Ways to damage film on purpose?

gazefuzzy · Apr 5, 2014

What are some ways to purposefully damage 35mm black and white film? I've heard of boiling it in salt water, taking a cigarette lighter to the canister, soaking it in vodka, etc. I'm especially interested in methods that would chemically alter the emulsion, which I assume is the point of soaking in alcohol or salt water.

Mainecoonmaniac · Apr 5, 2014

You can process your film in hot developer and use an ice cold stop bath to reticulate your film.

Bill Burk · Apr 5, 2014

Get wet, sandwich between plates of glass and rip it apart after it dries.

cliveh · Apr 5, 2014

gazefuzzy said:
What are some ways to purposefully damage 35mm black and white film? I've heard of boiling it in salt water, taking a cigarette lighter to the canister, soaking it in vodka, etc. I'm especially interested in methods that would chemically alter the emulsion, which I assume is the point of soaking in alcohol or salt water.

You can create some very interesting images in this way, but their aesthetic success relies on accident rather than artistic control by you.

removed account4 · Apr 5, 2014

bleach and cement

snapguy · Apr 5, 2014

kodak film

I once developed film in 100 degree Diafine and then plunged it into 50 degree wash water and hypo. The film came out fine, durn it. You can leave the film in your camera for five years in the trunk of your car with 100 degree-plus summers but you won't like the outcome.

Dr Croubie · Apr 5, 2014

If it's Efke KB25, and you've taken some beautiful landscapes 500km-drive away on 645, just give it to a lab that doesn't realise that the emulsion gets very very soft after processing, and let them put it through their auto-roller-machine. That'll rip off all the backing from the non-emulsion side.
Ask me how I know.

pentaxuser · Apr 5, 2014

OP, just out of interest can I ask what the interest is in damaging film? What are you hoping to get?

Out of three posts so far on APUG and two threads it all seems to be about damage. Although you only have three posts so far you might of course be an experienced film user who hasn't yet tried damaging film but it just seems odd that damage is your first interest as an APUG newcomer.

pentaxuser

jp498 · Apr 5, 2014

Trying to imitate an instagram filter? drop the film on dirty floor. Use a larger format if you're interested in trying things rather than chance mistakes.

ROL · Apr 5, 2014

These days, I figure any time I expose I'm damaging film on purpose. :eek:

snapguy · Apr 5, 2014

he said, he said

He said "damage" and I heard "get some different and interesting results." I also think maybe APUG should be a big tent and be a bit indulgent in other folks' "hooey."

Gerald C Koch · Apr 5, 2014

Steel wool, try various grades from very fine to very coarse .

eddie · Apr 5, 2014

Sandpaper (wet and dry), exacto blades (wet and dry), abrade with sugar or salt... I do it a lot.

Gerald C Koch · Apr 5, 2014

eddie said:
Sandpaper (wet and dry), exacto blades (wet and dry), abrade with sugar or salt... I do it a lot.

View attachment 85685

Really liked this print.

gone · Apr 6, 2014

I like the print as well. It is certainly titled correctly. Nice job, and I like a lot of your images in a similar vein in your gallery.

gone · Apr 6, 2014

Double post. Sorry.

BMbikerider · Apr 6, 2014

Damaging film!!! I have to ask WHY?

Dr Croubie · Apr 6, 2014

momus said:
I like the print as well. It is certainly titled correctly. Nice job, and I like a lot of your images in a similar vein in your gallery.

I'm wondering, is the title in the gallery (which I can't see) also the same as the filename? The filename is dekooning, which is almost De Koning, which means The King in dutch, not sure if that was intentional or not.
Either way, it's a great print, looks like something done by the art teacher my mum taught with in the 70s...

Meanwhile, in my copy of Memory Full that I got as a stretch goal when I backed the Papersafe kickstarter from Catlabs, one of the sections was all about damaging film in whatever way you can...

Arctic amateur · Apr 6, 2014

You could put a thin knife into the felt trap, and briefly connect the knife and the outside of the cartridge to a car battery to get a nice spark inside the cartridge. Do this before you expose the film, in case you set fire to it.

pentaxuser · Apr 6, 2014

Well I for one look forward to his reply about what he is hoping to get from the wide spectrum of ways of damage that he has suggested.

We may all live and learn here about the realm of film damage effects but only when he tells us a bit more. I am sure we'd all agree that the last thing we want to do is a form of attacking and defending his threads( he has two on the same subject) and potentially "falling out with each other until we know more.

pentaxuser

eddie · Apr 6, 2014

The De Kooning image is my interpretation of Willem De Kooning's work. I've been working on a series of abstracts (damaging sheet film), some of which are interpretations of the work of abstract painters.
Here's a Rothko, and a Pollock:

removed account4 · Apr 6, 2014

great stuff eddie!

i was going to say something like what you suggested and leaving a negative on the floor and walking on it
or scraping it against concrete, but i was under the impression the OP wanted a chemical change, not physical change

gandolfi should be posting to this thread too, he loves to kill his darlings ...

eddie · Apr 6, 2014

Thanks, John. I'm about to print a few new ones...

How are you getting the effects on the ones you posted?

removed account4 · Apr 6, 2014

hey eddie

the first one is film i mistakenly stepped on on the darkroom floor
the 2nd one i dragged across my front stoop ( concrete )
and #3 was from a series of what i used to call "hybrid" prints
before digital tech existed ( and stole my lingo ) i was merging hand made ephemeral film assemblages
and enlarging them .. it's 2 negatives i left in a print file sleeve with water in it and after a while the emulsion
dissolved ( sort of ) and i sandwiched them together with the print file sleeve and enlarged them ..
the negatives decomposed eventually to nothing but a puddle ..

have fun printing !
( i should do that tomorrow )
john

eddie · Apr 6, 2014

They're great, John. The third one reminds me of a Hubble Telescope image, but in B/W.

I really like the random results this sort of image making gives me. As I scratch the 4x5, on the lightbox, it looks like one thing. When enlarged, it looks like something else. It's also a process I can tell my digital friends can only be done with film and chemicals...

Ways to damage film on purpose?

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