I felt it time to make a lith print from a collodion negative again so when shooting my brother on black glass I made sure the last plate was a clear one on 4×5″. It’s been awhile and I had some new paper to try as well: Foma MG Classic 542 II, matte chamois. I liked it very much, texture-wise and lith-wise. Will have to work on that a little more to see more of the possibilities of this very paper.
I exposed the negative three times longer than I did the positives and developed with the same chemistry, standard formula by Scully & Osterman, nothing special there. I ended up with a really contrasty negative BUT with all the detail in there. It looked lovely when I switched on the enlarger! Lith printing this negative while preserving all the detail is a different story. More fine-tuning is required but the results surprised me so much I rather found them pleasing!
Paper used: Foma MG Classic 542 II
Chemistry used: Moersch Easylith 1+1+24, +- 24 degrees
Exposure time: 50 seconds
Snatch point: 4 minutes
Exposure time: 60 seconds
Snatch point: 4:30 minutes
The prints look a whole lot different than the 10×10″ BGA of the former post.. It’s nice to play around with this. Definitely one of the reasons I want to work more with negatives; you have a plate where all the fun begins, instead of with the BGA, where it ends. The possibilities are beyond infinite. It seems I love to get lost there 😉
Have a good weekend, gents!
Photography Contrastique - Alternative Photographic Processes 