Please explain this flare: HB 50 CF T* FLE

bags27 · Sep 13, 2022

Every so often I get a green flare on a photo with this lens. Always this shape. Recently got a lens hood but it doesn't seem to matter. Sometimes even when I'm shooting with sun to my back. Not always but sometimes.

But this is really weird: the flare outside the photo. This is Portra 400 @200 in Cinestill c-41. Thanks for insight!

mcfitz · Sep 13, 2022

Is it flare, or a bend that occurred in the film when loading it onto your developing reel? that's what it looks like to me, a small crescent moon shape.

I've had that happen at times with b&w film, if the film doesn't advance smoothly into the reel.

Ian Grant · Sep 13, 2022

I'd agree with the film having some loading kink in it.

Ian

albada · Sep 13, 2022

mcfitz said:
Is it flare, or a bend that occurred in the film when loading it onto your developing reel? that's what it looks like to me, a small crescent moon shape.

I've had that happen at times with b&w film, if the film doesn't advance smoothly into the reel.

Try holding a bad section of film up to a light at an angle, and look at the reflection of the light off the shiny side of the film. That will reveal whether there's a kink there.

RalphLambrecht · Sep 13, 2022

Ian Grant said:
I'd agree with the film having some loading kink in it.

Ian

+1

cramej · Sep 13, 2022

I think you have more than bent film here. There are several other areas of what looks like light exposure. Do you wear a smartwatch that uses green LEDs for heart rate monitoring?

Edit: Looks like there is even more fogging to the right of the top crescent shape.

AgX · Sep 13, 2022

cramej said:
There are several other areas of what looks like light exposure. Do you wear a smartwatch that uses green LEDs for heart rate monitoring?

How could a illuminated wrist watch produce such tiny streaks? In such case it must have been rather few green pixels lighting up at an display.

But I do not see such at Smartwatches.

cramej · Sep 13, 2022

AgX said:
How could a illuminated wrist watch produce such tiny streaks? In such case it must have been rather few green pixels lighting up at an display.

But I do not see such at Smartwatches.

The heart rate leds are on the skin side. If the watch were to move just enough to allow some light out, I could see it leaving small areas of exposure while loading. The crescent shaped marks are probably creases.

Dan Daniel · Sep 13, 2022

Just a quick observation on the 'crease leaks- they appear to be mirroring themselves. The larger upper right crease is mirrored and dimmer in the lower left. The upper left crease is mirrored and dimmer at the lower right.

(the lower right crease just entering the frame appears to be part of a crease like the large upper right crease)

I wonder if this 4-part pattern is the standard for any time the leak appears?

My gut reaction is that this is a back issue, not a lens issue. Put the film back in the camera as shot and see if the leak locations point you to anything. Be sure to look at the take-up nd feed chambers, not just the front-facing image area.

AgX · Sep 13, 2022

cramej said:
The heart rate leds are on the skin side. If the watch were to move just enough to allow some light out, I could see it leaving small areas of exposure while loading. The crescent shaped marks are probably creases.

If light leaks between wrist and watch, then it already fanned out to either expose a whole frame or got too weak for anything. My idea instead was the film touching the display of such watch with only few pixels being on.

bags27 · Sep 13, 2022

I checked the negatives and they doesn't seem crinkled.

But I DO wear an Apple Watch! (but not when developing film)

I am wondering, as Dan Daniel suggested, whether it's a back issue. Though I've shot several rolls through that back, and it's only been since I started using the 50mm, about 10 rolls ago, that I've noticed anything at all.

Dan Daniel · Sep 13, 2022

Run a roll while keeping the lens cap on? Or shoot every other shot with the lens cap on.

I don't know Hasselblads well at all, so by 'keep the lens cap on' what I really mean is do what you can to remove the lens as a probably cause and see if the problem remains or goes away.

And seriously, put the film in the back as shot and see where the leaks fall.

The mirroring thing is a real puzzler!

