Some Recent (Last Weekend) 8X10's on Freestyle APHS developed in Rodinal+

[jimgalli]

I just whipped up a page at my website with 4 new images done on Freestyles APHS ortho film. They can be viewed Dead Link Removed

Dead Link Removed

The 4 scans are far from perfect but still I think you can get an idea of the continuous tone possibilities with Freestyles great APHS ortho film.

The pics are hot linked to BIGGER sizes if you want to get a better feel for tonality and detail. If your browser re-sizes, try holding the cursor in the bottom right hand corner and when the 4 out arrows show up, click for a full size view.

As always, let me know what you think!

 

[bart Nadeau]

Nice photos! Just might have to give your formula a shot.
BTW what ever happened to your lens with the a/c condensate on it?
bart

 

[SteveH]

Awesome as usual Jim.
I like the 2nd insulator shot the best; I think they have lots of potential for other shots.
What are your initial thoughts on the film after working with it ?

 

[Jerevan]

I like them all, but if I had to choose, it'd be number 2 and number 4. The last one is so sharp you could cut yourself! I am impressed by the tonal range in the ortho film. I understand that you need to restrain the high contrast, but is it necessary when you use the diluted Rodinal? What if you did some kind of stand development - would the contrast still skyrocket? Just gotta love that old truck.

Keep'em coming.

 

[jimgalli]

I like them all, but if I had to choose, it'd be number 2 and number 4. The last one is so sharp you could cut yourself! I am impressed by the tonal range in the ortho film. I understand that you need to restrain the high contrast, but is it necessary when you use the diluted Rodinal? What if you did some kind of stand development - would the contrast still skyrocket? Just gotta love that old truck.

Keep'em coming.

The Benzotriazole and Potassium Iodide act as restrainers in the formula. The insulator pics were done in full sunlight so have lots of contrast possible but the formula tames it.

BTW what ever happened to your lens with the a/c condensate on it?
bart

I never did get the lens cleaned up.

What are your initial thoughts on the film after working with it?

Steve, I've played with this stuff for a long time and the stuff done with the Rodinal based formula is by far the best. I rate it at asa 3. I've yet to try it with a portrait to see if it would have an effect similar to some of the alternative processes that also only see blue. It's on my list of things to do. Need more time and more victims. The negs actually look a bit flat and indeed with an ordinary MG paper you use a #3 filter to build some contrast back in.

 

[Eric Rose]

what advantages does the ortho stuff have over panchromatic films in your opinion?

 

[jimgalli]

what advantages does the ortho stuff have over panchromatic films in your opinion?

<CHEAP>

 

[Eric Rose]

<CHEAP>

Ok, let me come at this another way. Besides the very slow asa what disadvantages does ortho have over pan films? I've always been interested in trying the stuff but have seen little modern work done with it. Can you do the usual zone stuff with it? I understand the clouds and sky usually turn out white. Is there anyway around this?

thx

 

[jimgalli]

Ok, let me come at this another way. Besides the very slow asa what disadvantages does ortho have over pan films? I've always been interested in trying the stuff but have seen little modern work done with it. Can you do the usual zone stuff with it? I understand the clouds and sky usually turn out white. Is there anyway around this?

thx

Hi Eric. The initial attraction was to try to get some cheap (relatively) film to play with in the 11X14. It is a very special animal though as it only sees blue of course. You need to play with it a bit in order to chose your subjects wisely. When I photographed the pickup it was a rather dark overcast day and contrast was low. The old truck is John Deere Green which has a lot of blue so the film "see's" it pretty well. Overcast light is very blue and the subject is completely static so overall it was a good fit for the film. Barrel lenses also work hand in hand with the stuff because a normal exposure with ASA in normal light is multi-seconds.

No it doesn't work well with zone sys type shooting. But that isn't my strongest suit either and someone else might get pretty handy with expanding and contracting it. You develop it visually with a 25W red lamp on about 3 feet away so you can watch where you're at and let the contrast build or not. My rule is to set a timer for 10 minutes and then when the image comes up in the developer, I look at how much time I've used and multiply by 4. So if my image emerges at 1.5 min. I'd give 6 minutes total. Longer would add some contrast but the stuff tends to block up some in the high values so I usually leave it a little flat and expand it when I print.

If you're lucky enough to have puffy white clouds and your subject is Very Northish, surprisingly a polarizer will give you black skies and white clouds. But it's very unforgiving to the directional effect of a polarizer. ie if you were looking a bit off of polar N you would see your sky in different tones, dark on one side, light on the other.

Something I've yet to try is portraiture in full shade. With ASA 3 and an f4 portrait lens like a Petzval wide open, it should be very useable with a Packard shutter at about 1/8 to 1/15th sec. And it should see the subject similarly to collodion and other early things that only see blue.

 

[Eric Rose]

Thanks Jim, just what I was looking for. Darinwc, I'm sorry I don't understand your comment.

 

[Jim Noel]

Jim, Thanks again for sharing. Your postings are always interesting as are your images.

I have used this film to make copy or enlarged negatives for several years, but had not given thought to using it in camera.

I do not use Rodinal, but other film developers which work well. I think the many articles proclaiming dilute paper developers as desirable have done a great disservice to films such as this one.

By the way, many years ago I used ortho full scale films, Tri-X Ortho being one, for photographing subjects requiring a lot of shadow detail.

