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

[philldresser]

This is my useless fact of the day, I challenge others to follow:

If you put a Polaroid type 55 sheet in the wrong way round, you get marvellous black positives and a very clear negative.

Hope it helps someone

Phill

 

[modafoto]

It sounds like something worth trying.

 

[FrankB]

...if you put your paper on the easel the wrong way up you tend to get a very high-key image.

 

[Ole]

...if you put your paper on the easel the wrong way up you tend to get a very high-key image.

Ilfospeed III grade 3 is 3 stops thick...

 

[modafoto]

DAMN

The gooood advices are flowing here!

Also remeber NOT to check your light meters ISO setting before metering the flashlights! You get anything from heavily underexposed slides or negs to very dense negs or very thin slides! Great trick!

 

[medform-norm]

Remember to leave your light meter at home, especially on days when the weather and the light changes constantly and you're taking your view camera on a stroll.

For great double exposures: always take out the dark slide once with lens still open before you actually expose the neg.

 

[rogueish]

Not putting the lid on your developing tank BEFORE you turn on the lights, makes very uniform and boring negatives.
Another amazing discovery I made was that fixing print paper before you develop it, keeps the image from coming out and ruining a good piece of paper. In another recent test, I confirmed that developing before exposure has the same results. Who would have guessed ?!

 

[argus]

For great double exposures: always take out the dark slide once with lens still open before you actually expose the neg.

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

 

[FrankB]

Remember, if you open up your enlarger lens to focus it, make sure to leave it like that when you print and you'll get lovely deep blacks (all over the image).

Oh, and you'd be amazed at how well a wide range of camera equipment bounces off a hard surface! Just try it!

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

If you can't make it out to your favorite landscape spot at sunset, just load your transparency film upside down in the holders for all kinds of pretty yellow and red colors.

 

[jim appleyard]

...if you put your paper on the easel the wrong way up you tend to get a very high-key image.

To get low-key images, ALWAYS open your paper safe (full of new paper you just got that day!!!) with the room lights on!

 

[titrisol]

Loading FP4+ backwards gives you an EI of 12.. and nice halation!

If you can't make it out to your favorite landscape spot at sunset, just load your transparency film upside down in the holders for all kinds of pretty yellow and red colors.

 

[garryl]

If you want positves results from copying yours negatives, be sure to use negative film.

 

[Davo5X7]

I have found that by using my tripod upside down, I can afix 3 cameras and shoot not only color, B&W, but also a pinhole-infrared panoramic for portraits, all without very few gyrations. FWIW

 

[jimgalli]

If you pull the darkslide nearest you it has the same effect or at least similar to the original post.

 

[BruceN]

I find that I'm able to conserve film by leaving the best lens choice for a given shot at home in order to save weight in my pack. Hey, maybe I could save even more weight by just leaving the camera bodies and film, too!

 

[Ole]

I save film in a similar way; by taking the 5x7" camera and 4x5" holders.

 

[jjstafford]

One's confidence that he has just made a photograph from a place never visited by humankind is dramatically diminished when he realizes he left a lens laying on the ground there.

 

[Dave Parker]

If you want to savor the moment of the perfect spot you have just found!!! Forget to install a new ground glass in the back of your 4 x 5 after you sold the one in it!, this tip is only good if you have drove at least 50 miles from home to capture the moment!

Dave

 

[Dave Swinnard]

Shoot the waterfalls along the Columbia River Gorge in perfect light, then while exiting the car and next falls, check the frame counter on F3 and think, hmmm... "I'll change the film now so as not to get it wet by the falls". Rewind film - very little tension - open back. No film. Reload for real, smack forehead smartly, make note to self - no more "dry shooting" to play with friend's new lens.

I will go back with film in camera - someday.

 

[garryl]

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

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

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.

 

[Ailsa]

The zips on your camera backpack are there for a purpose. Use them if you prefer your Mamiya 6 body and three lenses to remain out of contact with tarmac.

 

[NikoSperi]

Why settle for "surreal" colors when you can shoot Kodak EIR (infrared color slide) and cross process in C41 and get some really weird stuff?

 

[modafoto]

Why settle for "surreal" colors when you can shoot Kodak EIR (infrared color slide) and cross process in C41 and get some really weird stuff?

C41 processed EIR is:

weirdness x weirdness = back to normal