide/potassium bromide mix but copper sulphate bleaches are also available (among others).  If you are only bleaching a little it is good to dilute your bleach (around 1:7 is what i find best) as this gives you more control.  If you put a print into full strength bleach it will disappear very rapidly, a weaker bleach will allow you time to inspect and decide when to pull the print.

  With this print i first tried bleaching only the highlight, but it didn’t work as on redevelopment the shadow blocked up before any highlight detail started to return.  Bleaching all the way back led to a very flat image.  In the end i bleached partway into the lower mid-tones resulting in this:

  After a good wash to make sure all the bleach was removed i put the print into my lith developer and started agitating the tray.  Another good thing about 2^nd pass lith is that it can be done with the lights on, therefore meaning that you can keep a good eye on the print a development progresses.  You may find that development is very rapid, sometimes just 1 minute!  With this print the shadows started building up nicely as the highlights were starting to come in.  This paper tends to give nice greys in the midtones and lovely pinks in the highlights:

  I toned this print in selenium toner which reduced some of the pink and gave the mid-tone greys a cooler blueish colour.  As you can see, although not true lith it does have some lith characteristics like high contrast, cool grainy shadows and colourful highlights.

  Let’s now take a look at another print.  This is a quick portrait i shot of my wife Jess at a wedding we went to recently.  It was shot on Ilford Delta 400 and developed in Rodinal.  Big mistake.  I quickly came to see that delta films developed in Rodinal give hideous, hideous grain!  Won’t be making that mistake again!  But as i liked the shot i decided to give it a try with 2^nd pass lith on Kentmere VC Select to see what happened.  I spent some time doing a test strip and subsequently had to change the grade to get the contrast i wanted.  A print at grade 2 resulted in this monstrosity:

   So i did a split on a sheet of paper, grade 3 on the left and grade 4 on the right.  Grade 4 gave me roughly the look i wanted so i did a straight print.  When it came to bleaching i left the print in the potassium ferricyanide/potassium bromide until the shadows were just starting to be affected. 

  I then washed thoroughly and began redeveloping in the lith developer.  The shadows emerged nicely and the highlights took on a pleasing pale pinkish tone.  When the time seemed right i snatched the print and stop, fixed and washed as usual.  I then finished off with a small amount of selenium toning to give a little extra “pop” to the print.  I like how the 2nd pass has forced the eyes to stand out from the shot more and given the hair nice detailed contrast.

 Variables

  As with straight lith there are many factors that can affect the look of the final print.  The paper used, developer temperature and dilution, the type of bleach used, time bleached, time developed and the overexposure of the original print can all change the look of the resulting print; and it would be good to spend some time experimenting with these.

  But who’s to say that 2^nd pass lith has to use standard developer then lith developer?  You can start with lith and end with lith if you like, or you can start with lith then end with standard dev.  It’s really up to you – again, experimentation is the word!

  As with straight lith, toning can often alter the colours you can get on the final print.  I find selenium can have a huge effect on the highlight colours particularly. It is good to take a print, cut it into strips and tone for varying amounts of time.  Some papers will show little change where others can go from yellow highlights t pinkish red, plum, steely grey and brown!  I’m going to say it again – experiment!

  So as you can see, 2^nd pass lith is a lot of fun and is a great way of extending your printing vocabulary.  I hope you give it a try and i hope you like the results you get.  Here’s a print of mine to end on that is 2ndpass lithed on Orwo BN118.

How To: Make Black & White Print Part III - Split Grade Printing

  Split grade printing is a powerful tool in the printers skill set and when used correctly it can yield fantastic results.  For some people it works all the time, every time; for others it’s a bit hit and miss; and some just can’t get seem to get the hang of it at all.  Hopefully this tutorial will help you get to grips with the process and give you the impetus to give it a try yourself.

What is Split Grade Printing?

  Basically speaking split grade printing involves making two exposures of two different grades onto the one sheet of paper.  This will result in good overall contrast across the print, deep shadows and crisp white highlights.  It also opens up more avenues for dodging and burning (but we'll go into that in greater detail on Part IV).

The Process

  You will need all the equipment we have already discussed in parts one and two of my black and white printing tutorial.  Setup your enlarger and chemicals as previously and choose your paper (for this example i will once again be using Ilford MGIV RC VC).  Now, instead of dialling in grade 2 or 3 we will be using the softest (or lowest) grade our paper can manage (usually 00).  

  If you look at the filtration table on the datasheet that comes with your paper you will see different filtration settings ranging from 00 to 5 (dual filtration settings may only got up to 4.5).  As you can see from the table below, grade 00 on my Kodak style enlarger requires a setting of 162Y/0M.  Dial that setting in, put your paper on your easel and make a test strip in the same way we did in part two of the tutorial. 

