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The Road from 35mm to LF

Not locking down your lens board and have the lens topple forward and tumble into the snow

Loading a sheet so it's not under both rails in the holder, so that it hangs up the darkslide when you push it in after making the exposure. (then the sheet is pushed out of the holder into the bellows)

The sheet that didn't make it into the film hanger for processing, that you discover when the lights go on.

The unmarked film box that contains processed negatives instead of film.

The formerly 4x5 negatives that came out of that box that have been cut down to 2 1/4 x 3 1/4

The 4x5 neg that came out of that box that got processed twice...
Huh? I didn't take that picture yesterday...

All the other things that make sharpies one of your most important photographic tools.
 
Not realizing that you forgot to pack your quick-release until you've hiked for an hour through the woods.

Recently, while out shooting I clicked the shutter on what would have been the best shot of the day, however I didn't realize til I developed the film and saw the giant fuzzy finger taking up a good portion of the right side that the shot was ruined...I keep the negative around as a reminder, and now I always use a cable release.
 
bdial said:
Loading a sheet so it's not under both rails in the holder, so that it hangs up the darkslide when you push it in after making the exposure. (then the sheet is pushed out of the holder into the bellows
Click to expand...

I have done this one for sure. I was shooting my Speed at a wedding one time, and this happened, luckily on a "so what" shot. However, a bit later, I had just got a great action shot...newlyweds dancing, with a flashbulb (daytime). I was happy to have got the shot, but then I inserted the dark slide only to come across this huge problem. LUCKILY, I had a changing bag. I closed the camera, threw it into the changing bag, and recovered the piece of film.

These are the only two times this has ever happened to me. Must have been having a bad day when I loaded the film!
 
Let's see....

Forgot to load film.
Forgot the meter.
Forgot the cable release.
Forgot the dark cloth.
Forgot my brain.
Mismarked holders
Mismarked my brain
In cold weather, couldn't get the darkslide back into the holder.
After a 5 hour night exposure flipped the flashlight on and ruined the film, before replacing the darkslide(last weekend).........was very sleepy.
Only ruined one box of film.....of course it was a box of 8x10 Velvia.(expensive stuff).

With more and more practice, mistakes (should) become fewer and farther between. This year I have only ruined two shots, the long one last weekend and another due to the film not have been properly loaded into the holder.

Keep shooting and keep practicing, especially clean your holders before loading them. Most of your dust problems will vanish quickly.

Good Luck.

Gary
 
My biggest mistake was to leave my Tripod at home when I went on a photographic holiday

I placed it next to but behind the front door - so was completely hidden from view when I loaded the car.

I only discovered my mistake the next day - needless to say I didn't take any photographs with my LF.

The only positive thing I could console myself with was that the quality of the light that week was consistently rubbish - so none of the photographs I could have taken would have been any good.

I now put my Tripod into the car before anything else :rolleyes:

Martin
 
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