Light Capture · Sep 13, 2022

+1 on putting the film in the back the way it was shot for start.

I'm not sure if they're mirrored. Seem to appear slightly different and there is a curved line in bottom left corner.
Not seeing an easy way of green streak appearing in these shapes in Hasselblad.

reddesert · Sep 13, 2022

I also think this looks like crescent marks caused by kinking the film during loading. After this happens, the film does not necessarily have a visible crinkle. It is possible for the film to have been kinked on both edges at the same place.

I don't really understand what I'm seeing in the top of the original photo. It looks like the green mark continues into the next image area at the top. Are we looking at two strips of negatives lying next to each other? Can you take a picture that shows just one strip and shows the entire rebate to the edges of the film? It's really hard to figure these things out from cropped and overlapped images of the film.

AgX · Sep 13, 2022

Dan Daniel said:
I don't know Hasselblads well at all, so by 'keep the lens cap on' what I really mean is do what you can to remove the lens as a probably cause and see if the problem remains or goes away.

The artefact also appearing between frames already excludes the lens as the cause.

Sirius Glass · Sep 13, 2022

AgX said:
The artefact also appearing between frames already excludes the lens as the cause.

And that builds to the story that something kinky is going on with the film [pun heavily intended] so look at the film handling loading and unloading the camera as well as putting on the development reels.

bags27 · Sep 13, 2022

Thanks all. I'll try to work on the film within the camera when I get a chance. But I do believe there was a little problem getting that roll into the film. It looks unkinked now, but it doesn't mean that it didn't cause damage when I first tried to get it on the reel.

Thanks for all the good ideas! Much appreciated!!

AgX · Sep 13, 2022

What puzzles me at this explanation by kinks is that the resulting fogging is uniform in colour.

Don_ih · Sep 14, 2022

AgX said:
The artefact also appearing between frames already excludes the lens as the cause.

Not if somehow there is the tiniest pinhole of light coming in from the lens mount. Ah - but that has a focal plane shutter, doesn't it?

Don_ih · Sep 14, 2022

The small mark circled on the right looks like it could be a kink, but it would be a weird one. The meandering line on the left, however, really looks like a light leak.

AgX · Sep 14, 2022

But a light leak could not produce a green exposure, unless there is a source of green light at the leak or the leak filtering the light.

Dan Daniel · Sep 14, 2022

AgX said:
But a light leak could not produce a green exposure, unless there is a source of green light at the leak or the leak filtering the light.

I think that mechanical damage to an emulsion can lead to chemical changes that don't depend on light and its color. So you have crimps, like the crescents. And maybe the wavering line is from a finger nail dragging across or such?

Ian Grant · Sep 14, 2022

AgX said:
But a light leak could not produce a green exposure, unless there is a source of green light at the leak or the leak filtering the light.

It's C41 film with the orange mask it'll be more like this:

Looked at like this it seems someone struggled to load the film into a spiral and probably got into a mess. It's worth adding that there are a growing number of smaller outlets processing films, often in small processors.

So mechanical stress kinks, the bottom left is possibly where the film has dragged on the spiral at some point, or a loose end of the roll..

Ian

Don_ih · Sep 14, 2022

Light leaking can be eliminated by putting a piece of film in the back, in the loaded position, bringing the camera out in the sun, firing the shutter with the lens covered, turning the camera all around to let the sun shine on it from every angle, then developing the film. Just a few inches of film sitting behind loaded backing paper would work. Even two strips of 35mm sitting side-by-side.

warden · Sep 14, 2022

By the look, color, and placement of the problem areas it seems unlikely that the lens or camera would be the issue, but ruling out light leaks is the easiest first step so I'd tackle that one first.

Are you using plastic or metal reels? If plastic, do you get binding or are they operating smoothly? Also are the problem exposures always at the beginning or end of the roll, or are they found randomly?

Please explain this flare: HB 50 CF T* FLE

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