Bleach and Re Development in Lith Developer

[Neil Smith]

I am having a Lith printing session tomorrow, but I also wanted to give bleach and re development a go. I bought a sepia kit to use the bleach from for this purpose, and I know it is best to dilute it to a much weaker strength than recommended for the sepia kit, as suggested by Tim Rudman.
Does anybody know what is the best dilution for the bleach so it is easier to control the effect for this process.

I am right in assuming there is no need to dry the prints before bleach and re development as long as they have been well washed.

Neil

[B&W Neil]

Neil.
Start at 1+9 and see how it goes. If you find the print is bleaching too fast just add more water until you get the control you are looking for. The problem is different papers need different bleach times. I was split toning some ADOX a few says ago and I ended up using the bleach at 1+15 to get the control I prefer.

Best of luck,

Neil.

[ruediger]

Hi Neil,

there is no need to dry the prints for bleach/redevelopment.

I would start with a total bleach and so would use a strong bleach because there is no need to wait longer than necessary. To bleach only half ways or only the highlights may give subtle effects, but if you after strong lith effects like lith grain I would say give the developer as much silver halide as possible to work on.

I use a copper bleach and usually bleach is done within half a minute.

Cheers
Ruediger

[Tony Marlow]

A lot depends on the paper you use, for example with Ilford warmtone you only need to to wave the paper over the bleach bath to have an effect but for multigrade IV it needs a real good soak in a strong solution. I tend to dilute the recommended dilution further to a 25% solution.

Tony