Arista Ortho Litho Help

[Pritcher]

Hello, I recently made the jump to large format, so most of the processes involved with development are pretty new to me. In my infinite drive to save cost wherever possible, I have purchased myself some Arista Ortho Litho and look to use it in my Press Graflex. I took the first couple test pictures today, and they could barely be considered images. They were both very faint, and had a distinct sepia tone, the first being far worse than the second in both categories. The development process was slightly different for each negative, but was comprised of the same processes. The first negative was 90 seconds in 2 g per 500 ml Dektol solution, stop bath, and 3 minutes 30 seconds in Ilford fix. The second negative was 2 minutes 15 seconds in the same Dektol solution, stop bath, and again 3 minutes and 30 seconds in the Ilford fix. Does anyone have any idea what I may have gotten wrong? Any input would be appreciated, I want to get this process figured out so I can take some proper pictures with that Press Graflex when I get its woes sorted.

Here is a picture of the first negative


and here is a picture of the second.


Cheers!

Pritcher

[Drew Wiley]

Badly underexposed as well as underdeveloped. The brown stain itself is an artifact of either underdevelopment or a too dilute developer. Dektol is a miserable developer for this film, despite all the artsy-crafsy advice on the web about it. But if you just gotta shoot that particular film, you might try HC-110 diluted 1:15 from stock (stock is 1:3 from concentrate). If sticking with Dektol, it needs to be a more concentrated solution.

[Pritcher]

I did indeed read about this process online, and that is all I really had to work with. I will try a more concentrated solution tomorrow, see if that makes a difference. As for the HC-110 stuff, what film speed do you figure it could get up to? My main thing is trying to bump that film speed as high as possible without flashing.

[jprofita]

I have shot this film at ASA 6 and developed it in Dektol stock 1:5 with water for 2.5 minutes with high contrast results suitable for some alt processes. I have limited but favorable experience with Jim Galli's Rodinal recipe that results in more balanced negatives. https://thefausap.wordpress.com/2020...l-aka-galliol/

[Jim Noel]

ISO 6 is pretty commonly used with this film. On occasion, particularly early morning or late afternoon, I use a speed of 2. My normal development is in HC 110 - 1+63 from syrup. I develop by inspection so no record of time. I develop until highlight show detail on the reverse of the film.

[Pritcher]

Quick update, thanks for all the help thus far guys. I shot another couple sheets today, only one of which came out somewhat acceptably. My Press Graflex as of now is not exactly in ship shape, so for the first picture, the camera hangfired and I got an exposure of the thing pointed directly at the sun. The second exposure was better, I got everything set up fairly well, no complaints there. For development, I bumped my concentrations as per the suggestions, from 2 to 5 grams dektol per 500ml and the results were a great improvement. For the first negative I developed for 1 minute and 30 seconds, and for the second I developed for 2 minutes 30 seconds. Both were fixed for 3 minutes and 30 seconds. Any further advice would be appreciated to help refine this process.

Here is negative 2 from today, still a bit brown and I recon still underdeveloped, but better than yesterdays stuff.

[Jim Noel]

Yes, still under-exposed and under-developed.

[PRJ]

It sounds like you are taking two grams of powder Dektol and mixing that. Odds are the package is not homogenous and the developing agents have settled. You need to mix the whole thing up then dilute it. Good luck...

[Pritcher]

Strange, I would never have thought that could be the problem. I like to do things in mass as opposed to volume because of the rather crude impalements I have to measure the latter. I will bear this in mind as a potential source of failure going foreword.

[Drew Wiley]

I haven't tried the very latest version of Arista Otho Litho, but the immediately previous style was around ASA 6 to 12 for me. Frankly, I don't even use it in camera, but for lab purposes, where I do in fact have light sources capable of blue-green output. This film seems about 3 times as sensitive to blue as to green, and by design, not to red at all. But just keep inching your way upwards in terms of increasing exposure and development. It all depends on what you are after. Many of the practitioners of combined Ortho Litho and Dektol seem to be after a deliberately unpredictable funky look, and that is what they get, at least after a lot of effort. But if you want something predictable and cleaner, I would really consider an actual film developer option instead. I mentioned HC-110, and someone else mentioned Rodinal, but there are no doubt others potential developers too. It was really developed for high-strength, very high contrast A&B lith developers, and anything other than that, in a normal contrast category, is basically bending the rules, with varying levels of success. Dektol not only inherently stains this film, but tends to be quite uneven.