Orthochromaric film and landscapes - skies/clouds

[pentaxuser]

Thanks Alex for your reply

pentaxuser

 

[Arthurwg]

Bernice Abbott (A Guide to Better Photography) says yellow for ortho, yellow-green for pan. She ought to know.

 

[Rolleiflexible]

Sanders, have a look a this video by Steve O'Nions. It's landscapes in N Wales and it compares Ilford Ortho 80 and Delta 100. I found it interesting. All others are also welcome to look as well of course

The video confirms for me my sense that ortho film is overrated for use in landscapes. I will carry a roll around in case I trip across a ginger siren who needs to be photographed, and leave it at that.

 

[DREW WILEY]

What Bernice Abbot did two or three generations ago hardly makes her preferences universally applicable, especially in the Southwest where you've got a lot of reddish sandstone.

What is interesting to work with are orthopan films like Acros, which you can bully either way depending on the filtration.

 

[nosmok]

I like ortho films, because the oranges on my backyard tree come out grey-black! Pumpkins and red apples are fun too.

 

[Doremus Scudder]

The video confirms for me my sense that ortho film is overrated for use in landscapes. I will carry a roll around in case I trip across a ginger siren who needs to be photographed, and leave it at that.

Ortho films, or pan films filtered to render similarly to ortho films (using a Wratten #44 or even an 80A filter) don't see much red, only blue and green. Hence they will render shadows more open and luminous than regular pan films and often render green foliage lighter. On the other hand, blue skies are rendered quite light as well. Yellow filtration helps this a bit, but all that red in the scene gets rendered black in the final print, since the film won't see it even with filters (that's why red filtration basically acts as a strong ND filter on true ortho films).

Whether these effects are pleasing to you or not depends on your taste and the subject. I too, find ortho films less-than-satisfactory for most landscapes that include blue sky and clouds. On the other hand, scenes with lots of shadow and foliage that you'd like to render lighter and more luminous in the final print are just made for an ortho rendering.

I prefer to carry the filters and pan film, but that won't help if you want to handle the film under safelight in the darkroom... If you really need to do that, then you'll have to live with the ortho rendering and deal with it with whatever yellow filtration you can use and doing a fair bit of manipulation when printing to get pan-film-looking skies. Red things will end up very dark, regardless. That can be good or bad, depending.

Have fun!

Doremus

 

[Rolleiflexible]

Ortho films, or pan films filtered to render similarly to ortho films (using a Wratten #44 or even an 80A filter) don't see much red, only blue and green. Hence they will render shadows more open and luminous than regular pan films and often render green foliage lighter. On the other hand, blue skies are rendered quite light as well. Yellow filtration helps this a bit, but all that red in the scene gets rendered black in the final print, since the film won't see it even with filters (that's why red filtration basically acts as a strong ND filter on true ortho films).

Whether these effects are pleasing to you or not depends on your taste and the subject. I too, find ortho films less-than-satisfactory for most landscapes that include blue sky and clouds. On the other hand, scenes with lots of shadow and foliage that you'd like to render lighter and more luminous in the final print are just made for an ortho rendering.

I prefer to carry the filters and pan film, but that won't help if you want to handle the film under safelight in the darkroom... If you really need to do that, then you'll have to live with the ortho rendering and deal with it with whatever yellow filtration you can use and doing a fair bit of manipulation when printing to get pan-film-looking skies. Red things will end up very dark, regardless. That can be good or bad, depending.

Have fun!

Doremus

Doremus, thanks for the post. I get the theory. I just wanted to be pointed to images that others find illustrative of the proposition that ortho films excel in landscape photography. I understand that it was an early film formulation, but I am trying to figure out whether it has a place in my bag. To me, in 2023, it seems like a great film for portraiture of people with freckles, and not for much else.

 

[DREW WILEY]

There was once a hilarious Far Side cartoon with cave man trying to make money, called Early Business Failures : a food stand with a sign, "porcupine on a stick" - roasted quills 'n all. That would pretty much also describe a yearbook photographer using ortho film for high school students, zits n all.

 

[Xylo]

I've been reading all this and so far nobody has suggested to just use a polarizer...
That always works with clouds in the sky but you must get the light in the optimal direction.