ModernLithC3 is designed to be an easier to use and easier to mix version of ModernLith. It is a very rapid lith printing developer with relatively good tray life which gives good results on a selection of modern papers. Most papers will develop fully within 5 minutes using room temperature developer. ModernLithC3 specifically includes a breakthrough in my lith developer formulations by using a common over the counter drug available in most countries. This breakthrough will later be applied to other ModernLith variants.
The breakthrough specifically is finding a readily available and high purity source of a heavy molecular weight polyethylene glycol. Specifically, in the USA it is sold under the brand name “Miralax” as a laxative. Miralax is USP grade polyethylene glycol of 3350 molecular weight. Miralax and the USA available generics I’ve checked are completely pure, they have no other active nor inactive ingredients. I’ve been told this same drug is available in Europe as well, though likely under different brand names. Because of its simple and non-toxic nature, it should be easily available in most countries without a prescription.
Polyethylene glycol is an absolute breakthrough for the ModernLith series. Polyethylene glycols (PEG) between 1500 and 8000 MW have specifically been mentioned in several research papers and patents for lith developers as agents which increase contrast and reduce effective emulsion speed. From observing the behavior, I think that most every commercial lith developer includes some amount of such a PEG. They are all safe to handle, non-reactive, and non-toxic and there is thus no requirement for these to be listed on an MSDS. The actual chemistry behind how PEG enhances lith developers is not understood, or at least not documented as far as I can tell. The end result though is that a small PEG addition to a lith developer will increase the induction period and force the infectious development period to be much more controlled and to affect shadows before highlights. It can not however, simply be added to any lith developer formula with good results. Very much PEG can significantly decrease development rate, and I believe is one of the reasons commercial formulas do not work for “non-lithable” papers. It also causes problems on some papers, such as Arista.EDU Ultra FB’s known behavior of having “drags” of snowballing. This only occurs in my prototype formulation when I added PEG. Unfortunately, without PEG it has limited contrast control. These drags seem to go away by increasing developer alkalinity though. In my test case, the amount of alkalinity borders on unstable though, specifically the pH of my working solution was somewhere between 12.5 and 13. Getting the ability to control contrast effectively using PEG along with correcting for these kind of problems will require a unique approach for each paper I fear. Regardless, PEG is a massive new tool. I’d looked at ordering them before but before discovering what Miralax is, any PEG other than 400 is quite expensive and difficult to source, especially PEG-4000. (listed in patents as being the most ideal weight)
The PEG amount used can be highly variable, and drastically effects all other characteristics of a formulation. I’d recommend keeping a 5% or 2.5% solution in your darkroom even for tweaking a lith developer for a specific result and paper. PEG will cause the induction period to be longer. Unlike bromide (which also does that), it does not affect how deep black tones get, nor does it decrease fog, yet it can cause highlights to be warmer and of lower contrast. PEG actually can increase fog because it lengthens development time. It has a similar effect as decreasing the overall pH of the developer, but does not cause blacks to be less deep as a lower pH can sometimes cause. I believe the ideal “modifier” solution might actually be a mixture of PEG and sodium hydroxide, so that development speed will remain reasonable with additions, but highlights will become warmer and softer in contrast despite that.
Beyond PEG though, ModernLithC3 is specifically designed to be easy to mix for the public as shelf stable A+B solutions, but also reliable and fast in usage. I’m finally burnt out on waiting 15 minutes to develop a single print. It still needs more testing for effects of different dilutions and if it’s possible to make some papers more usable in it. It also has a slight mixing “annoyance”/danger of releasing sulfur dioxide (nose burning smell of a burning match) during the mixing of part A. I’m trying to figure out either an alternative mixing method, or an altering of ingredients to solve that. Part A also has a mostly unknown shelf life at this point. In theory it should be relatively good, but it’s not a water-free formula that is easy to be so sure about.
Below is a control-style test on Ilford MGV RC, all printed at f/8, 20s and developed until the left railing is an obvious black. The difference in highlight contrast is obvious. The 7ml print was pulled early because it didn’t seem like anything was going to happen. Also notice the yellow fogged border on the 7ml print.
This is a prototype formula. Observe all warnings, wear proper PPE, and work in a ventilated space!
The formula is split into two parts. Part A:
50ml of hot distilled water (shelf life will be significantly affected if not using distilled water)
3g sodium metabisulfite
0.05g salacylic acid (optional, but shelf and tray life might be worse without it)
1g boric acid
1ml of triethanolamine 99% grade
7.5g ascorbic acid
10g hydroquinone (note, not all will dissolve)
Top to 100ml with propylene glycol. If the hydroquinone still does not dissolve after several minutes, heat the solution up using a hot water bath (this can be transferred to a bottle if needed)
WARNING: while mixing Part A some sulfur dioxide gas will be released. The amount released is likely just the equivalent to the amount released by striking a few matches, but you’ll have a very unpleasant experience if you put your head above the mixing vessel. It will burn your nose (a truly indescribable smell) and also in general is not good to inhale. Cover if possible and otherwise avoid putting your face over the top of the mixing vessel. IT MAY BE DANGEROUS TO DOUBLE OR TRIPLE THIS RECIPE WITHOUT A FUMEHOOD OR SIMILAR VENTILATION.
