Sunday 3 June 2007

Tim Rudman - World of Lith printing

I have experimented with Lith printing and you will find examples on my website as well as some more detail information on the technical pages.

I admit that my initial interest was stimulated after reading Tim Rudman's "The Master Photographer's Lith Printing Courser" and I was excited to find this new book. The original book is a great handbook to Lith printing and is about all you need to get started (except papers and chemicals!).

This new book (published in 2006) contains some basic information to get you started, but is not a substitute in any way for the original text. Once past the first 30-40 pages of the instruction book, there are a series of example images from a number of guest photographer's portfolios together with technical notes. I find this really useful as it provides inspiration and explores the different styles and subject matter being used by a variety of photographers. I really liked the work from Margaret Ball, Cece Wheeler, Richar Clegg and Skip Smith.

The final part of the book is dedicated to using digital techniques to produce lith prints. I must admit that first time around, I skipped this section (as I have a habit of skipping anything that says "digital" in photography books). But having subsequently read it, I have to admit that I actually found it not only interesting, but useful!

All in all, a nice book. If you are looking to get start with Lith printing I would suggest starting with Tim Rudman's "Master Photographer's Lith Printing Course" and follow up with this book. ISBN: 978 1 902538457.