Horizon-scale imaging and precision lensing have turned black holes into quantitative laboratories for strong gravity and for nonstandard electromagnetic physics. We study the optical appearance and orbital dynamics of a new class of static spherically symmetric black holes sourced by a Palatini-inspired nonlinear electrodynamics model, minimally coupled to Einstein-Hilbert gravity. Using a unified geodesic analysis, we identify the key radii that organize the strong-field phenomenology. For photons we determine the unstable photon sphere, the associated critical capture threshold, and the resulting shadow size for a distant observer, and we map how these observables respond to the charge and to the nonlinearity index $n$. For massive probes we compute circular orbits and the innermost stable circular orbit, clarifying the departure from the Schwarzschild and Reissner-Nordström cases. We then connect to classical tests by evaluating the light deflection angle and periastron advance, providing additional diagnostics that complement the shadow. Our results furnish a practical reference model for confronting first-order nonlinear electrodynamics black holes with current and forthcoming imaging and lensing data.

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• Classical black holes
• Astronomical black holes