What happened here?

Arctic amateur · Apr 23, 2013

What happened in this image? A discharge of static electricity? The lines extend onto the film rebates.

erikg · Apr 23, 2013

That's what it looks like to me, I've seen similar things, some cameras are more prone to it.

HTF III · Apr 23, 2013

If by saying "film rebates" you mean the edges of the film outside of the image area, it could only be static. I guess it could be fungus, but seeing you are in Norway, I'm imagining cold dry air prone to static.

Sirius Glass · Apr 23, 2013

Definitely a discharge of static electricity. Probably a cold dry day.

Dr Croubie · Apr 23, 2013

Film fungus. It's like lens fungus, but for film.
or something.
not really, i just made that up.

Was that a wet print, or a negative scan? either way, i'd be checking flat bits of glass for big cracks (not in the lens, lens cracks won't be so well defined)

ParkerSmithPhoto · Apr 23, 2013

I have a nice portrait of my friend's daughter, taken on a very cold January afternoon, with this same thing. Static!

Sirius Glass · Apr 23, 2013

ParkerSmithPhoto said:
I have a nice portrait of my friend's daughter, taken on a very cold January afternoon, with this same thing. Static!

Shocking!

polyglot · Apr 23, 2013

Your dog is about to go supercritical. I'd run now if I were you, and check the fit of your lead underpants.

Toffle · Apr 23, 2013

I'm with Polyglot. I saw this in a movie once, and what happened next was NOT pretty. That being said, though it's not the picture you may have imagined, it is one of those happy accidents that makes for a really interesting print. I've got a little Welti Weltix which displayed a light leak on some shots from a rural cemetery. The result was unexpected, but quite enthralling.

Cheers,
Tom

Dr Croubie · Apr 23, 2013

Toffle said:
I've got a little Welti Weltix which displayed a light leak on some shots from a rural cemetery.

Please share?
Just make sure you don't share with ghost-hunting nutters, they'll take any excuse to "see" ghosts in a photo. ("look, there's orbs, they're floating spirits!". "Dude, clean your lens!")

tars · Apr 23, 2013

I think you got a really special and strong image.
The black dog looking toward the "glow" intrigues me... and it happened to appear just near the heart of the other dog...

Simon R Galley · Apr 24, 2013

This is static, in the trade they are known as 'Christmas Trees'

Much more common on movie film, rare on camera film.

And yours is an A1 example...they are usually tiny.

Simon ILFORD Photo / HARMAN technology Limited :

Rafal Lukawiecki · Apr 24, 2013

And I thought you recorded a Higg's Boson. Oh well, must stop giving advice on subjects I know less.

More seriously, an interesting negative. I'd like to see how you interpret it when printing.

Chris Lange · Apr 24, 2013

amazing, I've never had this happen, even on the coldest dry days. I was photographing on a mountainside in northern Finland once, with my F3/MD4 on full blast, and thought for sure I would get static on some of the rolls, but I was spared.

Sirius Glass · Apr 24, 2013

Chris Lange said:
amazing, I've never had this happen, even on the coldest dry days. I was photographing on a mountainside in northern Finland once, with my F3/MD4 on full blast, and thought for sure I would get static on some of the rolls, but I was spared.

Advance the film very quickly.

Chris Lange · Apr 24, 2013

I had thought that to avoid static you would want to use an advance in short slow bursts (ala the Cs mode on the Nikon F4), so as not to build up friction with the pressure plate.

Sirius Glass · Apr 24, 2013

I was explaining to Chris how to get the static discharge on the film. I was not talking about avoiding it.

Chris Lange · Apr 24, 2013

Sirius Glass said:
I was explaining to Chris how to get the static discharge on the film. I was not talking about avoiding it.

Sirius, I know. I was on a mountainside in Northern Finland in the middle of January, dry, dry, frigid cold. I had my F3 with an MD4, shooting full blast continuous sometimes even, and I was amazed that I didn't get any static. I would've thought the MD4 would have made it happen in conjunction with the weather conditions.

Arctic amateur · Apr 24, 2013

Thank you for your replies. The picture was outside taken on a cold winter day. Camera is a Nikon FE, film is Arista Edu 400. The spark could perhaps also have happened inside the changing bag while I was loading the film onto the reels, as indoor humidity was very low. Either way, it's a surprising and remarkably well-placed effect

Dr Croubie: It's a negative scan. The spark is clearly visible on the negative, so the scanner isn't to blame.

NB23 · Apr 24, 2013

Like he's having a cold blooded heart attack. Cool!

Static. Had one similar to this a long time ago...,

mfohl · Apr 25, 2013

Sirius Glass said:
Definitely a discharge of static electricity. Probably a cold dry day.

How toavoid this? Advance the film slowly on cold dry days. Not sure if it will work all the time, but it will help.

Toffle · Apr 25, 2013

Dr Croubie said:
Please share?
Just make sure you don't share with ghost-hunting nutters, they'll take any excuse to "see" ghosts in a photo. ("look, there's orbs, they're floating spirits!". "Dude, clean your lens!")

There were two or three shots with this light shafting from the top.
(BTW... definitely NOT static, but fun nonetheless, and fits in well with the doggie picture.)

erikg · Apr 27, 2013

Rewinding very quickly can sometimes cause a discharge, the best (worst?) one I've had was near the leader on a roll I was changing out quickly. It was pretty cool looking.

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