Creating a lith print in photoshop

A lith print is a silver gelatin print that has been over exposed and partially developed in highly diluted lith film developer. Lith print developing in the darkroom takes a long time. The prints often achieve tones that are impossible to achieve without toning and sometimes are only possible using the lith printing process. However, instead of doing this in the darkroom, the lith print effect can be re-created using photoshop. I researched how to create a lith print in photoshop and had a go at doing one myself. 

This is a screen grab of my finished attempt. A lith print is commonly identified for it's pinkish-orange colour, which makes my attempt a success. I will have to try to perfect this process as i like the resulting effect it has had on my image.

To make this image, i first had to open the hue/saturation dialog and select colorize. I then had to set the hue to 353, and the saturation to 18...

Next, i had to split the image into two layers so that the contrast effects could be created independently. To do this i had to right click the background layer and then select 'duplicate'.

Next, i had to go into 'input levels' and pull both the highlight, and the shadow sliders toward the centre. This increased the bright whites and solid blacks in the image.

Next, i had to select the background layer and open the levels, pull the output levels highlights and shadow sliders to the center. This will create a low contrast layer.                                                                                                                            

Finally, i had to merge the effect of the two layers together by using a blending mode. I did this by selecting the copy layer, then choosing the soft light blending mode.

The process was then completed.