No Info Here, Just Ranting

gainer said:

Take my word for it. If you grab it soon enough and rinse it out with 91% alcohol, they'll probably survive.

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OK, several hours later.

1. Pat, I saved the thermometer. Before it was sucked away I stuck my hand in the Urinol developer and grabbed it. It is drying out now and we willl know tomorrow if it survives.

2. PE, you sure have an instinct for the juglar!

3. Really enjoyed the wine.

Sandy

ron mcelroy said:

Were you able to get a reading before it was swallowed?

Good to here the gurus of this business are human like the rest of us.

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If being a guru involves the ability to quickly recongize that one has made five major mistakes at the rate of one about every 20-25 minutes, then I accept the crown!!

Sandy

"I'd take any plan as long as it isn't Plan 9 from Outer Space..." Good lord, I didn't realize that one had made it as far as europe. Sandy, this is a "must see" classic reeker from years ago. It is, perhaps, the worst movie ever made. If you have another bad day next year, please get a copy. It can always be worse. tim

P.S. Still worse when I had locked myself out of the house (naked) on the first night in the new neighborhood. My wife was at work, so this one took a while to resolve. A bottle would have helped, but my dignity has been restored with time after running around the neighborhood in a potting soil bag, while lookng for a phone.

Last Sunday night I took the 10 UNEXPOSED 4x5 sheets from the 5 holders lying in the darkroom instead of the 10 exposed sheets from the 5 holders still in my camera bag. The look on my face when I hit the lights only to see 10 sheets of crystal clear film base must have been priceless.... I went through 5 or 6 possibilities before realising my stupid mistake and had to start all over again... no damage done in the end except for loss of pride and $15 of film.

Tony Egan said:

Last Sunday night I took the 10 UNEXPOSED 4x5 sheets from the 5 holders lying in the darkroom instead of the 10 exposed sheets from the 5 holders still in my camera bag.

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I did the same thing ONCE! Now when I've shot both films in a holder I put a rubber band around the holder; it lets me know what's been shot and what's not. Flipping the dark slide from silver to black never worked for me. I never remember which is which.

Last Xmas a glass of red wine BEFORE developing caused me to reach for what I thought was fixer, only to realize later that it was Xtol. So I stumbled upon the XTOL/Rodinal combination. I call it "IDIOTOL".

What an opportune morning to discover this thread. Monday I did the step wedge test described by Noseoil in the Articles. One test for each lens I own. I also tested my "new" (from ebay) light meter against 3 camera meters and another light meter and discovered it was one stop different than the others. I corrected for this before doing the step wedge test.
One lens was bang on, the other two showed they were under exposing by half a stop. So, yesterday I went out and took 8 pictures. 6 of them are over exposed by at least a stop, and 2 of them are grossly underexposed. I've obviously screwed up somewhere, so today I'm trying it again.

I used to think some of the TV Sitcoms were outlandishly improbable.

A few years ago I taught my daughter how to process prints. I prefaced our session by saying that I had made just about every mistake possible in the dark room, so she wasn't to worry about making mistakes.

Well, she managed to make one that I had never done. She pulled a piece of paper out of the box, exposed it properly and placed it in the developer. Nothing. No image. Nada. I was stumped until I picked it up and found that she had exposed the cardboard sheet that protects the paper. The next print turned out fine.

It is always good to find out that I am not the only one who has senior moments in the darkroom. Comfort food for the mistake prone.

I had one of my students do that. I also had one take his contact sheet, cut it into strips and put the stips into the neg carrier and try to print thru it onto the photo paper. That was a new one!

Just this morning, trying to shoot one shoreline pano-
-first shot, realised two people were strolling through the frame..
-second, forgot to stop down..
-third, exposed over top of first shot...
-fourth, same people strolling back the other way
I was so rattled that I took two backups after finally getting the 5th one. Next time, I might try taping my thumbs together...Probably go smoother.

A few days ago I was taking a self-timer shot and had only one sheet of film left with me. I'd already done one shot, so this was the second. I don't use the self-timer often, and the light was changing, so I was in a hurry, and sure enough, I'm ready to run into place, click the shutter--oops, forgot to set the self-timer.