  Once you have developed your print let it dry.  Here is an example of a test strip at grade 00 from 26s - 0s:

 

  As you can see it is very low contrast indeed and shadow areas are very grey, not black.  Examine your test strip and look for the time that gives you the highlight tones you want. Ignore shadow areas for now and ignore the lack of contrast – your focus should be entirely upon the highlights.  Once you have selected your time make a note of it and, if you want to, make a full print at that time to see how the highlights across the whole print look.  From my test strip i decided to go for 11 seconds.

  Now its time to create your second exposure.  Put a new sheet of paper onto your easel and make your grade 00 exposure on  it (11s in my case).  Once your exposure is done don’t move the paper because you’re going to do another test strip on it.  This is where having multigrade filters trumps using a colour head because you need to change the filtration.  If youre using multigrade filters just swap your 00 for a 5, if youre using a colour head you will have to cover your lens, run your enlarger, change the settings and then shut your enlarger off.  

  Looking back at your paper datasheet youll see that when using dual filtration on this paper grade 5 is not possible but grade 4.5 is.  That’s fine, just use as high a grade as you can.  So, for grade 4.5 on Ilford MGIV RC VC we need to dial in a setting of 0Y/150M.  Dial that in and then make a test strip on your paper.  Develop it as usual and let it dry.

  What you will have is a print with a base exposure at grade 00 and a test strip of grade 4.5/5 over the top.  Note that the grade 4.5/5 exposure doesn’t really effect the highlights much, just the shadows.  This is the key to split grade printing – your soft exposure (grade 00) effects the highlights, the hard exposure (grade 5/4.5) effects the shadows.

  Pick the hard exposure that gives you the shadows you want.  Here’s my test print (again 26s - 0s):

 

  After much consideration i ended up choosing the 16 second exposure.  Once you have chosen the your exposure time your ready to make your print.  Go through the steps above – make your soft exposure followed by your hard and you should be left with a print showing good overall contrast, strong shadows and crisp highlights.  Here’s my final print:

 

  There are a few problems though, if your soft exposure is too long then your highlights will be muddy and overall print contrast will be reduced.  If your hard exposure is too short then your shadows wont be deep enough and again, overall contrast will be reduced.  It may take you a few prints to get to grips with the process but once you get the hang of it it becomes a really versatile and useful technique.

  When you are first starting out with split grade printing i find it is best to make a few prints with one negative.  Make a print with a long, medium and short soft exposure combined with a long, medium and short hard exposure.  This will show you how the two exposures work together to change the print contrast.  In the end though it boils down to one simple rule: soft exposure for the highlights, hard exposure for the shadows.  Remember that and you shouldn't go too far wrong.

  As i mentioned at the end of Part II I will be discussing dodging and burning in Part IV of this tutorial, but until then keep printing!

Dead Cities

  This is the result of that most treasured of things - free time!  Jess was out for the day with her mum and i had hours to do whatever i wanted - a joyous rarity!  I hadn't really shot any new pictures for a while so i decided to do a little photoshoot i had been planning.

  Recently a family friend had given us a new TV.  One of the old, huge Sony ones that were top of the range just before flatscreens became such a big deal.  This nicely replaced the old box we already had.  My plan was to dismantle the old TV, rip out the circuit boards and shoot some close ups of the dusty innards under "studio lighting"  I put studio lighting in quotation marks because i don't have any studio lights, just some room and desk lamps which were perfectly adequate for this task (it's not all about expensive gear).

  So, i unscrewed the shell, cut out all the cables, removed the screen and setup the "studio" which basically comprised of some wallpaper backing paper as the background, a large living room lamp to the right, a small desk lamp to the left and the camera straight on/above.  I used a variety of close up filters on the front of my lens to get in close and used the aperture to control depth of field (as close up filters give a super shallow DOF unless you stop down a lot).

  Once the film was finished i decided to develop in PMK Pyro.  I hadn't used this developer before but i remembered that i had been given some when i bought my enlarger so i mixed it up and gave it a try.  I have to say i love it, if only for the fact your negatives come out with a greenish/yellow cast.  I'm sure i'll talk more about PMK at a later date but for now on with the narrative.

  Once the film had dried i printed it onto some Fotospeed RC paper and toned it blue but i wasn't really happy with any of the prints.  I decided to try and lith them and i much prefer them this way.  I printed onto Fomaspeed N 313 which gave them a golden yellow tone and then gave them a little blue toning.  Blue + yellow = green and the final prints have this greenish cast which i must confess i rather like.

  I'm currently working on a printing tutorial as i realise i haven't done one on this blog yet and there may be some of you out there who are curious about the process but aren't sure what to do.  I'm hoping to have that up in the next week or so but until then happy shooting.