Rollei Ortho 25 Plus is easily my favorite film, and it’s probably the one I use least often. It’s obviously a lot easier, and less conspicuous, to load my Nikon F2 with a roll of Kodak Tri-X 400, push it to EI 1600 for a long walk and call it a day. But, when I do have the time, and I prepare myself for the inevitably social task of shooting long exposures in one of the busiest and most crowded cities in the world, I’ll load Rollei into my Hasselblad, pack a tripod and do what I like best – shoot long exposures at box speed.

These frames were taken in the course of an hour with a Hasselblad 500CM and an older 80mm f/2.8 Zeiss Planar C (not one of the T* models). They range from 15 seconds to about 2 minutes. Shooting in one of the most visited spots of the city doesn’t usually lend itself to long exposures unless you’re going for those ghostly images of people walking through the frame. With the pandemic, though, things in Central Park got quiet for quite some time, and I was able to go mid-day and late afternoon for the sunlight.

I don’t pretend to know much about film. I’m not a person who can tell you all about the emulsion of this particular film, or the perfect temperature and time ratio to develop every roll. I just know I like shooting it, and I know when I like the look of a picture. It is, after all, an art form – subjectable to subjectivity. For me, this film yields a balance between stark contrast and fine grain, which allows for unique depth and detail.

You can see how the grain was brought out by a 2-minute exposure facing those arches in a dark corridor, but you can also see how fine it can be in a 15-second exposure, facing a subject head-on with decent natural light. I was lucky on this particular day to be in the right place at the right time, with very few people stepping in the way. The subject had arranged himself photogenically in the center of the arches long before I arrived to find him.

Being colorblind, I almost always shoot black and white. The look of this particular film is exactly what I love about photography. It’s timeless in the sense that, were it not for a few articles of clothing, you’d never know what time period you were looking into. Film takes that moment in time and translates it into an image for the viewer’s imagination. For me, that’s what photography is. Rollei Ortho does just that, in a way that I really like.

~ J Balcourt

Submit your 5 Frames… today

Get your own 5 Frames featured by submitting your article using this form or by sending an email via the contact link at the top of the page.

Share your knowledge, story or project

The transfer of knowledge across the film photography community is the heart of EMULSIVE. You can add your support by contributing your thoughts, work, experiences and ideas to inspire the hundreds of thousands of people who read these pages each month. Check out the submission guide here.

If you like what you’re reading you can also help this passion project by heading over to the EMULSIVE Patreon page and contributing as little as a dollar a month. There’s also print and apparel over at Society 6, currently showcasing over two dozen t-shirt designs and over a dozen unique photographs available for purchase.

Similar stuff on EMULSIVE

2 responses to “5 Frames… In Central Park on Rollei Ortho 25 Plus (120 Format / EI 25 / Hasselblad 500CM + Zeiss Planar C 80mm f/2.8)”

  1. A lovely article and I enjoyed this set of five images more than any other I’ve seen here recently. I used to travel to NYC for work quite regularly and miss my visits there, which made your B&W images especially poignant for me.

  2. Great article with a wonderful perspective. During these tough times, it’s great to encapsulate the glimmers of hope through art.

 

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Discover more from EMULSIVE

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading

Discover more from EMULSIVE

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading