Shooting Ilford’s NEW Ortho Plus | First Impressions!

A new black and white film from Ilford is out! This is my first roll of Ortho Plus. What do you guys think of this orthochromatic film?

[vince]

The Lighthouse was shot with orthochromatic film IIRC. Since it darkened skin tones it gave Pattinson and Dafoe a more dirty and grizzled look

[DeRose]

You NEED to shoot someone with Blue eyes. The effect is absolutely stunning! I hope to see more Ortho tests in the future!

[Brokeninc]

Hocking Hills is a stunning place. I live near it, well the park in Ohio with Old Mans Cave.

[metascroted]

“Hey man what format do you shoot?”

“Big boi”

[Bocuma]

4:09 You're probably referring to acutance (or lack thereof). You could use a developer like Rodinal to get more acutance.

[MrChomiq]

I really like the tonality of this. With blue and green rendering it's really made for landscapes.

[trondsi]

In contrast to the "fuzzy" grain you mentioned here: Which films do you think have the "sharpest" grain? For color film I always thought Kodachrome had a sharp looking grain, but fro B&W I'm not sure.

[Keith]

Thanks for the review, I have been eagerly waiting on mine to arrive and am looking forward to trying it out. Please do a follow up with more landscapes, the last two images taken on your trip looked fantastic.

[christianmarin]

Definitely would enjoy a follow up video. All in all great job Matt.

[SuperconsoleGaming]

Really liking the results you got from this film, definitely one to try! Would love to see a hiking video for some landscape shots too.

[martinnava]

Your YouTube channel inspires me too keep getting good at shooting YouTube vids and learning more and more about photography!

[gbunton]

Irs called acutance, and it's best developed in Rodinal diluted 1:50 9 minutes at 68 degrees. That will make it pop. Also, try a 47 blue cutoff filter you might like the effects.

[Raychristofer]

Good job on this Matt, and I appreciate you keeping it real about the grain and the film's shortcomings. When I got back into film three years ago I went straight to medium format thinking it was the best but recently I've started shooting fine-grained films like T-Maxx in my leica 3F and I realize I was dead wrong about 35 mm. I haven't touched my medium format since 😊

[EdmundKBoateng]

Will definitely wanna see a follow up video! Thanks for sharing!

[ccoppola]

Matt, Grab “The edge of Darkness” by Barry Thornton. He explains why grain is necessary for visual sharpness. The low grain films don’t give the eye something to latch onto, so they may resolve more detail, but it’s “fuzzy” in visual appearance compared to something like an HP5 or Tri X. The book is DEFINITELY worthwhile. Maybe this is a film that would benefit from a developer like TX-2 or Rodinal to enhance the grain slightly.

[rideroundandstuff]

It would be amazing if you set up a blog or something with all the shots we see in your videos in their original size. Maybe only make them immediately available for each video for members of your channel and for everyone like two weeks later or so.

That really would be helpful and also a win-win for you and your viewers.

[SD_Alias]

Do you evaluate the grain at negative scans? Or do yo print them analogue? Asking because in Print the grain is much more less then in Negative scans.
I find the orthoeffect is not for everytime but can used for special purposes.
i would love if Ilford makes a real IR film like the EFKE 820IR which is unfortunately not in production anymore...

[TheMrMKultra]

Very interesting! I had no idea that Ilford would release a new film, even an ortho one! Until now there were only a few orthochromatic film stocks available, one of which, Rollei Ortho Plus, I'm currently testing.

On a note of orthochromatic films: I realized, when you showed the photos from darker foliage like pine needles, that the sensitivity to green light that ilford refers to on their site seems to not be a thing for dark greens that tend to be kind of blue. Interestingly these kinds of greens are the same that a friend of mine regularly mistakes for browns or dark reds, because he has a unique issue with his sight of color (not your typical red/green issue, something far more complicated as it seems to me). But light greens that shift to yellow should in my mind render lighter on orthochromatic films, if Ilford states that the film would be sensitive to green light, right? I might have to test that. Interestingly again, said friend of mine also regularly mistakes certain yellows with certain light greens, and I suppose, based on all of the above, that these colors and tones are the same that would render light on ortho films.

Anyway, thanks for making this video! It was interesting to see your first impressions and some of the first images made with the film. You keep doing a good job with this, as usual!

[HayesPeterson]

Thanks for the video Matt! Stoked on new and old films coming out!! 🤘🏼

[jeffreyb]

I’d like to test this with high contrast light for portraits.