The Alternative Processes - Are they worth it?

As a general rule, alternative processes include imagemaking methods that were swept aside by the march of silver gelatine, a more flexible process with perceived higher quality or lower cost. They do, however have an ardent following and as they are used mainly to create monochrome images (not always black and white) they are worthy of discussion for this mono-feature-magazine. We visited a number of websites as part of our research but you could do worse than try www.alternativephotography.com.

I have never felt that an image should be shown undue reverence just because it was made with a mixture of frogs’ legs and newts’ eyes, boiled in a cauldron for days on end. Mike Ware discusses the topic in some depth (and with great perception) in an essay reproduced at www.mikeware.demon. co.uk/defence.html; (it was originally reproduced in Contemporary Photography in 1996). Ware objects to the BJP comment that “…fine art photography…is riddled with archaic printing processes.” He seems compelled to challenge the implied prejudice – presumably the connotations of the word riddled. All points of view are accepted at Professional Imagemaker. It is interesting to read his comments on the Photographic Society’s “Fading Committee” of 1855 – nothing changes! At least the carbon, palladium and platinum prints have demonstrated their longevity with examples at the RPS dating back to c1880. However we don’t know how many prints have died on the way. The practitioners of photography at these times were essentially experimentalists with a distinct leaning towards chemistry and physics. There is no sound reason to suppose, therefore, that they represent the leading pictorial thinking and reasoning of the day – they are in the archives because they have lasted the course either through luck, or skill, in chemistry.

In striving to improve the ease of use and quality of the prints, our photographic forebears came up with a process that is consistently mimicked today – sepia coloured prints. The fact that Printing out Papers created a sepia tone within an inexpensive, long- lasting image, has resulted in most people owning photographs from their grandparents (and before), which look “old”. This has fuelled a nostalgia for such images, which carries all the way to Photoshop CS2. This has built-in sepia actions, as do many modern digital printers and cameras.

I s i t wor th i t ?

This is the nub of the matter – is it worth mimicking a gumbichromate in Photoshop. No matter how similar it might look when framed up, an ink-jet print remains an ink-jet print and will never be a gum-bichromate. The creator is thus forced to confront the fundamental question as to whether the muted tones are of value in their own right, on a purely visual basis. It takes a higher level of courage to rip up a print that has taken hours (or days) to create, compared with ripping up an ink-jet print that only took a click of the mouse and a wait over a cup of tea. Nevertheless a poor image is a poor image regardless of its making!

We are well into a philosophical debate now. Is a car, oneoff, hand-made with patience and skill, a better means of getting from A to B safely and comfortably than a car built by robots, controlled by clicking mice? Is a craftsman-built, brick wall better at holding up a roof than a poured-concrete slab? The bricklayer will get more satisfaction from his day’s work, the owner may prefer it to look at, but as to holding the roof above the ground, both are equally good. If the purpose of the print is to convey a message, the identical-looking cyanotype and ink-jet print both, by definition, do the same job, and equally well. The cyanotype printer may have more satisfaction from their work but this does not show up in the final print, we have already agreed that they look the same. The cyanotype may last longer, but not necessarily. Although alternative materials such as platinum, palladium and carbon are inherently very stable, they are still supported on paper – the weak link in the chain. For every print that has lasted in the RPS archives for more than 100 years there are bins full of prints that crumbled due to poor processing and acid backing media. Today’s alternative printer has no way of knowing if his craftsmanship will last the course (my own iron-toned prints have decayed quite badly despite careful making and storing). Tantalisingly, the main constituent of ink-jet pigments is the same stable carbon that is used in carbon printing – black and white ink-jet prints always do better in fade testing.

The Future

This is the really philosophical question. When will silver halide gelatine printing join the ranks of alternative processes? On most previous occasions, new technology has displaced the old over a period of time. Digital has swept through photography as fast as any other new technology. The Daguerreotype was swept aside by the arrival of Talbot’s calotype with its ability to create many prints from one exposure (the Daguerreotype was a one-shot job) – this was a technology that disappeared very quickly indeed (although there is still an example in the McNamee family archives!). It lasted little more than a decade.

Lith Printing

Lith printing is carried out in the dark-room just like ordinary monochrome printing except that the normal developer is changed to an over-diluted lithographic one – hence the term lith printing. This change has spurred a genre all of its own, which is why Tim Rudman was able (in 1998) to write a whole book on the subject! The range of tone colours and the subtlety of the lith print has to be appreciated by looking at real prints, which can be created in a range of colours from near pure black through golden peaches and deep purples. Although it can be very rewarding, lith printing can be timeconsuming, requiring as much as 30 minutes of rocking a developing dish – this is not a good way to make money!

As an exercise in Photoshop manipulation it is also very instructive as you think your way through the process and decide just how to re-create the lith effect. We started by making a normal Grade 3 mono print with a full range of tones. Then we made a lith print off the same negative and scanned both. The lith was made with Kentmere Kentona, developed for 15 minutes in Kodak Super RT. Making a few scrap prints first and then leaving it out in the dish to make “Old Brown”, the artificially aged developer. This Old Brown is saved for subsequent mixing with fresh, dilute developer. It should not be mixed up with “Old Peculiar” which looks similar but tastes a lot better!

Then we measured the colours and developed Photoshop curves to distort the plain monochrome image to exactly match the colour and tone of the lith print. The curve shapes are illustrated in the screen grabs and include changes to the individual channels and the overall RGB curve.

Curves

Another characteristic of lith prints is the grainy clustering of silver grains due to a process called “infectious development”. The lith printer sometimes deliberately seeks this effect, which is also called peppering. Its characteristic is that it occurs mainly in the most heavily exposed areas of a print (ie the dark parts) although it can also run riot in unexpected ways. A rough cut at the effect may be obtained by applying Monochromatic Noise from the Photoshop Filters’ drop down list. In the example shown we applied a value of 40 to the whole image. This is a bit of a cheat because the normal lith print is affected mainly in the dark areas. To achieve this we also made a selection using Select>Color Range. By changing the “Fuzziness” value it is possible to include as much of the dark tones as you choose. You can preview your selection by clicking on the “Selection Preview” and choosing one of the options. In our example we have used “Grayscale”. Now when you click “OK” the colour range is converted to a selection and noise may be added only to those dark areas you have chosen.

Photoshop

Final image

Want to know more?

In the UK Fotospeed have a comprehensive catalogue of Alternative Process materials for sale. This includes Bromoil, Cyanotype, Gum Bichromate, Argotype and Salt printing kits. They also supply the required contact printing frames and the glass coating rods used to make light sensitive materials. For slightly less alternative processing they also supply Sepia, Blue, Green and Selenium toner kits. Many of these alternative processes are made via contact negative printing and a modern method is to create the negative onto an ink-jet printed OHP film. These are also available from Fotospeed. For the slightly less adventurous, Lith printing kits are available as well as Lith developers and double weight fibre base lith paper. All this is in addition to their traditional black and white printing materials including developing and printing materials. They also supply a range of specialist books on monochrome processing. visit www.fotospeed.com

The SWPP 2008 Convention was an outstanding success,
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Photo Quote: When I'm ready to make a photograph, I think I quite obviously see in my minds eye something that is not literally there in the true meaning of the word. I'm interested in something which is built up from within, rather than just extracted from without. - Ansel Adams