 

[Jim Noel]

Jim,

I just tried it. I exposed 2 sheets with my 10 3/4" Dagor, I haven't worked with my soft focus lenses enough, then tray developed them in pyrocat HD. Agitation once each 30 seconds.

#1 - 4 minutes, P cat 1:1:100, 76 deg. looks pretty good, although the shadows are a lttle underexposed. Highlights, which are a light purple flower, look great. Hopefully I will get time to print this one tomorrow, if not, next week.

#2 - more dilute, 1:1:200, 76 deg, 15 min. in an attempt to get an even softer scale. This does not have enough oomph to develop the film. The highlights are just beginning to come up.

Tomorrow I will try a very dilute solution of HC 110.

Thanks for the idea.

Jim

 

[Russ Young]

Thanks, Jim.
As always, very instructive as well as aesthetically satisfying.
I've used unmodified Rodinal 1:50 to develop Ilford Ortho at EI 20.
Russ

 

[Jim Chinn]

Somewhere in an old issue of Camera and Darkroom I recall an article or column in the tech section about ortho film and using HC110 for the developer. When I get some time I will have to start thumbing thru the issues and see if I can find it.

 

[jimgalli]

I may give the HC110 a go also just for kicks and giggles. I'd start with dilution B / 2 plus the 2 restrainers are key to holding back highlights while shadows get a fighting chance.

 

[TomWB]

Jim, I like #1 the best. I like the light leaking through the rivet or bullet holes through the building on the other side. Is that your truck? What I like best of all, though, is the fact that you can't tell if the year is 1966 or 2006...I suppose a vehicle expert though could point out some items on the truck that might narrow the photo down to recent...

 

[jimgalli]

Jim, I like #1 the best. I like the light leaking through the rivet or bullet holes through the building on the other side. Is that your truck? What I like best of all, though, is the fact that you can't tell if the year is 1966 or 2006...I suppose a vehicle expert though could point out some items on the truck that might narrow the photo down to recent...

Thanks Tom. Yep, it's mine. It was mine when my girls were wee and in a moment of weakness I sold it to some Harley folks in Goldfield. After an 18 year hiatus I was able to buy it back a year ago and I'm just like a proud papa fixing things and getting it ready for some road trips. The only possible link to this century I see is the modern Nevada 'sunset' license plate. I'll have to look for a matched pair of 1952 Nye Cty Nevada plates to fix that. Come to think of it I may have a 1960 plate that would be perfect. This time I'll keep it and when the grandson's are about 11 or so I'll teach them how to double clutch.

 

[Dorothy Blum Cooper]

Your work is always inspiring, Jim. Always.

 

[Peter De Smidt]

This time I'll keep it and when the grandson's are about 11 or so I'll teach them how to double clutch.

Ok, so I know this is off topic, but what is double clutching?

 

[k_jupiter]

Ok, so I know this is off topic, but what is double clutching?

If you have a transmission without syncronizers in it, you need to puxh the clutch in to take it out of gear, release the clutch to allow the rotating shafts within the transmission to sycronize speeds, then push the clutch back in to allow you to shift one gear to another. The advent of the syncro allowed people to only remove power from the transmision itself and shift gears. The invention of the torque converter allowed most people to not be bothered with shifting at all.

tim (3 speed on the floor) in san jose

 

[highpeak]

Jim, nice work, like the F22 shot with those bottles a lot.

 

[Donald Qualls]

If you have a transmission without syncronizers in it, you need to puxh the clutch in to take it out of gear, release the clutch to allow the rotating shafts within the transmission to sycronize speeds, then push the clutch back in to allow you to shift one gear to another.

Double clutching is almost optional when shifting up (from, say, 2nd to 3rd), because the input shaft will slow to match the output on its own, just from bearing friction, in a couple seconds -- but is mandatory when shifting down (from 3rd to 2nd, etc.) with a non-synchro transmission, or even with an older box with worn synchros; it's helpful in this situation even with a modern full-synchro box. This is complicated by the need to rev the engine when double clutching to a lower gear, in order to match the shaft speeds -- and failure to do this successfully used to be a prime cause of runaways in large trucks, when a driver was trying to use the engine to control speed on a downgrade, missed a shift, and then burned out the brakes without getting the thing back in gear (most heavy trucks have electrically shifted planetary boxes now, no more out-of-gear runaways).

You know you've "arrived" in the ranks of double-clutchers when you can get a 1964 Rambler 3-on-column back into 1st gear on the fly...

 

[jimgalli]

Double clutching is almost optional when shifting up (from, say, 2nd to 3rd), because the input shaft will slow to match the output on its own, just from bearing friction, in a couple seconds -- but is mandatory when shifting down (from 3rd to 2nd, etc.) with a non-synchro transmission, or even with an older box with worn synchros; it's helpful in this situation even with a modern full-synchro box. This is complicated by the need to rev the engine when double clutching to a lower gear, in order to match the shaft speeds -- and failure to do this successfully used to be a prime cause of runaways in large trucks, when a driver was trying to use the engine to control speed on a downgrade, missed a shift, and then burned out the brakes without getting the thing back in gear (most heavy trucks have electrically shifted planetary boxes now, no more out-of-gear runaways).

You know you've "arrived" in the ranks of double-clutchers when you can get a 1964 Rambler 3-on-column back into 1st gear on the fly...

The '39 has the Model A Truck 4 speed ('29-'42). Straight cut gears all. It is happiest with double clutch up and downshift. Too much revolving weight to wait around for friction.