When was the last time you screwed up ...

TheGreatGasMaskMan · Jan 1, 2020

I just need to vent this, but I just developed my first p30, and it came back with only 20+ frames.
clearly a camera and/or loading error of some kind, and I'm retesting the camera with an age unknown, kodak black and white plus 12 exposure roll (plus ordered another p30)

removed account4 · Jan 1, 2020

didn't realize the shutter in my agfa primo was outta juice and processed 4 rolls of blank film.

focus_on_infinity · Jan 1, 2020

Last night. Ran low on developer, so the film on top of the tank was only developed correctly on one half. Fortunately, it was just a test roll for debugging my development procedures. Unfortunately, it wasn't a mistake I'd made before, so I couldn't figure out what I was trying to solve.

James Bleifus · Feb 1, 2020

Yeah, I realized that i put the slide in the wrong way into his 4x5 holder after making an exposure, so it looked like the sheet was unexposed. I caught my mistake after composing my next image, put the holder back in the camera, and flipped the dark slide. Unfortunately, I was so taken back by my mistake that I didn’t close the shutter first, this fogging the film. Doh!

Helios 1984 · Mar 8, 2020

I washed a pair of pants and forgot to empty the pockets... the battery of the light meter of my Spotmatic was in one of them. R.I.P Varta V394 : /

Dusty Negative · Mar 10, 2020

It would be difficult to select the best vignette. How about:

1. Finished a roll of 135 Tri-X in the morning, set the camera down, went to work. After work, grabbed the camera and opened the film door. I hadn't re-wound the film.
2. Developed a roll of HP5 recently. Got distracted...started pouring fixer in the tank. I hadn't stopped the developer.
3. Developed an unexposed roll of Portra 400 the other day. It glistens in the sun.
4. Shot an entire roll of HP5 at N+3. Developed at N+2.

Pentode · Mar 14, 2020

Dusty Negative said:
Finished a roll of 135 Tri-X in the morning, set the camera down, went to work. After work, grabbed the camera and opened the film door. I hadn't re-wound the film.

I just did this earlier today. I finished a roll of Orwo N74+ in my Nikon S3 yesterday afternoon and put it back in my bag without rewinding - something I never do! I was switching cameras and wasn't thinking.
This morning I opened the loaded S3 in order to load a fresh roll of film. Ooops. I'm hoping only the last few frames are pooched. Maybe I'll get lucky.

Dusty Negative · Mar 15, 2020

Pentode said:
I just did this earlier today. I finished a roll of Orwo N74+ in my Nikon S3 yesterday afternoon and put it back in my bag without rewinding - something I never do! I was switching cameras and wasn't thinking.
This morning I opened the loaded S3 in order to load a fresh roll of film. Ooops. I'm hoping only the last few frames are pooched. Maybe I'll get lucky.

I actually had a couple of interesting leaks that worked for those particular captures. I also had several completely black images, which didn't quite work for those captures.

Cloudy 8 · Mar 27, 2020

So, I had this half-finished roll of FP4 sitting in the fridge and decided it was time to take the Leica IIIa for a walk. Took the roll out, cut a long leader on the film, loaded it and skipped over the 13 frames I had already shot (13... that number should have been a warning!). Took a few weeks to finish the roll, as EI 100 can be challenging in the winter.

I developed it for 12 minutes in Rodinal 1+50 and the film coming out of the tank looked a bit dense. And the edge markings read... "HP5"??? Well, turns out the roll of FP4 was still happily sitting in the fridge and I had accidentally loaded, shot and developed a fresh roll of HP5 at EI 100. Of course, an FP4 cartridge is blue while HP5 is green (and clearly labelled "HP5"), but I never noticed.

Not all was lost, though. The film scanned fine, but of course rather grainy. Maybe that look fits the Barnack Leica? Most of the frames even seem printable. The Massive Dev Chart lists 9 minutes for HP5 at EI 100 in Rodinal, so I was lucky to be off by only 30%.

The actual roll of FP4 came out nicely.

Dusty Negative · Apr 2, 2020

Ugh. Loaded a roll of 120 on to a Hewes reel just a few days ago, got it in the can, took it out of the bag, set it in the sink. And opened the lid. Not in the dark. I do not know why.

Sirius Glass · Apr 3, 2020

Dusty Negative said:
Ugh. Loaded a roll of 120 on to a Hewes reel just a few days ago, got it in the can, took it out of the bag, set it in the sink. And opened the lid. Not in the dark. I do not know why.

Sooner or later each of us has done that at some time.

Agulliver · Apr 3, 2020

Dusty Negative said:
Ugh. Loaded a roll of 120 on to a Hewes reel just a few days ago, got it in the can, took it out of the bag, set it in the sink. And opened the lid. Not in the dark. I do not know why.

