Freestyle offers "new" Ortho Litho film

[Gadfly_71]

Good news! Looks like Freestyle has found a new supplier for the Arista Ortho Litho films:
http://freestylephoto.biz/51455-Arista-Ortho-Litho-Film-2.0-4x5-50-Sheets

 

[nexus757]

That's great news. Thanks for the link.

 

[Michael W]

Best news I've heard in a long time. Was about to place a big order for the previous stuff a couple of years ago but it had already sold out due to the discontinuation notice. They also say this new film is higher contrast than the older stuff. Excellent.

 

[Richard S. (rich815)]

What do you use this for? What's the big benefit? Is it a TechPan sort of film?

 

[nexus757]

Traditionally used in the printing/graphic arts industry as a high contrast film for making printing plates. I still use it to expose photopolymer plates for letterpress printing, but it can be adapted for a wide variety of large format, contact printing, and alt. process applications. Plus it's quite affordable compared to most large format sheet films.

 

[Gadfly_71]

What he said.

Also, when processed in certain ways it's good for making enlarged negatives for contact printing (you can, essentially, achieve a continuous tone image).

 

[Newt_on_Swings]

Nice, I may have to pick up some of the 11x14 size for myself.

This is fun stuff to play around with, the past two weeks my students have been enlarging their images onto the photoware house brand ortho litho film, contacting it to make a negative again, and using that negative for our cyanotypes outdoors in the park.

The results are very good, and there is a fun wow factor for students/kids who have never seen a negative bigger than 35mm or 120.

 

[Michael W]

Nice, I may have to pick up some of the 11x14 size for myself.

This is fun stuff to play around with, the past two weeks my students have been enlarging their images onto the photoware house brand ortho litho film, contacting it to make a negative again, and using that negative for our cyanotypes outdoors in the park.

The results are very good, and there is a fun wow factor for students/kids who have never seen a negative bigger than 35mm or 120.

Do you process in Dektol or similar for continuous tone?

 

[Newt_on_Swings]

They were done in lpd 1:2, a bit contrasty but there was detail and tones though compressed. I'll attach an example image when I get in on Monday.

 

[SkipA]

Instead of enlarging onto it and then contact printing it to another sheet to make a large negative, why not just reversal process the first exposure? One less generation.

Like this: Negatives by Reversal (Ed Buffaloe, Unblinking Eye)

I've done that process before with Kodalith film, but I couldn't tame the contrast.

 

[Newt_on_Swings]

That would work as well, but it would be a real hassle then to get regular prints from that roll haha.

You can also print onto paper, and then contact print the paper to the litho film to conserve/save money as well. No real loss in sharpness, just longer exposures.

This also reminds me I need to take those pics and post em.

 

[SkipA]

What I meant was to process the small format roll normally as a negative, then enlarge it onto a sheet of the ortho-litho film. If you processed that sheet normally, you'd get a positive image. Instead, reversal process the film enlargement to get a negative image instead of a positive image. Then you can contact that enlarged negative, cutting out the interpositive altogether. That's what Ed Buffaloe's article describes.

 

[Newt_on_Swings]

Ah I just read the article, I have bookmarked it too for future use in my darkroom at home. The bleaching process might be a bit to dangerous in the darkroom I teach in though (kids from 6~17).

 

[bvy]

Has anyone experimented with getting color (or just toned) images from this film using a low contrast developer?

 

[EASmithV]

I hope it isn't too contrasty, I liked the way the old stuff looked when shot in-camera.

 

[Ricardo Miranda]

A question: who actually makes this film? Thanks!

 

[holmburgers]

Wow, great news indeed. Very affordable 8x10" film... fantastic.

 

[Newt_on_Swings]

As promised here are some of the completed prints using the ortho litho film.



The one with the toy lion actually has a sheet of the litho film displayed with it in the hallway, and to the right (not shown) is a regular positive print of it, and a print showing the negative on paper as well.

Some came out better than others, but keep in mind that these are made by kids, I teach them the process, supervise, help along the way, and of course do a few demos first but they are the ones doing the photography and printing steps.

 

[bvy]

Good stuff, Newt. Good for you. Good for the kids.

How do I get "students?" I'd love to teach kids about analog photography.

 

[Newt_on_Swings]

Well I kinda fell into it. I teach at a non-profit that is aimed at keeping kids off the streets and giving them help with school work and teaching them skills such as swimming, karate, basketball etc. Photography and digital media is the portion I teach, I've been there for about two years.

You may try checking your community centers or googling photo clubs and asking. The job is fun but it can be very challenging at times. Maybe you can try volunteering too, which is how I started out aswell.

 

[doer]

All very cool! What I'M looking for are Kodak brand 8X10 Kodalith sheets. I explain the process in the "Darkroom" section for anyone that's curious, but suffice to say that lith film knocks the grey tones out of everything, so if you do contact "prints" and subsequently cut them to the size of negative strips (any format) you can then make these fabulous BLACK & WHITE (in a very literal sense) images, which look something like THIS: