Master Photographer's Lith Printing Course: A Definitive Guide to Creative Lith Printing

by Tim Rudman

The intrinsic beauty and creative potential of the lith printing process is accessible to anyone who has access to a darkroom. This technique requires only special developers that are readily... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0817445390
• ISBN13: 9780817445393
• Release Date: January 1999
• Publisher: Amphoto Books
• Length: 128 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 11.2" x 11.0"

Customer Reviews

great for beginners and advanced lith printers

Very well organized and written, this book is a must for beginners and advanced lith printers alike. I am new to the process and found the book was easy to follow with great examples. The author provided lists of supplies and suppliers to make it even easier to get started as well as charts of specific papers and the effects of various developers so the beginner would know what to expect. This is not just a how-to book, but instead the author encourages exploration within the process.

Complete, Well-Organized Lith Lesson. Stunning Examples.

"The Master Photographer's Lith Printing Course" is a beautiful comprehensive guide to Lith printing. Not to be confused with ultra-contrasty lith film, Lith printing is a technique by which a print is overexposed and then partially developed in Lith developer to produce a print that is colored monochrome. Prints typically have black shadows, colored mid-tones and burned-out highlights. The photographs must be printed on lith or other suitable black-and-white paper, and the colors produced vary according to the paper and technique. Lith prints may also be toned for additional color effects. Lith printing can be done from color negatives, but normally black-and-white negatives are preferable.A photography book should be illustrated with example photographs that the reader can admire and would want to emulate. Author Tim Rudman must agree. "The Master Photographer's Lith Printing Course" contains about 125 example photographs, nicely reproduced, that are inspirational. The book is also very well organized. It starts with an introduction and FAQ. Chapter 1 provides an overview of lith printing which explains what effects lith printing produce, why, and to what subjects it might be suited. Chapter 2 talks about the equipment and materials you will need, including the qualities of each paper and developer that may be used in lith printing. Chapter 3 explains how to make a basic lith print. Chapter 4 goes into more detail about controlling printing and developing for various effects, including dodging, burning, and selective development. Chapter 5 talks about the whys and wherefores of pepper fogging, among other difficulties, and offers solutions. Chapter 6 is a short course in the chemistry behind lith printing, an understanding of which will help you prevent and solve problems. Chapter 7 is about controlling color in prints during development. Chapter 8 discusses toning lith prints, specifically with gold, selenium, and selenium plus gold toners for stunning effects. Chapter 9 talks about redeveloping conventional prints in lith developer. Chapter 10 introduces some "lith look-a-like effects" that can be achieved with sodium-hydroxide enriched developer, split-thiocarbamide toning, and various bleaching techniques. Some of these produce breathtaking results. Everything is generously illustrated. Tips and cautions are displayed in conspicuous colored boxes. The topics covered in each chapter are set out at the beginning of the chapter. The only fault I have with the book is minor: The captions that explain the photographs are quite good, but they are so small as to be difficult to read.It should be noted that Tim Rudman is British, and he uses the British names for lith papers. UK/US/Australian paper equivalents are given in the excellent appendices in the back of the book. Also found in the appendices are: a troubleshooting guide, paper characteristics for 19 papers discussed in the book, a color guide that tells us which papers produce which color

The best

I can't imagine what posessed the last reviewer to complain about the print size of this book. It's the content that matters! This is a superb book that opens up this beautiful photographic process and makes it real, understandable and 'doable' for the first time. It is really an inspirational book as well as being practical and instructional. Tim is a great teacher and communicator. Wonderful stuuf. Thank you.Harry

The One and Only Book On Lith Printing!!

More than 1 year ago, I purchased Tim's first book, "The Photographer's Master Printing Course'. I felt I needed to go to the next level in my printing of black and white images. Little did I know how this book would change my printing and darkroom life. There was a small chapter on Lith Printing and this got me started, and, addicted!, to it.With the publication of Tim's Lith book, it is the one and only book covering this little known, but, simple printing process that can add new firepower to the serious black and white printer's arsenal of techniques. As an avid 'Lithaholic', I am fascinated at the transformation of many of my black and white images into another realm of artistic interpretation with many directions with which to go. Tim lays it all out, in simple, easy to follow directions covering every aspect of this process. No one could have done a better job compiling years of experimentation into a text that will save the printer untold time in arriving at many lovely works of art using a process that I feel will be popularized by this book. It is an instantaneous classic that will be the first of many publications featuring lith printing.All praise to Tim Rudman!! Thank you Tim.

Excellent guide to an intriguing alternative process

If you are not a photographer who enjoys B & W for the ability to interpret an image by how it is printed or if you don't like darkroom work, you don't need this book. (If you have no darkroom experience, you need to learn the basics before buying this book. The text does assume familiarity with common processes, chemicals, and equipment.) But, if you are looking for alternative ways to print your images, lith printing may be for you. This is NOT lithographic in the sense of stark graphics, although you can get a similar effect. This process uses lith developer to affect the appearance of light and dark tones, usually with striking, soft, subtle, colorful effects. It is a simple process requiring patience and attention and this book tells you how to do it. The author writes in a style that is comfortable both for photographers that don't like technical details and for those who like a deeper understanding of the process. He includes lots of sample and comparison photos. He has very helpful charts, an index and a glossary at the back of the book. He discusses papers and their characteristics. Instructions are simple but clear, with lots of tips. They cover basic lith printing up to more advanced techniques such as toning, bleaching, and redevelopment. This is the only book dedicated to this process that I know of, but it is pretty much all you need.