4x5 Film Light Leak

braxus · Jun 29, 2020

I got my sheets of 4x5 film back and every 4 sheets shows light leak on them. I realized I may have done that when I first opened the box and put them in the holders while in the changing bag. Dont ask me how.

If light got in while the box was open, what are the chances the whole box is fogged? Or if not, how many sheets down should I go before the remaining amount will be okay? I figured a stack of sheets on top of each other might help protect the ones below? What are my chances I still have some good sheets? Its a box of 50 and only 10 or less sheets have been used.

cmacd123 · Jun 29, 2020

any chance it is one bad film holder?

Bill Burk · Jun 29, 2020

I would check film holders too, tape might be frayed on the door of one and you may not have noticed. Also do all the holders lay flat at the film plane? A warped holder can leak light

braxus · Jun 30, 2020

The light leak was a sliver of light in the middle of the sheet. So yes I seem to remember I did something with the dark bag that would have caused that. All my holders are fine, as they worked fine before and I used two holders for my B&W sheets.

cjbecker · Jun 30, 2020

Check to see if you have a crack in your dark slide.

braxus · Jun 30, 2020

cjbecker said:
Check to see if you have a crack in your dark slide.

Its not the film holder, as its in the same spot on all for film sheets. So its not the dark slide.

cjbecker · Jun 30, 2020

I was just thinking it was one side of a holder cause you said it happened on every forth sheet and you only used 2 different holders.

Vaughn · Jun 30, 2020

Because the anti-halation layer blocks light, it is rare to get the same fogging mark throughout a stack of film -- especially in the middle. The fog marks would quickly diminish as the light tries to go thru the stack. If the fog mark is of equal strength, it happened in the camera and/or holders.

Or it happened where you had the film processed.

And as usual -- seeing the fogging would help us a bunch, instead of having to guess what your negs look like.

Doremus Scudder · Jun 30, 2020

A photo of the negatives in question would really help...

braxus · Jul 1, 2020

I just took a look at the sheets. Its not exactly the same in all of them, but at least it seems to be on the same side. The 4th sheet was completely fogged due to my error when I took the picture (forgot to stop it down). So Im showing 3 sheets here.

Donald Qualls · Jul 1, 2020

Did your film go through an airport? The new CAT-scan type x-ray machines can leave damage in discreet lines like those (or even sharper).

Vaughn · Jul 1, 2020

The fogging of the rebate seems to indicate fogging of the film while it was out of the holders.

braxus · Jul 1, 2020

Yeah I seem to think it was fogged while I was transfering it to the holders. I loaded up 4 more sheets of the same film and will see if I fogged the box too, or just those last 4 sheets. I still have a ton of sheets left in that box, so I hope its all ok.

This film was bought years ago (like maybe 10 to 14 years ago. It was sent locally by mail to a lab 100km away. So it shouldnt have been in any Xray scanner system.

wsetser · Jul 1, 2020

Just take a sheet from the box and develop it. That will tell you if it's a problem with the film, or the holders and/or camera.

Donald Qualls · Jul 1, 2020

braxus said:
It was sent locally by mail to a lab 100km away.

wsetser said:
Just take a sheet from the box and develop it.

Not everyone who shoots B&W in 4x5 develops their own, apparently.

braxus · Jul 1, 2020

I dont have a dark room here and have no plans to start one up. My two bathrooms both have windows and a skylight, plus there is no room for anything. I get more consistent results with sending it to a lab then the time period when I was doing it myself. Plus I dont have 4x5 (or any other format for that matter) dev tanks.

braxus · Jul 4, 2020

I shot 4 new sheets of the film from the box and took out another 4 to shoot. I will see if the problem continues or subsides. I ended up buying another box of the same film, just in case my whole original box was fogged. I forgot the bag opens on the side, so if light got in, all sheets from top to bottom would get light in there. I'll send them off in the next month or so to see.

4x5 Film Light Leak

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