Yep, I am sure I've done that at some point in the past. Equally, I don't know why....probably distracted and just not thinking. If memory serves the film was pretty much totally fogged beyond any use.

Anon Ymous · Apr 3, 2020

The other day I was loading a film on the reel and I was wearing a fitness band that I got as a gift. This gadget has a heart rate sensor, which uses leds. And it tried to get a reading while I was loading the film... Luckily, I noticed the faint green glow and instantly took my hand away from the film. Even though it was 400 ISO film (HP5+), it turned out fine. So, it wasn't exactly a screw up, but it was very close.

Dusty Negative · Apr 3, 2020

Agulliver said:
Yep, I am sure I've done that at some point in the past. Equally, I don't know why....probably distracted and just not thinking. If memory serves the film was pretty much totally fogged beyond any use.

Almost beyond use...got one happy-accident capture:

Dusty Negative · Apr 3, 2020

Sirius Glass said:
Sooner or later each of us has done that at some time.

The funniest part was looking into the tank, seeing a loaded reel, and going slack-jawed and dumb, not accepting what I was looking at.

Sirius Glass · Apr 3, 2020

Dusty Negative said:
The funniest part was looking into the tank, seeing a loaded reel, and going slack-jawed and dumb, not accepting what I was looking at.

Events like that demand a master reset or brain reboot.

Agulliver · Apr 4, 2020

I know that in my earliest days of using the school dark room I once forgot that I can't really use the light on my watch to check the time. Lightly fogged some paper that way. Now I am 100% careful to remove my watch when loading films onto reels in my changing bag.

Donald Qualls · Apr 4, 2020

Sigh. I've been looking at this thread title, unable to recall a history of major screw-ups. Then I remembered when I tried to shoot home-slit color film (leftover from making 127 out of 120) in my Kiev 30 and 303 submini cameras, with intent to home process the negatives. Three rolls in a row, I ran the 30 inch strips well past the end of the frame counter (as I recall, those counters ended at 30 or so frames, 18 mm wide -- haven't found the cameras in unpacking my photo stuff yet), pulled the cassette out of the camera, and saw film still in the gate area (because the film was several inches longer than the counter could handle). Gave the film a pull, intending to see how much was left in the supply chamber so i could adjust how far I'd run the next roll past the counter's end -- and pulled the entire roll out of the takeup chamber instead.

I did eventually get a roll or two of color out of those cameras...

Dusty Negative · Apr 4, 2020

Donald Qualls said:
...Gave the film a pull, intending to see how much was left in the supply chamber so i could adjust how far I'd run the next roll past the counter's end -- and pulled the entire roll out of the takeup chamber instead.

Sounds to me like a worthy contribution to this thread. Hopefully you didn’t lose anything of great value!

KenS · Apr 4, 2020

jnantz said:
there are countless threads on photography websites about beauty shots, the once in a lifetime
sunny 16 and the moon photographs, the everything worked great and look what i did negatives
and worked in the darkroom for 19 hours used up 40 sheets of film, but LOOK at THIS ! kind of stuff.

What was the last things you totally screwed up? maybe your shutter speed was off, your camera needed a cla
your aperture blades were oily and sticky, you rated your film wrong, you put the wrong film in your camera
you processed your film wrong ... or whatever.

not looking for how you saved the day, but what went wrong ...

KenS · Apr 4, 2020

What is the time 'now'?????

Ken

Helios 1984 · May 24, 2024

It was yesterday.

I was reloading my Minolta 16 cartridge and forgot to put the lid back on the reel cannister before pulling my arms out of the dark bag… It took me a good 30 seconds to realize my mistake. Fortunately, the reel was in its bag and seated in the bottom part if the canister. After processing a 3 feet length, there doesn’t appear to be any significant damage.

beemermark · May 24, 2024

I sold my Tele Rolleiflex recently and finished off a roll that was in the camera and another one to ensure everything was working before I shipped. Fresh batch of XTOL and both rolls came out blank. PANIC. Dan Daniels just serviced it a year ago so I contacted him. Back and forth emails (thanks Dan) and I couldn't find anything wrong with the camera. Then I shot a partial roll of 35mm B&W in my M4 and guess what, it came out blank. Haven't a clue to how I screwed up mixing a generic batch of XTOL - was it bad, did I forget to add Part B?? Don't know but 40+ years in the darkroom and this was a new one.

loccdor · May 27, 2024

Sweaty hands and 220 film don't mix.

Chuck1 · May 27, 2024

Dusty Negative said:
Almost beyond use...got one happy-accident capture:

View attachment 243304

That's a very happy accident

When was the last time you screwed up ...

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