Frank, amazing detail in the Multnoma Falls! Did you contact print the 4x5? It looks great!

Roger

I've just sent out my latest batch of postcards. Please forgive the nauseating Prince William stamps - I didn't notice that the man in the Post Office had sold them too me until it was too late.

fyi-I have a list update to do, will try to update it today.

I received Frank's and Ole's cards today. Both are beautiful images. I will be out of town for the next three weeks (Colorado/Utah) shooting. Should have some new images to print as postcards when I return.

Have a great trip!

I will be leaving a set of my original postcard for the postlady to send to the newcomers. The 2 houses on the street are almost through the stages which knock up so much dirt so I will be taking the enlarger apart this weekend to clean it and will hopefully be printing a new set, too.

I'll be away for for 3 or 4 weeks too, but will be back with lots of new images from my road trip from Toronto to Vancouver and back (through the Rocky Mountains.)

..

Frank, amazing detail in the Multnoma Falls! Did you contact print the 4x5? It looks great!

Roger

Thanks Roger - It is not a contact print - I enlarged it very slightly to crop to the aspect ratio of the card. 150mm Omegaron f5.6 in a Pro XL6 Omega enlarger. I have a 20 x 24 in my livingroom that I am very happy with.

-Frank

I received an image in the postcard exchange yesterday. I am unsure of who to thank for a beautiful and striking image that I really like. The image was mailed from Canada and the signature was from a Jed...I have searched the postcard exchange and member list and have been unable to determine who to thank. I would really appreciate knowing so that I can ask some questions about paper, process etc.

ged (which is his apug name) is Gerard... our most recent member. He was in the address files attached to my last note (I remember cause it didn't interpret Quebec with those funny accented characters properly)

Thanks Nige...now I can acknowledge this properly.

My apologies for the confusion. Yes, Ged is short for Gerard. I would be happy to answer any questions you have.

Nige, do you think it be useful to change the name in the address list to match my APUG login? Thanks.

Gerard, When you have the time, please share with us how you made the image that you sent? It appears to be a posterization...but I am not sure. Anything that you would be willing to share would be appreciated. Very nice image by the way.

nuh, we've got you figured now :)

BTW, I got your card today too. Some techy details would be good.

The photo is indeed a posterisation. This was done with Kodalith film developed in Kodak's Lith developer for 2:45 (45 sec constant agitation followed by 2 minutes stand). Lith film usually gives you just blacks and whites but through a combination of over and under exposure, you can get 4 tones (white, two greys and black).

I made three lith positives by contact printing the original neg. If N is the correct exposure time, the lith positives were exposed for N, N-1 and N+1. Three lith negatives were made by contact printing the lith positives this time using the same exposure, N, for all three.

A test strip was then made from the lightest lith neg and the print time (PT) chosen so that whites comes out white but blacks are only light grey. The print was made using PT for the lightest lith neg, PT+1 for the middle one and PT+3 for the darkest. I reduced the exposure for the darkest neg slightly to ensure that the statue's hand was separated from the darker grey of the archway but perhaps should have fiddled with the exposure time of the medium neg as well.

The difficult part is registration of the 3 lith negs since they need to be exposed separately. Perhaps this postcard can count as 2 or 3 cards since it required multiple exposures. :) I used 3 neg carriers and made a stab at alignment through a combination of trial and error, and drawing landmarks on a piece of paper. If anyone knows of a better way to register the negs, I would be really interested as the print is noticably misaligned.

Oh, and the paper I used was Agfa Multicontrast Premium RC Semi-matt.

Gerald, I'm impressed!

Especially as I find myself searching through the files to find negatives that can be printed without any manipulations at all - all of mine have been straight prints, grade 2 (no filter)!

One question: Would it have been possible to make one negative from the three lith positives? I have found that developing lith film in print developer gives contiuous tones - then you would only have to fihgt the registration once?

One suggestion I've read for aligning negs without a register punch is to etch an X with a needle in two corners of the original neg (in the margin), and then use these marks with a loupe for registration of the subsequent layers.

Ged,
I had my enlarger (Saunders 4550 XLG) modified to incorporate pin registration. The modifications that were done are a modified negative stage which has three tightening screws and new rear and side stops to precisely reposition the negative carrier each time. Additionally, my negative carrier has registration pins and I have a contact printing frame with registration pins whose spacing corresponds to the negative carrier. Lastly a punch which has been modified for film punching in which the film is precisely positioned against stops prior to punching. This gives me registration with repeat accuracy of less then .003 inch. A good machinist will be able to build something similar to this for most enlargers. Just by way of information.

Thanks everyone for your nice comments and suggestions!

Ole: Using the 3 lith positives to create a single negative is an interesting idea! This may lead to quite a heavy neg and the result when printed could be similar to a bas relief. In this case, it was not quite the effect I was after as I wanted a pictorial effect with just the 4 tones.

David: It would be great if I could get something that simple to work! With a posterisation, the layers need to be exposed individually - you cannot sandwiche the negs since each layer is given a different exposure. So, it would be necessary to align each neg against something else such as the neg carrier. Do you have any recommendations for doing this?

Donald (I presume): Thanks for the information! I might contact you privately to get some more details if you don't mind.

Gerard,
Certainly, please feel free to contact me if I can be of any help in this regard.

Don Miller

[quote="ged"]
The difficult part is registration of the 3 lith negs since they need to be exposed separately. Perhaps this postcard can count as 2 or 3 cards since it required multiple exposures. :) I used 3 neg carriers and made a stab at alignment through a combination of trial and error, and drawing landmarks on a piece of paper. If anyone knows of a better way to register the negs, I would be really interested as the print is noticably misaligned.

quote]

I've done posterizations like that, but I don't enlarge them, I contact print to the paper. I enlarge them to size using my easel to hold things in place by butting the film into the corner. When printing the neg is butted into the corner again on top of the paper with a glass sheet on top. The paper is taped down to keep it from misregistering between exposures. If you have register pins for plate burning you can tape punched tabs to the film and make the job a bit easier. Carlson made them, they are small flat tabs with low pins welded on and can be taped down wherever needed for contact printing.
One interesting then you can do with this technique is burn textures into the tone areas or even project a totally different negative onto the paper through the neg to create really strange juxtapositions.

I received a wonderful post card title "Abrupt," but I can't quite make out the name. It does start with an "H." Lovely photo.

Jeremy, the name is "Henning" - jansenh. He's got his darkroom up and running at last!

That is a lovely shot, Henning. It reminds me of that Daliesque photograph in Ansel Adams' _The Camera_ of a church behind a stone archway that is at an oblique angle to the church, and to make a nice rectilinear photograph of the archway, the church must be radically skewed (as I recall, he uses that photograph to demonstrate rear swing).