darkslides - which side do you use first?

climbabout · Mar 25, 2008

loaded holders

I use a post-it note on my loaded holders - on the darkslide - remove it during exposure and write exposure and development info on it after exposure.
Tim

sly · Mar 25, 2008

Well, here I've been doing it all wrong - black for unexposed and white for exposed. Won't change now - and it never occurred to me to share film holders.

Dave Miller · Mar 25, 2008

It’s clear that a greater level of organisation is require on my part. By the way, I’m white for unexposed and black for exposed. Seemed most logical to me.

jgjbowen · Mar 25, 2008

Dave Miller said:
More to the point, how do you know if you have film loaded to start with? Question from one who just exposed 4 empty slides.

Dave,

I use white = unexposed, black = exposed film. When I unload holders I leave them with the black side facing out. When I clean the holders prior to reloading, I flip the slides so that the white side is facing out, then reload them with film.

This way, I know that black either means exposed film or empty and it needs attention in the darkroom either way.

Richard Ritter told me about shaking a holder to determine if it holds film, but with my method, I never have to worry about shooting a empty holder.

Richard also shared a story about Fred Picker using an assistant to help him. Fred had his assistant (not Richard, by the way) empty his film holders after a shoot. When Fred next went on a shoot (apparently an architectural shoot about 3 hours from White Plains) he returned to discover his holders were all empty. The assistant had unloaded the holders, cleaned the holders, turned the darkslides so the white was facing out.....then skipped the step where he put film in the holders. Fred fired him and then had to make the trip again to shoot the building

RobC · Mar 25, 2008

jgjbowen said:
Dave,
Richard Ritter told me about shaking a holder to determine if it holds film, but with my method, I never have to worry about shooting a empty holder.

Ah but shaking it won't tell you if it has film in both sides and if its only in one side, which side.

Sanjay Sen · Mar 25, 2008

White = unexposed, black = exposed.

All my holders are usually always loaded. After they have been unloaded, I pull the dark slides out a little and put the holders in a ziploc bag to avoid dust issues. They are loaded soon after the exposed sheets are developed.

RobC · Mar 25, 2008

and how do you check if you put the film in back to front...

Dave Miller · Mar 25, 2008

rob champagne said:
and how do you check if you put the film in back to front...

You just pull the slide up a little and have a look.

climbabout · Mar 25, 2008

Checking holders for film

Regarding opening and closing the holder to check if there's film inside - if you do it in the darkroom, the holder will always be empty, naturally if you're in the light, there will be film in the holder, and if there's film in the holder, it will have already been exposed, and probably something that you can't reshoot. - Also an old friend once told me, no matter how quickly you open and close the slide, the film will still fog, because it's not the shutter speed that gets you in trouble - it's that darn aperature!
Tim

eddym · Mar 25, 2008

I learned it The Army Way (from a Signal School Training Manual): white side out when loading film, and yes, the little bumps are how you can tell in the dark the side that goes out. When you replace the slide after shooting, the white (and bumpy) side goes in. Black slides mean exposed film... or an empty holder.
Sometimes after unloading, I leave the slides pulled slightly out to indicate an empty holder.

bdial · Mar 25, 2008

I do the white out unexposed, black out exposed or empty thing.
Also the shake the holder to tell if it's loaded thing. If for some reason, I only load one side, I make sure the empty side is black. A white/black holder would pretty much always have film, verifiable by shaking, and whether there is one sheet or two wouldn't really matter.

MurrayMinchin · Mar 26, 2008

jgjbowen said:
When I unload holders I leave them with the black side facing out. When I clean the holders prior to reloading, I flip the slides so that the white side is facing out, then reload them with film.

This way, I know that black either means exposed film or empty and it needs attention in the darkroom either way.

Me too.

Murray

walter23 · Mar 26, 2008

I use the same. Black for exposed because exposure makes (developed) film blacker

I do use white for empty, and I have shot on blank holders in the past. The upside of this is that if I open a holder I mistakenly think is empty I'll only be ruining an unexposed sheet (I often open in the light to blast them with compressed air). I guess messing up with either system results in a lost shot though, so I just try to be careful about keeping my empty holders separate or checking them if I have any doubts.

pellicle · Mar 26, 2008

Folks

thanks for the replies, I have no idea why I started with the white out and the black in, but it seems that this is the trend.

