Polaroid problem

[guitstik]

I am having some problems with my LF Polaroid shots.

The first two shots I took with Fuji FP3000-B came out great but the last four I took came out completely blank, I'm talking white.

I don't have a shutter for the lens that I am using so I have to guestimate exposure times times. All the shots I have taken today have been in bright sunlight so I tried to keep the exposures as short as possible and the aperture as small as the lens would go. The first shot was taken inside of a white floor with early morning sunlight streaming in, shot at f27 with a quick snap of the lens cap, white.

Before you ask, I did remove the darkslide before each one.

The second shot was outside with the sun from behind. I metered f27 @ 1/500 so another quick snap of the lens cap, white again.

The third shot was of the same scene but I exposed for 1sec and it still came out white but there was a ghost image of the scene on the negative side of the emulsion so I took a third shot thinking that it was under exposed.

Shot four I opened the aperture to f16 and exposed for 2sec and it still came out white.

As I said, the first two shots I took on this pack came out great but that was about a week ago now nothing. Check out the shot of spoons in my gallery and you will see what I mean.

 

[frobozz]

I'm guessing that your lens cap "shutter" is nowhere near as short as 1/500 of a second, so the white is just massive overexposure.

Duncan

 

[Photo Engineer]

If they come out white, that indicates overexposure or total fog! If they were black it would indicate no exposure. Blank white also indicates no development or no spread of the goo or no bursting of the pod.

PE

 

[Mainecoonmaniac]

The chemical goo dried out in the pod?

 

[guitstik]

PE, I let the film develop for 2min and checked that the developer had spread. Duncan, being that it is 3000ASA film the idea that I had overexposed it is probably the best bet, the previous shots had been in subdued lighting with lighting only on the subject.

I guess that I had better get a lensboard for the lens and shutter that I have.

 

[holmburgers]

I'm with duncan, you can't possibly reach 1/500th of a second manually. And in daylight, you'd want f/16 at 1/3000th of a second, going off the sunny 16 rule.

The third shot was of the same scene but I exposed for 1sec and it still came out white but there was a ghost image of the scene on the negative side of the emulsion so I took a third shot thinking that it was under exposed.

Shot four I opened the aperture to f16 and exposed for 2sec and it still came out white.

Why would white be underexposure with a direct positive??

 

[guitstik]

Inexperience?

 

[holmburgers]

Ahh.. indeed. And sorry, my rhetorical question sounded quite rude.

 

[Whiteymorange]

With instant film, there is an outside chance you may not be getting the chemicals spread on your film- isn't that another way for the film to remain white? I know it's unlikely, but check to see that the film really is passing between the rollers.