Natalie

Anyone know how that band on the left could have got there? It's on every picture on the roll. Also it seems my negatives have a tendency of coming back with scratches. Camera or during developing?

I had that with plastic reels. They need to be very well rinsed. When I switched to stainless steel it was over.

"Coming back with scratches" - it sounds like you have the film developed at a lab, and so the scratches would be from a poorly maintained mini lab (i.e. roller processed). You won't get this from a pro-lab, where the film is developed by dip-and-dunk.

I have had those bands occaisonally though rarely through the whole reel. It may well be the reel type, but it's probably only been a total of three rolls in hundreds. Is it on all rolls of film or just this one? So I think the band is from developing (maybe a fraction too little developer volume, or the reel not quite loaded properly? Don't know. The scratches are definitely quality of developing in terms of the loading, cleaniliness of the water and the "squeegee" of the negative. You will know it is from the camera since the scratches will tend to be in exactly the same place if it is. If they are random, they are probably the drying stage, or the reel loading.

By the way, when I lived in Egypt and had them processed by a local lab, they generally came back scratched.....does not happen to me now I do my own).

Lovely portrait ;-)K

Thanks Kal, very useful thoughts.
I am told the negs are developed by hand using plastic rollers.
I should really get to developing myself.