Part A should be put into a closed container as soon as possible after mixing. It will continue to release sulfur dioxide until cooled to room temperature. Be careful when pouring from a beaker to a bottle as it is easy to put your head over it in this way and get short but powerful exposure to sulfur dioxide.
Part B:
150ml of distilled water, room temperature or colder
10ml of triethanolamine 99% grade
11g sodium hydroxide (WARNING: Use care with sodium hydroxide. Add a small amount at a time and always add the hydroxide to water and not the other way around. The solution will heat up. If the solution gets scalding hot and steaming then wait before adding more to avoid the solution boiling)
1g sodium triphosphate
25g potassium carbonate, anhydrous (Solution may heat up slightly. If still very hot from the hydroxide addition it might be necessary to only add a small amount at a time)
0.6g sodium sulfite
0.5ml of benzotriazole 1% solution or 1ml of benzotriazole 0.5% solution (I use a 70:30 ratio of isopropynol alcohol to water as the solvent in the solution. Benzotriazole is much more soluble in alcohol than water) — optional and may be added per session instead for more flexibility if especially warm tones are desired. Some papers may exhibit fogging without any benzotriazole
3g potassium bromide
2g citric acid (note: solution may fizz some. Add carefully to avoid spills)
Top to 200ml with distilled water
Note: It is not recommended to store part B in a glass container. It is not overly dangerous to do so, but the extremely strong alkali solution will leach chloride and other chemicals from the glass over time and this may cause a change in results with storage. Mixing in a glass beaker is OK. It is recommended to store in a proper sturdy plastic chemical bottle. Do not use recycled soda or water bottles etc for this. This solution will cause skin burns and eye damage and should be treated with extreme care! This is more caustic than the average commercial lith developer part B.
Usage: Add 30ml of part A to 910ml water, add 60ml of part B to the solution, for 1L total solution. Room temperature or just slightly warmer is recommended. Higher temperatures will give significantly shorter tray life and may cause problems such as fogging or uneven development. If using PEG, add 2.5ml of a 5% PEG solution to 1L of working solution developer. PEG-3350 is what has been tested, but PEG-4000 should give similar results if that is more easily available. Most papers develop within 3-5 minutes. If a paper takes longer than 8m to enter infectious development then it is likely not compatible or will have problems such as snowballing, pepper balling, or a complete failure to properly undergo infectious development.
Testing has only been performed with a single negative and single dilution (the recommended 30+60). The negative is a “torture test” 6x4.5 Delta 3200 negative. The negative is extremely thin and extremely low contrast. It is difficult to print using traditional lith developers and lithable papers, and barely printable using grade 5 in traditional printing. Before figuring out the PEG addition, it was near impossible to get a reasonable result in any ModernLith formulation. Each print pictured here was not made using a single consistent exposure level, so take contrast levels with a grain of salt. Most were exposed between f/8 5s and 15s. All scans were processed the same way without any automatic corrections and using a calibrated color profile.
Papers Tested thus far:
Ilford MGFB — Completely incompatible. Extremely blotchy when it tries to work, fails to reach a proper black level, without PEG addition it is stuck as being very low contrast. No success other than when printing from a very high contrast negative without PEG
Ilford MGV RC — Excellent. No problems at all, excellent contrast control and response. Gives colder brown tones in highlights and very cold shadows with moderate grain.
Fomaspeed RC —Good contrast control and neutral tone with fine grain and brown blacks, but has “paper mottle”. This resembles an uneven coating of emulsion on the paper and thus there is a weird texture to the image. This might not be an issue with non-glossy finishes
Oriental RC — Very similar to Fomaspeed RC but a bit cooler tone, “paper mottle”. Also easy to develop unevenly
Arista.EDU Ultra FB — Cold tone and very grainy, snowball “drags” (goes away but replaced with subtle pepper balling with high alkalinity and high amounts of PEG. More research required)
Fomatone 133 Classic FB — Very good, some uneven development risk with edges wanting to enter infectious development a bit faster. Very warm tone orange highlights with cold grainy shadows. Surprisingly loses the massive speed loss typical with other ModernLith formulations. It behaves just a little slower than Ilford MGV RC
Ilford Warmtone FB — Colder lilac highlights and brown shadows, but somewhat weak and visibly grainy blacks. Can be difficult, as with other lith developers. Shadows will darken significantly upon fixing, but highlights will lighten up slightly.
Bergger Warmtone FB — very similar to Ilford Warmtone FB, but a bit faster in effective speed
Kodabrome RC —An old fogged paper that works very well with traditional lith developers. No fog develops. Somewhat warm tone highlights, cold shadows, and weaker blacks. Very uneven development
Polymax II RC — An old and very fogged paper that works reluctantly with traditional lith developers. Some fog develops. Neutral to cold tones. Extremely uneven development with blacks developing as splotches and seemingly disregarding exposure levels.