Fortunately I'd also forgotten to remove the darkslide, so sometimes, if you make enough mistakes, it all works out in the end.

David A. Goldfarb said:

Fortunately I'd also forgotten to remove the darkslide, so sometimes, if you make enough mistakes, it all works out in the end.

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I do this probably 80% of the time when I use my 5x4 camera. Just when I am happy that I have set everything up right, I close and then cock the shutter, set the aperture and shutter speed, put in the filmholder, have a final look then trip the shutter. Then I look at the back and realise the dark slide is still in place!

Steve.

yep--done that before. did an architectural shot once years ago. shot this big office building, and broke it up into two parts. one at dusk to get the sunset, the other about an hour later, to get the building all lit up. did the first shot, kicked back & enjoyed the sunset, and pulled the box off the lens I was using as my "shutter" and made the second exposure...went to put the slide back in, and well....there you go. Reshoot!

David A. Goldfarb said:

When I do things like this, I just figure that a certain degree of absent mindedness comes with the profession.

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And I though it was just age!

Back in the late 70's when I was first learning how to screw up in the darkroom, I was using a gang darkroom in a community arts center and was processing a roll of film I'd shot of a church that my friend's grandmother grew up in which was demolished before I processed the film. Loaded it up in the tank without incident, developed in Microdol-X 1:3, then went to the box of Kodak Indicator Stop Bath on the shelf, the kind with the big bladder inside and a valve on the front to fill up my tank. Hrm... smells a bit strong, but I shrugged it off. Fixed it, gave it a quick rinse then pulled the film off the reel to check it out. Lots of beautifully exposed, composed and focused images of a now-extinct church, which promptly slid right off the base and into a black puddle in the sink.

The stop was pure concentrate -- I thought it was already diluted.

Telling his grandmother that I'd ruined the shots was not enjoyable for either of us.

I hope the wine was enjoyed Sandy.

My best mistake was to fix the film before I developed it. The resultant negatives made wonderful VERY low key prints :confused:

i was loading my film holders from a new box of foma 100, 100 sheet box. got all my loaders loaded, took my arms out of the bag, and opened it.......but i never closed my box!!! so i have like a stack of 80-85 sheets looking at me! i quickly closed the bag! i losta few top sheets and got black corners on a sh!tload of them. i consider myself lucky. at that time i was wishing for those sealed packets of 25 that come with kodak films.

eddie

Sandy;
This sounds like alot of the technical questions we get from alot of GURU's that we are supposed to answer with the correct answer. I am sure the call would have gone something like this;

Sandy; Bud I developed some film this morning and it just didn't come out right. What did I do wrong?
Bud; Did you read the instructions that came with the developer?

Sandy; No, but I have done this so many times before without a problem. It must be bad developer.

Bud; Did you mix it right?

Sandy; Yes, I have done this so many times before how could I have mixed it wrong?

Bud; Did you use the right developer? I know you must have a lot of developers in your dark room, did you grab the right bottles?

Sandy; Yes. The developer must be bad what else could it possibly be?

Bud; Well it could be alot of things so you need to redo the test with film you can afford to lose and make sure you use the right developer.

2 hours later.

Sandy; Hi Bud. I redid the test and it still came out with bad contrast. What is wrong. It must be a bad developer! Bud what is wrong? I did every thing right. It worked ok last time I used it. Has to be a bad developer.

Bud; Are you sure you mixed everything right this time and processed it as the instructions called for?

Sandy; Yes. It is a bad developer isn't it Bud.

Bud; Well if you have done everything right and you (being a GURU) think it is bad I will be happy to replace it for you. Call me back when you use the new stuff and let me know.

2 weeks later

Sandy; Got the new developer and tried it. Yup I was right. The developer was bad the new batch worked just fine. Thanks alot for your help. I wonder what was wrong with the last batch?

Bud; Glad things worked out. If you say the last batch was bad then we will recall 103 kits of that bad stuff and replace it also. Thanks.

As you can see this is in jest but sometimes maybe it just wasn't the chemistry afterall.
There was usefull info in this thread.

Thanks Sandy
Bud