Allow Me to Intoduce Myself: I'm an Idiot.

skyrick

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After beginning B&W processing with 2x3 sheet film a couple of months ago (Kombi-Plan) I finally processed my first roll of film! Efke 25 -120. I have a brand new Patterson tank, and practiced loading the reel with a roll of Ektar that lay forgotten in the glove box for several warm weekends. I was so excited at how easy it was to load my exposed roll of Efke in the dark that when I put on the funnel lid I put it on upside down, funnel pointing up! Then I (sigh) turned the lights on! After a brief, high-pitched, girly scream I turned the lights back off and flipped the lid around the correct way. I was sure I totally FUBAR'ed the whole roll, but went through the motions anyway. I must say how impressed I was with the Patterson. No leaks on inversions and it drains and fills very fast, especially compared to the Kombi. Bottom line: the first four (6x9 format) had minimal fog, just a wavy line on top. The first frame, thus at the outside of the reel, farthest from the light leak, may even be printable. No critical exposures were lost, just major frustration.

Note to self: valuable lesson learned...don't be an idiot
 

Rick A

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I graduated from idiot years ago, now I'm a moron.
 

jglass

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I had an idiot moment a couple of weeks ago with a Paterson tank also. I've been running my own film for years and had absolutely no glitches (because the tanks are stupid proof, if not idiot proof). But I borrowed a five(?) reel tank to do 2 rolls of 120 at once. Did not borrow the tube that goes in below the funnel... which keeps it light tight, of course. I now know.

Here's the true dumbass part: I processed the entire two rolls all the way through without figuring it out... no girly scream for me in the middle of the process, just a long hmmmm when I saw that the first three or four frames on each roll were fogged beyond repair. Hmmm. . . and then .. . . oh. Doh!
 

Hikingman

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I feel like a forgetful, idiot after nearly 30 years off from b&w developing, and now I've got a big (120) itch to scratch. Gimme about 4 weeks, and I'll post a funny...
 

Joe O'Brien

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I failed to secure the funnel on top of my film developing tank. When dumping the devoloper out the lid fell off and I "push processed" my film inadvertantly...
 

Christopher Walrath

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Welcome to the brotherhood. At least you didn't forget to extinguish your still life subject and almost burn down the privy in the process.
 

bmasonoh

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Dec 10, 2009
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Happens to the best join the crowd! At least you have a good sense of humor about it. Welcome aboard!
 

Patrick Latour

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I mixed my bottle of chemicals and started to develop with my fix....
Since then, I graduated, like Rick. Now I am just stupid, a level over idiot but I am still far from the moron level, those guys are too much experimented for me.
 

SuzanneR

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So, I have this little tiny room in our basement, originally intended as a wine cellar by the previous owners, that is utterly dark, and that is where I load film into my stainless steel tanks. Last time I did that, I realized after getting the first of four rolls loaded, that I forgot to bring the tank lids in with the film, reels, and tanks into the room with me. With one 120 roll already loaded I had a DOH!!!!! moment.

Fortunately, there's a small storage cabinet with a door... sort of a closet within this almost closet like small room. I took my sweatshirt off, wrapped the tank up with it, fumbled around in the dark (barely dressed) for this little storage area, placed the sweatshirt wrapped tank into this cabinet of sorts, shut the cabinet door as tightly as I could, then squeezed through a barely open door to the room trying to keep from letting too much light in... retrieved the lids, and carried on.

Happily, the film was not fogged. Yes... "I'm an idiot" was uppermost in my mind when I realized I didn't have those lids.

 

clayne

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Done this plenty of times, but there's an easy way out: just flip the tank over and leave the film inside of it.
 

removed account4

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i sometimes forget where i put the lid and
have to turn the lights on to find it
 

Andrew Horodysky

Hexavalent said:
Develop, fix, open up tank to find empty reels, full reels sitting on table... oops.
Click to expand...

This is what happened to me, a few weeks ago; and everything "felt right": mixing, agitation, etc. It just has to happen once in a while!
 

CBG

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Nov 21, 2004
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It's also fun to open the camera back and see five feet of film not yet wound back into the cannister. I achieved that moment of total idiocy early when I had only been shooting a year or two. Woke me up to how unforgiving film is to lots of unfocussed light...
 

papagene

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As a LF shooter I have gone from dumb ass to idiot to moron to damn near brain-dead on several occasions. Sometimes I think it a near miracle when I get a good neg to work with... and then the printing dumb ass takes over! :rolleyes:
 

photomem

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Sep 19, 2009
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I had a roll of my final project for Foundations Studio last semester. I started spooling it for processing, then realized the lights are on. So, I had to go back out and recreate my project two days before it was due when I had been working for 2 weeks the first time. These things happen when you get in a hurry.
 

Hexavalent

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I've turned the lights on to read the measurements on the paper cutter. Took about 10 sheets to realize that something just didn't seem right.
 

Mainecoonmaniac

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Don't be so harsh on yourself. We've all made darkroom mistakes. Photographers are humans and humans are error prone.
 
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