Adox ORT25 film for portraits?

[Darryl Baird]

I'm interested in doing full frame head shots (portraits), with shallow d.o.f. on 8x10 and want to spend some time testing until I feel I can shoot relatively quick and easy. In order to do this I thought I'd buy some film that was cheaper than my favorite FP4. I found the Adox ORT25 and Arista Ultra Edu (100). The ortho is much cheaper, although the edu is pretty much half of the fp4 cost.

Can anyone point me to any website that features images (esp. portraits) using this orthochromatic film? I know the film is slower, but cheap is cheap.:)

thanks

[Mark Sampson]

Expect relatively high contrast, dark skin tones, and loooong exposure times that lead to subject movement.

[Nick_3536]

Either my math or yours is wrong.

The Ort25 seems to be $2+ a sheet. The Arista Ultra EDU $1.5+ a sheet.

If you want cheap buy the Arista Lith film. OTOH won't you end up learning all over again with the pan film?

[Darryl Baird]

The Freestyle website was wrong... they had a 25 sheet box at $23.99. I got an email from sales manager stated that was the price for TEN SHEETS! I changed the order to Arista EDU ultra, which is still half of Ilford FP4.

Also, I read a tip (here or APUG) about using grade #2 paper for a similar look to the ortho film and I thought that was an even better idea for testing.

Paper negs... what a great concept (and historically speaking, full circle with Fox-Talbot).

[mhv]

I've tried ortho for portrait and the look isn't that strong. In fact, there's a reason why they called it "ortho": that's because it gave you way more correct tones than blue-sensitive film.

Here's a shot I did on 35mm: http://www.apug.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=19228&cat=500&ppuser=6132

[Gene McCluney]

X-RAY film in 8x10, either blue sensitive or blue-green sensitive(ortho) runs between 25 cents to 35 cents an 8x10 sheet. That would be my choice for a vintage look.