Crooked Exposure

I scanned this negative as a document to be able to show the film rebate to show how crooked the exposure is on the sheet of film, so the negative is not as dense as it looks here. This is the recent image that I posted to the gallery. I think I understand how this happened....I think, when loading it in the holder, one edge was properly under the film guide on one side but the other side it was not. I exposed two sheets that day and both had the same crookedness to them. Also, the image had focus issues that were not apparent on the GG (it looked really sharp) but showed up when I put it in my enlarger to check it out. The film was not completely flat due to one side of the film not being under the film guide properly. Does anyone else concur with that assessment..... I need to take more care in loading the film in the the holder but it sure felt like it was properly loaded at the time. It's my first large format exposure in 10 years so things go wrong.

I think your assessment is correct.

If the film wasn't under the rails how could the edges be clear? Try loading a piece of processed film in the light. It may be the film holder.

I'd guess that the film was under the film rails but crooked, which caused it to buckle and throw your focus off on the film. Mal had a great idea on that, worth checking out. But I think it was just loaded incorrectly. Only one way to know.

Chuck_P said:

The film was not completely flat due to one side of the film not being under the film guide properly. Does anyone else concur with that assessment.....

Click to expand...

Maybe, but I generally encounter additional problems when this happens. I get this sometimes especially with slightly odd-cut film (e.g. film I cut to size myself) and it invariably makes it impossible to fully push the dark slide into the holder. It always gets stuck at the end where the lid is, since that won't seat properly with the film lying on top of one of the guide strips.

What kind of film holder is this? I mostly use Fidelity Elite.

I don't have any holders where it would be possible to get a clear edge as wide as that is on the bottom right. It looks very usual. The bottom left obviously wasn't under the flange. It's like the film holder is too large.

Mal Paso said:

If the film wasn't under the rails how could the edges be clear? Try loading a piece of processed film in the light. It may be the film holder.

Click to expand...

Ok, so I loaded the same sheet in daylight so I could see for sure that the film was under each guide, then tried to shift the film and make it crooked like it appears to have shifted, but there's no way for that film to move around that much when properly loaded under each guide.

koraks said:

What kind of film holder is this? I mostly use Fidelity Elite.

Click to expand...

It is a Fidelity Elite holder.

I've been futzing around with the film and holder this morning, trying to purposely load the film incorrectly. You can see in the bottom picture, the left side guide shows the film properly under the rail and the right side shows it's in the guide that the dark slide travels in. You can see that the "ears" (don't know what else to call them) of the image at the top of my first post are not the same length with the right ear being longer than the left.....and the right ear also has an angled bottom edge whereas the left ear has a straight bottom edge. This seems to match up perfectly with how the film is loaded in the bottom picture. With the film inserted in this manner, it easily shifts from side to side.............and I did it for both sides of the holder! Lesson learned.

The flap on my holders won't stay flat if the film is not under the channel correctly on both sides. The flap will pop up just a little. It is very subtle, check yours to see.