My first 4x5 ortho film developed!

It's not much to look at. It's messy, blurred, and underexposed (I tweaked the image below). But it is the first film developed by me. Sure, there are probly kids in kindergarden who can do better but you've got to start somewhere. Taken inside, f5.6, exposure for 2min 30secs. Developed in Dektol.

Film was from UltrafineOnline.com.

Developing Ultrafine High Contrast Ortho Litho Sheet Film

I bought some Ultrafine High Contrast Ortho Litho film from Ultrafineonline.com. I am using this film as my introduction to film developing as it is cheap and can have very interesting results. I exposed the film in a 4x5 Orbit Monorail MF camera made by Burke and James. The first thing I noticed was that the film is 4x5 - not 3.9 x 4.9 - so it doesn't fit easily in the film holders for the camera. I was still able to load the film, but am not sure it was flat - but this was a learning process so I didn't worry too much about that.

I took a several shots with f15 and a shutter speed ranging from 1 min to 5 mins.  It was a partly cloudy day and somewhere I had read that this was a good starting point. 

I developed the film in Dektol  paper developer and a fixer. I read where you can develop by sight. All of the negatives were black - which means they were over exposed.

I did a test where I developed a negative without exposing it and it turned out clear. I think this proved my darkroom was ok and the chemistry was fine. I realized later that I didn't dilute the Dektol. I took some more sample shots at a 3 min shutter and the negatives were still overexposed.

I am slow. Once I had in my mind I needed long exposures - I ignored the fact that I was getting overexposures.

I am going to take a break, regroup, do more study, and then try again and use a light meter to set up my camera.