Taking ortho for granite...

[John Kasaian]

...sorry for the bad joke!
I like the way ortho film treats texture in architectural subjects like tiles, bricks, etc...so I was wondering how it would portray granite in nature?
Has anyone here shot granite with ortho film and if so, what are your thoughts? Do you have any advise to offer? Especially about continuous tone development over going for more contrast?

[Jim Noel]

Are you talking about ortho-lith film, or full scale ortho film? There is a big difference.

[Philippe Grunchec]

German photographer Ralf Sänger used the Rollei ortho and was very pleased!

[Drew Wiley]

There are all kinds of colors of granite. In our own front yard there was everything from the typical salt and pepper Sierra quartz monzonite to huge boulders of deep red extremely dense, hard granodiorite. The fireplace was made from the fine-grained ornamental granite from the Academy quarry, which my father bought out per scrap inventory during its brief bankrupty era. And I sure got sick of running that cement mixer! Last weekend I printed an 8x10 shot of an absolutely huge horizontal tombstone slab in an old military graveyard which has quite a range of large-grained granite hues. So I chose TMY for the shot, then nuanced the print itself with triple toning (rather subtly). This weekend I'm adding a holder of 8x10 ACROS to my arsenal; but it's a film I like quite a bit for natural high-country granite polish,etc. I see no advantage in ortho per se. ACROS is orthopan, so very easy to tweak further than direction if needed. Ortho-litho in about 80% blue-sensitive, and only about 20% green at most. In my pack there is also a deep blue 47 filter which simulates the look of olden blue-sensitive films - open shadows
and highly darkened greens and reds. I'm not trying to get an "old time" look with this at all, but something indeed different from the usual pan palette. So far, so
good. Litho film is just too thin and flimsy for me in camera.

[John Kasaian]

Are you talking about ortho-lith film, or full scale ortho film? There is a big difference.

I've only used APHS with paper developer diluted for continuous tone. What is the difference?

[John Kasaian]

There are all kinds of colors of granite. In our own front yard there was everything from the typical salt and pepper Sierra quartz monzonite to huge boulders of deep red extremely dense, hard granodiorite. The fireplace was made from the fine-grained ornamental granite from the Academy quarry, which my father bought out per scrap inventory during its brief bankrupty era. And I sure got sick of running that cement mixer! Last weekend I printed an 8x10 shot of an absolutely huge horizontal tombstone slab in an old military graveyard which has quite a range of large-grained granite hues. So I chose TMY for the shot, then nuanced the print itself with triple toning (rather subtly). This weekend I'm adding a holder of 8x10 ACROS to my arsenal; but it's a film I like quite a bit for natural high-country granite polish,etc. I see no advantage in ortho per se. ACROS is orthopan, so very easy to tweak further than direction if needed. Ortho-litho in about 80% blue-sensitive, and only about 20% green at most. In my pack there is also a deep blue 47 filter which simulates the look of olden blue-sensitive films - open shadows
and highly darkened greens and reds. I'm not trying to get an "old time" look with this at all, but something indeed different from the usual pan palette. So far, so
good. Litho film is just too thin and flimsy for me in camera.

Academy Quarry is out of business? What a shame. I'd think that black granite would be in demand with granite the countertops being all the rage these days. Our family plot tombstone is Academy as a nod to the Clovis side of the family, I guess.

[Vaughn]

...Especially about continuous tone development over going for more contrast?

I have used Kodak Copy Film, 8x10, on granite (the "typical salt and pepper Sierra quartz monzonite") -- for continous tone with lots of contrast (for carbon printing). I doubt many could tell the difference between it and panochromtic film...especially since usually there is no sky in the images. White granite and green trees, not much else in the way of color.

[Drew Wiley]

That must have been a spell back, Vaughn. I used some of that copy film for snow scenes. Nice shadows and good highlights. Otherwise, it was so long ago I
really didn't know what I was doing, and just tried all kinds of things. It's the trees and skies and water I get fussy about. Ortho is nice, but a deep green filter on a pan film will do that, and I've pretty much settled on ACROS as my backpacking film, esp in the high country. A true ortho effect can sometimes be a bit overdone and paste-like with light green foliage. The orthopan effect is more subtle and natural to me, esp with things like dwarf hemlocks or dwarf willows amidst the granite. But generally need something faster around here, with all our coastal wind. Redwoods, as you well know, change their personality constantly, depending on fog versus open sun. So in that case, I like films with a very long straight line, and with TMY I have enough speed to use deep filters, whether red, green, or blue. With Acros, anything stronger than an XO light yellow-green starts looking artificial, unless I'm trying to significant darken something like Navajo
sandstone in the desert. I've tried so many films in the mtns that I've become a bit nitpicky by now, and obviously don't want to carry too many kinds in a pack
that for some strange reason seems to be getting heavier and heavier year by year. Do they make freeze-dried film too?

[BetterSense]

Why use ortho film instead of just using a blue filter?

[Drew Wiley]

John - the Academy quarry was owned by the Raymond granite enterprise, which is up and running, and the granite is very similar in appearance. Up here a lot of it was used for both the Yerba Buena Gardens next to the MMA, and earlier, the big original B of A highrise downtown. The actual quarry pit in Academy was bought by my sister's best friend at that time, who married the head surgeon at one of your hospitals there, and they actually built their dream house right into the quarry, with a sixty foot tall granite living room wall! Sadly, she passed away from cancer only six months after completion of the project. Last time I checked, a second Academy quarry pit was back in operation. But I don't travel that road much anymore and usually scoot from here directly to SEKI trailheads, or else cut straight over from Madera to the San Joaquin or Merced drainages. Have some friends buried in that little Academy cemetery.