Yellow Filter vs Orthochromatic Film

[Guest joewehry]

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Wondering if anyone had a comparison or suggestion about which might produce more contrast in a print with normal development:

 

1) BW film (ex: Kodak Plus X 125) with light yellow filter

 

or

 

2) Orthochromatic film (Rollei Ortho 25)

 

and in terms of exposure, expose for the highlight and let the shadows lose detail and merge with blacks (assuming greater interest in contrast vs shadow detail in final image.)

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[Xmas]

Hi

 

The ortho film will remove any clouds the blue and white fluffies will merge.

The pan film will still be too blue sensitive (compared with your eyes) and suppress clouds to a degree.

The pan + yellow (i.e. mnius blue) will depend on depth of yellow, Leica used to do three I think very light, light and darker yellow, the skies will improve.

You can use a light yellow with the ortho, to get some cloud effect, but you need to experiment to find out the exp compensation factor as it will be larger and more scene dependent than with a pan.

I'm never sure about contrast improvement, and you may get better optic performance, the degree of this dependent on lens vintage/type.

If you are an experimenter I'd try it while it is there.

 

Noel

[tgray]

Orthochromatic is more like shooting through a blue filter, unless I'm mistaken.

 

You can get quite a bit of contrast shooting through a red filter, but sometimes it's a bit extreme looking in my opinion if people are in the picture. Yellow is not quite enough. I've been using an orange filter and think it's a good middle ground.

[Xmas]

Orthochromatic is more like shooting through a blue filter, unless I'm mistaken.

 

That is correct Ortho is red insensitive, a blue filter is a minus red filter.

Ortho will give you more arial perspective- visual haze.

Pan less

Pan with yellow less still

Pan with red even less

IR with near black filter they use for photo reccy...

 

Noel

[01af]

Wondering if anyone had a comparison or suggestion about which might produce more contrast in a print with normal development:

 

1) BW film (ex: Kodak Plus X 125) with light yellow filter

or

2) Orthochromatic film (Rollei Ortho 25)

In typical outdoor shooting conditions, 1 will increase contrast, 2 will decrease it.

 

 

Orthochromatic is more like shooting through a blue filter, unless I'm mistaken.

You are not mistaken but spot-on. Still, the effect is similar but not quite the same. The brightening effect on blue skies and outdoor shadows is stronger with orthochromatic film ... but if you don't have any then using a panchromatic film and a blue filter is your second-best alternative.

[ismon]

My favorite films have always been the old Adox KB14 and KB17. Both are orthopanchromatic. The resulting tonal rendering looks somewhat like a panchromatic film with a Leitz Green filter. When my supply of Adox (Efke) dwindled, I'd just mount a green filter on each of my lenses.