Dear Forum,
Instead of complaining, here is a report on a successful experiment.
I recently held an exhibition featuring light boxes and decided to try printing lith prints on ADOX Printfilm. To my own surprise, it worked very well. The print film becomes quite steep in the lith developer, so you should aim for at least 3 stops of overexposure with only a small amount of bromide added. However, the film is very susceptible to grain, so you should add plenty of sulphide.
I made the exhibition prints using the following formula in the Moersch Lith Master Set:
1500 water, 70 A, 70 B, 30 C, 20 D
Use 3 stops of overexposure
Development time: 5–7 mins at 22°C
Highlights pinkish-red, shadows greenish-black
The C solution (sulphide) had been open for some time, and as it does not keep very well, it can be assumed that significantly smaller amounts of C are sufficient when using a freshly prepared batch. Too much C affects the highlight colour and the depth of the shadows
An even stronger pinkish-red/purple can be achieved with a weaker solution, more D and overexposure by 4 stops; however, this makes the shadows very dark, which is a shame with print film, which is otherwise characterised by its finely rendered details.
The print film produces very beautiful prints, though the pinkish highlight tone can look a bit garish. It is not as straightforward as on warm-toned paper, however, and anyone wishing to try this themselves should bear the following in mind:
- Determining the snatch point correctly is more difficult than with photographic paper – the prints can easily come out too late = too dense.
- The type of display and lighting makes a huge difference. When viewed against the light, the prints appear much lighter than when viewed on a white or milky background. Depending on how the film is displayed and lit, the prints must have different levels of density. You should view the test prints under exhibition conditions, otherwise there may be unpleasant surprises. As a general rule: what looks far too light when viewed against the light is just perfect on paper with low light transmission. You should also bear in mind that with prints of higher density, the pinkish tone of the highlights quickly gives way to the greenish-black of the shadows and mid-tones.
- The ideal colour for the background, if you wish to have one, is natural white. I mounted on extra-white because backlit paper was only readily available in that colour from specialist retailers, but this is (especially in combination with the daylight lamp used) a little cool for the otherwise rather warm tone of the prints.
- Print film reacts extremely quickly to toning. This means that you can achieve a neutral black in the greenish-black shadows using selenium toner, but in return the highlights turn purple-blue, and this happens in a matter of seconds. So if you want to preserve the original highlight tone, you either have to live with the greenish-black of the shadows or experiment with toning times in the range of seconds.
- Toning is therefore hardly recommended for the archival preservation of lith prints on print film if you wish to retain the original highlight tone. I bathed the prints – which will hang by the window for a month and be exposed to sunlight for a few hours every day – in Sistan (unfortunately, this has now used up my supply) and sprayed them with Tetenal light-protective varnish. The latter means that the film is no longer completely transparent, but appears slightly milky. Consequently, light-protective varnish is only recommended if the prints are mounted on paper, a matte screen or similar, but not for direct viewing.
Sample images:
http://www.fotoimpex.de/forum/index.php?act=module&module=gallery&cmd=si&img=127
http://www.fotoimpex.de/forum/index.php?act=module&module=gallery&cmd=si&img=128
All the best,
Samuli
