Did you know ?????? Useless Fact of the Day

medform-norm · Jul 5, 2005

More clever ways of saving film and wasting fuel:

1. forgetting to bring a take-up spool for 120 roll film type cameras or backs
2. forgetting to take a tripod socket adapter (the little brass thing that screws inside a large tripod socket to make it smaller) when shooting in low light conditions.

How to make 'soft focus' shots when you have no soft focus lens:

shoot with a back that has pressure plate problems
(this happened last week, drat!)

Pete H · Jul 6, 2005

David A. Goldfarb said:
Picking up any rangefinder/viewfinder camera after shooting mainly an SLR for a considerable stretch is an excellent way of testing the bokeh of your rangefinder lenses. This works particularly well with cameras that have a non-coupled rangefinder.

Under the same circumstances, forgetting to remove the lens cap is useful for obtaining clear negatives.

photobackpacker · Jul 6, 2005

Pull a sheet of film from a film holder and fumble while slipping it into the box. Is there a sadder sound than that made by a sheet of film making a gliding, sliding landing on the chemically active floor of your darkroom? Have you noticed that this sound is much louder when heard in total darkness.....

NikoSperi · Jul 6, 2005

blaughn said:
Have you noticed that this sound is much louder when heard in total darkness.....

Have you also notice how much further said sheet of film will travel on its way down, than the same developed sheet can do in daylight?

*curse, kneel, bump head, curse again, prod and poke in presumed last location of negative until out of exasperation, you flip on the lights to find it five and a half feet away from where you were searching*

Pete H · Jul 6, 2005

The so-called laws of probability are quite wrong: if you have two film backs one loaded with ISO 100 colour film and the other with ISO 100 b&w, and both labels fall off the film backs, the probability of guessing correctly which is which is zero, not 50%.

Silverprinter · Jul 6, 2005

When developing, carefully winding the paper backing on the spool while discarding the film eliminates any pesky underexposures.

Tom Hoskinson · Jul 6, 2005

blaughn said:
Pull a sheet of film from a film holder and fumble while slipping it into the box. Is there a sadder sound than that made by a sheet of film making a gliding, sliding landing on the chemically active floor of your darkroom? Have you noticed that this sound is much louder when heard in total darkness.....

Of course, one of the corollaries to Murphy's law applies when this event occurs.

The bread always falls jelly side down.

k_jupiter · Jul 6, 2005

argus said:
There's a similar feature on TLR's too: turn the film advance knob once every three exposures.
Only few people know you can make 36 exposures on a 120 film in 6x6 format!!!

G

In a similar vein, always replace the lens on your TLR and forget about the red line running through the viewfinder. It's only there to help you keep the horizon straight.

tim in san jose

k_jupiter · Jul 6, 2005

medform-norm said:
More clever ways of saving film and wasting fuel:

1. forgetting to bring a take-up spool for 120 roll film type cameras or backs

That is so stupid. Who would ever do something like that?

Oh yeah, just last week.

tim in san jose

colrehogan · Jul 6, 2005

k_jupiter said:
That is so stupid. Who would ever do something like that?

Oh yeah, just last week.

tim in san jose

I did that a few years ago when I went to visit friends in Mobile. I toasted a roll of film because I didn't have a spare camera with me.

garryl · Jul 6, 2005

Always leaving your camera in the front seat of your car,in plain sight, is a good way to test your car alarm system. An in the summer, that heat helps loosen up those old lubricants.

madvax · Jul 7, 2005

You don't need to waste your time measuring the developer temperature: you can always compensate for underprocessed negatives by printing them with a higher grade.

Soeren · Jul 7, 2005

When using teleconverters or extensionrings in compination with non TTL-flash there is no need to compensate, you'll get some nice dark and moody chromes
Cheers Søren

GregT. · Jul 7, 2005

If you leave your roll of Velvia in the pocket of your jeans and then run it through the laundry before processing you'll create some very interesting abstract art.

medform-norm · Jul 7, 2005

GregT. said:
If you leave your roll of Velvia in the pocket of your jeans and then run it through the laundry before processing you'll create some very interesting abstract art.

That's good news. Especially since there is a rekindled interest in abstract art these days. Only thing you need to find is a good gallery!

titrisol · Jul 7, 2005

I was caught in a downpour one day and forgot I left a roll of Ektachrome in my jacket.
I made sure the equipment was dry in the bag, and tossed the jacket in the dryer.... only to find that roll (in the plactic can) when I put it back..... the results were also very interesting.

GregT. said:
If you leave your roll of Velvia in the pocket of your jeans and then run it through the laundry before processing you'll create some very interesting abstract art.

richardmellor · Jul 7, 2005

It is also a fact :when you drop your favorite antique camera .It will be in the most public of places and in front of pretty girls.

medform-norm · Jul 7, 2005

garryl said:
Forgotten lenses do NOT stick to the trunk of a car traveling 50 mph.

There is an excellent remedy for that: wrap some strong double sided tape around your lens. Renew occasionally when sticky bits have attracted too much dirt or other debris.

Calamity Jane · Jul 7, 2005

NikoSperi said:
Have you also notice how much further said sheet of film will travel on its way down, than the same developed sheet can do in daylight?

*curse, kneel, bump head, curse again, prod and poke in presumed last location of negative until out of exasperation, you flip on the lights to find it five and a half feet away from where you were searching*

. . . yes, and about the same time you realize you DIDN'T close the paper envelope BEFORE turning on the lights.

garryl · Jul 7, 2005

Developing color film in B&W chemistry is a great way to add color....... to your developer.

Carol · Jul 7, 2005

garryl said:
Developing color film in B&W chemistry is a great way to add color....... to your developer.

Another way to add colour to your developer is to tip the stop bath in it by mistake. Yikes.

garryl · Jul 7, 2005

Carol said:
Another way to add colour to your developer is to tip the stop bath in it by mistake. Yikes.

Friendships may be won or lost based on telling someone new that the chemicals are arranged in right to left order rather than left to right order.

Carol · Jul 7, 2005

garryl said:
Friendships may be won or lost based on telling someone new that the chemicals are arranged in right to left order rather than left to right order.

Chuckle. Lucky I work alone. I don't think my sense of humour would stretch that far.

NikoSperi · Jul 8, 2005

Calamity Jane said:
. . . yes, and about the same time you realize you DIDN'T close the paper envelope BEFORE turning on the lights.

And despite being aware of the 300,000km per second it travels at, you still quickly turn them off again, hoping your paper will be ok if you're fast enough... everytime! :rolleyes:

argus · Jul 8, 2005

in the series best practises for turning unwanted/unexpected light in your advantage:

When photographing on an overcast day, you can easily add more drama (randomly positioned in height) to the sky, for exposed negatives on the take-up spool, by quickly opening your 35mm camera back for 0.5 seconds.
This method only works for pictures shot in portrait, and will eventually darken that bright lake on the foreground, or the horizon, ...
Bracketing will become obsolete as this method works as an auto-bracketing device. Be sure to shoot the whole roll with the same scene to achieve maximal choice in variation.

G

Did you know ?????? Useless Fact of the Day

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