Digital BW, The Print

This is a little off topic, but fits with your topic of "hybrid
digital/silver" processes.

Check out Dan Burkholder's great site http://www.danburkholder.com/. He uses
Epson printers, primarily the 2200 and 1280, to make "digital negatives." He
then contact prints the digital negatives on regular photographic print
paper and develops them using a standard wet process.

The process:
1. Shoot digitally or scan film
2. Dodge/burn/flash/tweak the image in Photoshop to create your B&W
masterpiece
3. Invert the image and print it at final print size on transparency film
(you must apply a special curve first to get it to print in a way that makes
the print look like the monitor)
4. Contact print it onto standard photographic paper and develop with a
normal wet darkroom process

The benefit: You get all the benefits of digital in the capture and
manipulation stage, but you get a final print that is silver gelatin print
with its great blacks and tonality.
(Incidentally, if you want the absolute best digital negatives, he explains
how to make them with an imagesetter, a 3600-4800 dpi device used to make
trenchancies used in the lith process.)

You really don't have to purchase anything to use his process, but I'd
strongly recommend buying his $15 "Inkjet Negative Companion," available at
his site.
I was pleasantly surprised that my first attempts looked very good. I plan
to do a little tweaking of the special curve to improve the monitor-to-print
match, but it was quite good right off the bat.

As a bonus, check out the pictures at his site. I think they are pretty
amazing.

Steve
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "hill14701" <hill14701@...>
To: <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, November 25, 2004 7:49 AM
Subject: [Digital BW] Re: lith redevelopment - Success!




Roger and all,

The prints from Mpix.com can be bleached and redeveloped in a lith
developer.  While
not a "true" lith print is made, redeveloping in lith will introduce lith
type effects on
the print.  My prints acheived a split tone, stretching from purple to pink,
in the
midtone and highlight areas while the darker tones remained neutral.  The
creative
possibilities are endless, and this gives an excellent look to portraiture.

As I had no lith chemisty available but plenty of gumption, I bleached the
print in
standard septia toner to about 75% completion.  I used crystal drano (Sodium
Hydroxide) as the catalyst for the lith effect.  I added 1-1/2 tablespoons
to 1 liter of
water with 10 milliters of Sprint Film Developer.  The print redeveloped
slowly, then
quickly started to change colors - when the print looked right it was
snatched from
the developer and quickly dropped into stop bath and given a complete wash
sequence.

I did try paper developer in a standard working dilution, but the developer
was much
too active to achieve a lith effect.  It worked perfectly with very dilute
film developer
with a larger amount of NaOH.  I am beginning to see the possibilities of
this hybrid
digital/silver process and am very excited.  That and no banding!

Don



> I'd also like to hear the details about the Lith redevelopment process.
>   Please tell all Don.  This is a Digital Black and White list.  IMHO it
> sounds like this process is at least half digital, I'd think it's close
> enough to desired topic to be shared with the list.  Thanks, so much.
>
> Roger Smith, East Lansing, MI







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