un-ortho-dox

Partly out of curiosity, partly because 4x5 film is getting more expensive, I decided to experiment with some orthochromatic film. On an unrelated note, today is shorter than yesterday, reminding me that another year begins to wind down and time is getting shorter by the minute.

So what did I find? First, my safe light isn't as safe as I thought (too high a wattage bulb - but that's another story) so I fogged a fair amount of film.

Second, skys look funny, perhaps something to do with the polarization of the light in that the part you expect to be deepest blue is lightest (unless that's another artifact from fogging the film).

Third, the emulsion terribly delicate. Tray processing is really hard because the emulsion scratches so easily.

Fourth, the film is very thin which creates handling problems; for example, it buckles easily, and two sheets can easily get stuck together in the tank.    

Finally, the detail the film resolves is extraordinary. On the left is a 6 kdpi scan of the Tuff Shed plaque above the door in the image above.

The film does have some very unfamiliar characteristics, but at 20c a sheet, I can do quite a few experiments to gain some familiarity with how it behaves and what I might do with it.

For the record, I developed these in Xtol 1+4 for about 8 minutes. I didn't take the temperature but I imagine given an ambient of about 80F, that it was not far off this (~26C).