When was the last time you screwed up ...

R.Gould

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A week ago, just got a Microcord back from repair, I was to keen to try it out, it was a good day fro taking photographs so I hurriedly loaded the camera, in my haste I did not check that the back was properly latched before I put it into it's case, when I got back I took the camera out of it's case to unload the film, found the back open, was one ruined film
 

twelvetone12

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Over the Alps
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Today. Underestimated my sweat in the changing bag in summer. Film got stuck in the reel, and would not move. Removed film from the reel and put it in the tank so I can areate the bag. I forgot to put the central "rod" that makes it light tight...
 

Pentode

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I just developed a roll of.... nothing.

Although the film is VERY old I suspect the problem was with the camera. Ends are black from exposure while loading the camera and the cassette (in a daylight bulk loader) and print is clear in the rebates. I've also had decent results from the same 100' roll of film. That leaves two possibilities: either the film was never loaded properly in the first place (unlikely as I always check that rewind knob is turning) or the shutter wasn't operating.

The shutter works fine right now (I just checked) and the lens cap was on the table where I left it so I didn't make the classic rangefinder mistake.

I shot two other rolls with the same camera that day and they were different film so when I have time I'll develop those and see what's there.

One thing's certain, though; I screwed something up!
 

Sirius Glass

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I took a doors off helicopter tour of Kauai and left the exposure on programmed instead of setting it to shutter speed control and bumping up the shutter speed.
 

Pentode

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Well, I just developed one of the other rolls from that session and it's fine. Really nice, actually.
That leaves me to believe that I stepped out of my mind for a minute or two and didn't load the film properly. That camera's take-up spool is fussy when it comes to how I cut the leader on hand-rolled film. It seems that what I did was not to it's liking and I obviously wasn't paying enough attention to the rewind knob. It's official: the camera's fine, the film is fine, I screwed up.
 

M Carter

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Jan 23, 2013
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Just today in fact. Lith printing, and poured the used developer into my old brown bottle. But it was actually my 1/3 full bottle of lith A. So now I have "old-ish" brown that's very heavy in the Lith A dept. Yep, I turned the air blue for a minute...
 

Helios 1984

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Last night I hand-rolled a roll, and it was nearly a total fiasco. I failed to notice a tiny light leak from the other side of the stairs, then the tape folded on itself (3 times!) and I forgot the cap of the cannister in an other room... I think I’ll invest in a bulk-loader :-/
 

abruzzi

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When have I not screwed up? Particularly egregiously though was a few weeks ago. I had just got a Paterson tank and reels, which I had never used before. I had been using Kodacraft aprons because they are very easy to load, and the metal reels never worked for me. I felt like I should learn a system I could replace if it broke. So, lights out in the darkroom, and I’m trying to load a roll of 120 onto the reel. The entrance tabs on the reel are small and hard to hit, it’s hot in the room, at least 90f, so I’m sweating and frustrated.

I finally get the film started, and pull it on about 3/4 of the way around the reel. When I start ratcheting the film on, it actually ratchets off the reel. I know this because I hear he film hit the floor, at which point I feel and there is no longer film on the reel. So, on my hands and knees I search in the dark for the film, and eventually find it.

So I start again, eventually get it started. This time I pull the film a full turn, and again the ratcheting pushes the film off, rather than pulling the film on. A third time and the same thing happens. At this point, I was ready to switch back to my simple kodacraft apron, but I needed the lights on to get the tank and parts. So I threw the film in the Paterson tank, put the lid on, turned the lights on, got all the kodacraft stuff out, turned the lights off, and had it loaded in 30 seconds.

If you have ever used a Paterson tanks, you probably see my mistake here. I’ve always used metal tanks (even with the Kodacraft aprons, I use a metal tank, because the Kodacraft tanks can’t be inverted. I didn’t realize that the Paterson tanks require the central tube to be installed to be light tight. There was, maybe one salvageable frame. The Paterson tank works fine for 35mm but every time I try 120, it pushes the film out instead of pulling it in.
 

Andrew O'Neill

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Yesterday making an 11x14 tri-colour gum print. The last layer (cyan) was ever so slightly out of registration. 16x20 sheet of Hahnemuhle, and an entire day down the toilet because i got sloppy. Today's print was smashing, though!
 

TonyB65

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Dec 13, 2017
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Hungerford
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I managed to load two sheets of Fomapan 100 into the same slot in my film holder, I think they were just stuck together enough for me not to notice (loaded in a bag). Imagine my surprise after removing one sheet in the bag after shooting to discover a second one sitting in the holder after I removed it from the bag. The top sheet did develop ok, just wasted one sheet, I'm just glad it wasn't colour.
 

RalphLambrecht

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pretty much every day and often mistakes I've already done in the past
 

jim10219

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I don't think I've ever not screwed something up. Yesterday, doing a round of gum prints, I let my prints sit in the developer for too long. I checked them every five minutes, but it should have been every one minute (around 30 minutes is usually how long it takes). But if I had checked them every one minute, I would have agitated them too much and screwed it up that way.

And yet sometimes my screw ups produce better results than I would have gotten had I done thing perfectly. A few weeks ago I developed too many sheets of 4x5 TMX in a tray at once and a couple of my negatives didn't get enough development in the middle. The result was a few coming out being underdeveloped in the center and uneven development all around. However, it gave them a really cool vintage look, almost like a wet plate. It made a pretty standard photo of a mountain a lot more interesting.
 

Cholentpot

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Oct 26, 2015
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Loaded up two rolls of Tri-x into tank, mixed up dev, go back to tank.

I had taken the lid off...

300+ rolls in the past few years. First time I've done this. Roll on top had nothing, roll on bottom has some stuff so I could at least identify what I lost.

Ugh.
 

richyd

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Jul 24, 2012
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London UK
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Loaded a 120 roll into a steel tank. I've been so used to processing in rotary tanks recently in various formats using about 200ml of chemistry I had that figure imprinted in my mind. Yes, I used half the volume only realising on opening the tank after the fix. The surprising thing is that the top half didn't come too bad, some uneven areas but it is interesting how much developer must be absorbed in the emulsion with a few inversions as that part looks much less under developed than I thought it would.
 

Sirius Glass

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I once thought that I had made a mistake, but it turned out that I was right the whole time.
 

Pentode

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I got distracted in the darkroom just long enough to pour a fairly fresh tank of fixer down the drain instead of back into the beaker. Fixer’s cheap but the environment probably isn’t too happy with me.
 

Cholentpot

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Oct 26, 2015
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Killed my EF 24-105 F/4L today somehow. Won't auto focus to infinity. I've not had a good few weeks of photography...
 
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