list of photographic problems, photographs? troubleshooting ...

[removed account4]

the horenstein book, basic balck and white photography
has a photographic problems image index ...

for example ...

film touched in a reel looks like this ...
microscratches from film holders look like this ...
reticulation looks like this ...

this thread would be a great place for our own
"messed up .. here is the problem + photo of it" ...
so when people have troubles they can maybe ID it
and do better the next time.

 

[Drew B.]

Like putting sheet film in backwards...? Ya, I've done that...;(

 

[pbromaghin]

Here's what happens when you load a canister, don't label it, leave it sit for 3 weeks so that when you finally process it you forget that you sneaked in another 120 reel instead of all 35mm reels. So, how many errors does that cover?




Oh, and then your scanner is set to "color negative" instead of "B&W negative".

 

[removed account4]

id scan the glass plates i processed in alum hardener instead of developer,
but it seems to be a waste of time, the plates are clear ...

 

[pbromaghin]

id scan the glass plates i processed in alum hardener instead of developer,
but it seems to be a waste of time, the plates are clear ...

Well, to save you the trouble, I can scan the roll I processed in fixer.

 

[Dr Croubie]

I once processed 2 rolls of TX in the last of my XTOL that I hadn't used for a month or two, and didn't do a clip test before to see if it was still working:

(you get the idea)

 

[Rhodes]

Once processed 2 rolls of Fuji C-41 color film in Rodinal thinking that was b&w film. Better, I load the first film and went taking pictures thinking that I was using bw. Changed to the second film and not even then I noticed the error! Only after I take the films out of the tank and saw the orange cast and :confused:

 

[David Brown]

John: I'd like to help, but all my negs are perfect ...

 

[removed account4]

John: I'd like to help, but all my negs are perfect ...

i had a feeling. ...

 

[timor]

John: I'd like to help, but all my negs are perfect ...

I like this answer

 

[AndreasT]

I had a problem last night but I can't show a picture. I developed two films using my own home made developer. Part a and part b to mix.
What did I do ? I twice took part a, I left the akali out. Did I boil over.

 

[analoguey]

Problems I have had, have usually been because of

1. Not testing film speed vis-a-vis my style of shooting
2. Not doing a test batch with a new developer or dev-fix combo.

Have since learnt not to proceed further without either. No substitute for testing.

 

[mfohl]

Like putting sheet film in backwards...? Ya, I've done that...;(

In my experience, you need to do 20 things right just to get a LF printable image. Putting the film in the right way is one of them. I always did 18-20 of those things. And not always the same 18-20 ...

 

[Simon R Galley]

Into every life a little rain must fall....

Simon ILFORD Photo / HARMAN technology Limited

 

[David Brown]

Into every life a little rain must fall....

Simon ILFORD Photo / HARMAN technology Limited

 

[Mark_S]

The issue with threads like this is that although there may be some good suggestions that come, many of the replies (including this one), will not really be of help to someone trying to troubleshoot their issues. What would be good is if someone could curate the suggestions and create a document which could be placed somewhere like this to serve as a reference.

A suggestion oh how to determine between two mistakes that can lead to film coming out clear (both of which I have done):

If there are edge markings on the developed film, but no images, was the lens-cap on when you shot the roll?
If there are no edge markings did you process in the order fixer, stop, develop rather than develop, stop, fix?

Mark

 

[Thomas Bertilsson]

Well, to save you the trouble, I can scan the roll I processed in fixer.

I have never done that...

 

[David Brown]

the horenstein book, basic balck and white photography
has a photographic problems image index ...

The issue with threads like this is that although there may be some good suggestions that come, many of the replies (including this one), will not really be of help to someone trying to troubleshoot their issues. What would be good is if someone could curate the suggestions and create a document which could be placed somewhere like this to serve as a reference.

Agreed. Getting back to john's original quest: Many basic B&W photography books had such example pages. I found this on Google books:

http://books.google.com/books?id=w0...age&q=film developing troubleshooting&f=false

I think John was asking not so much for a "mistakes I've made in the darkroom" thread (actually there has already been one of those), but pictorial examples.

 

[cliveh]

What you need is an Errors gallery and people who make the same mistake post their image in under the same heading. So you may get 10 examples of scratched film etc.

 

[Jaf-Photo]

I ain't tellin'...

 

[David Brown]

I really think I've seen many more (and better) examples of this, but here is all I could come up with in my little library. Two pages from Kodak's 1988 Darkroom Dataguide ​:

 

[Truzi]

The first time I used a steel reel I didn't know you were supposed to load from the center. I tried pushing it through as if it were a non-ratcheting plastic reel. I managed to get the entire roll loaded, and later discovered the film was touching itself in many places. Very few frames came out.

 

[Dinesh]

What you need is an Errors gallery .....

It could be called "Processing film with Dinesh" as I have made every conceivable error multiple times!

 

[mr rusty]

Shooting a whole 36 film, opening the camera, and finding it empty..................You only do it once!

 

[Thomas Bertilsson]

Shooting a whole 36 film, opening the camera, and finding it empty..................You only do it once!

Or twice... That happened to me last summer. Had a brilliant morning of shooting on the shores of Lake Michigan, and after I started re-winding the film thought it felt a little bit light. One roll of 120 - not there.