What lith developer for Fomatone VC Classic?

[RobertV]

Lith developer from Moersch will give a pink/orange tone.

Here some examples:
http://www.fotohuisrovo.nl/documenta...ng-Lith-nl.pdf

(Sorry for the Dutch translation).

[Lowell Huff]

I have seen some very attractive results with the Clayton LiquidLith A&B and both the Foma paper and the Kentmere papers.
What I have really found intrigueing is the " CHROMOSKEDASIC" PRINTING technique. It is a novel method for producing color images on black and white photographic paper without using pigments or dyes.

[rst]

I use the Fomatone with Wolfgang Moerschs SE5 Lith developer. In this developer (I have not tried others) the paper tends to get warm yellow to reddish highlight tones and greenish to brown shadow tones. To get away with the warm tones in the highlights I use two bath lith with a strong lith developer in the first bath (1+10) and a very dilute normal print developer in the second bath (e.g. Moersch Eco 1+100) The strong lith developer brings down development times (e.g. 3-4 minutes in the first bath 30-60 sec in the second), the second bath deepens the shadows a bit. But I am sure there are plenty of better methods to get to a similar result.

Cheers
Ruediger

BTW: I also tried to get a cooler tone by using Wolfgang Moerschs Finisher Blue additive which he ships with his Separol developers. I am at the very beginning of trying this. Finisher blue 1+100 as a second bath removes the light warm tones and gives a slight blueish tone in the highlights. But you have to make sure that the shadows are well developed when moving into the second bath. And I do not know what it means to print stability etc.

[conorific]

also: i use this same paper. when i first opened the fotospeed lith developer, i got beautiful colors, but the next day when i mixed up my lith developer, the colors were total crap. and worse the next day, and the next. i own all tim rudman's books on lith printing, so i know it's not something i'm doing, but why does that happen? i can't buy a new bottle of ld20 for each printing sesh.

[Rich Ullsmith]

That is a great question.

It took me a couple years to work through the 5L jugs of LD20 A and B, and at several points along the way I swore the stock had gone bad (it did have an expiration date printed on it). Weak infectious development, no colors, etc. Other times, it was automatic tone splits.

I generally avoid logic and analytical thinking during my play time, but obviously if it was working sometimes and sometimes not, it must not have been the stock developer.

Toss a strip of your paper into the tray, with the lights on, and watch what happens. It's really the greatest demo of how your particular batch of lith developer is working, and it will give clues as to what needs to be added, and what needs to be diluted.