I get around the issues of film or no film in it by:
each darkslide has its own zip lock plastic bag, top out and white means loaded and exposed, top in and white means empty.

jayavant · Mar 26, 2008

white out means unexposed for me - i remember reading in one of adams' books that that was the way he did it so i thought - that's good enough for me.

empty holders, i leave the slides out of them. i keep them in individual zip-lock bags so dust isn't a problem.

my common error is forgetting to label them. i shot some 4x5's recently thining they were velvia 100F. later, when i removed the film to process it i found that it was FP4+.....

bugger!

fortunately similar speed but it had been a sunrise and the colour was spectacular of course...

bennoj · Mar 26, 2008

I've generally gone with black = unexposed/white = exposed (on the logic that black = no light and white = light), but apparently I don't always remember this as last night I developed some 8x10 film and found that I'd double-exposed 2 film holders. Apparently I forgot to turn around the dark slides when replacing them during an earlier shoot (and to be honest, I now remember when developing the film from that shoot I thought I'd shot more than I developed).

Sigh. Perhaps the images will turn out the be interesting.

Deckled Edge · Mar 26, 2008

walter23 said:
I use the same. Black for exposed because exposure makes (developed) film blacker

The upside of this is that if I open a holder I mistakenly think is empty I'll only be ruining an unexposed sheet

So I guess you're not using 16 x 20 or color 8 x 10.

I was told by John Sexton to never use a label on a film holder, as its thickness causes a slight stand off from the frame and could admit light. My holders have a rectangle of flat white enamel paint upon which to label the film type and development note.

Loaded holder White with dark slide locks turned in.
Exposed holder Dark with " " " " " and N or N+/N-
Empty holder Dark with dark slide locks in neutral position and development note erased.

zenrhino · Mar 26, 2008

On my 9x12cm holders, there isnt any white/black, just some bumps. I use bumps out for loaded, bumps in for exposed. I store them half open once theyre empty.

CBG · Mar 26, 2008

I can't imaging leaving empty holders in the same place I keep full ones. Empty holders go one place, full ones go another.

Why tempt fate? I can make more than enough errors without asking for them.

C

Photo Engineer · Mar 26, 2008

I've been watching this thread for a while, but not contributing.

Here is a comment to the point. Does it matter, as long as you are the only one who uses your holders, and you have a set method? What else can be said.

PE

RobC · Mar 26, 2008

Photo Engineer said:
Does it matter, as long as you are the only one who uses your holders, and you have a set method?

Apparently, sufficiently to generate 45 posts minus one or two less than serious ones

Photo Engineer · Mar 26, 2008

Rob;

Yes, I know, but I worked in production units and we individually used different methods but exchanged holders. In fact, the aerial photos that are in my gallery were not loaded by me. So, as long as someone tells you what their convention is, there is no problem. OMG, lets worry about how you hang your film to dry - emulsion towards you or away from you...... Does it make a difference?

Etc.

PE

John Kasaian · Mar 26, 2008

Light-unexposed/dark-exposed. My problem is which side do I use to indicate "unloaded?"

Photo Engineer · Mar 26, 2008

Actually, our convention was to leave the darkslide partway up, or to leave the small lock to the center, not that it mattered. We had a big box for unloaded holders. You have to have a work flow and a convention. It does not matter what it is, it matters that YOU understand it.

PE

mmmichel · Mar 26, 2008

Which side indicates unloaded

John Kasaian said:
Light-unexposed/dark-exposed. My problem is which side do I use to indicate "unloaded?"

(This goes for Dave too)

I use the following simple method: Use the white side ONLY for unexposed film. As long as you use the same side to indicate both "exposed" and "empty" (black side for me), the worst you can do is to attempt to remove exposed film from an empty holder.

Melchi

darkslides - which side do you use first?

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