Every day we see posts with the same basic problems on film, hopefully this can serve as a guide to the uninitiated of what to look for when diagnosing issues with your camera and film using examples from the community.
Index
Green Tint or Washed Out Scans
Orange or White Marks
Solid Black Marks
Black Regions with Some or No Detail
Lightning Marks
White or Light Green Lines
Thin Straight Lines
X-Ray Damage / Banding Larger than Sprocket Holes
Round Marks, Blobs and Splotches
1. Green Tint or Washed Out Scans
u/LaurenValley1234u/Karma_engineerguy
Issue: Underexposure
The green tinge usually comes from the scanner trying to show detail that isn't there. Remember, it is the lab's job to give you a usable image, you can still edit your photos digitally to make them look better.
Potential Causes: Toy/Disposable camera being used in inappropriate conditions, Faulty shutter, Faulty aperture, Incorrect ISO setting, Broken light meter, Scene with dynamic range greater than your film, Expired or heat damaged film, and other less common causes.
2. Orange or White Marks
u/Competitive_Spot3218u/ry_and_zoom
Issue: Light leaks
These marks mean that light has reached your film in an uncontrolled way. With standard colour negative film, an orange mark typically comes from behind the film and a white come comes from the front.
Portential Causes: Decayed light seals, Cracks on the camera body, Damaged shutter blades/curtains, Improper film handling, Opening the back of the camera before rewinding into the canister, Fat-rolling on medium format, Light-piping on film with a transparent base, and other less common causes.
3. Solid Black Marks
u/MountainIce69u/Claverhu/Sandman_Rex
Issue: Shutter capping
These marks appear because the two curtains of the camera shutter are overlapping when they should be letting light through. This is most likely to happen at faster shutter speeds (1/1000s and up).
Potential Causes: Camera in need of service, Shutter curtains out of sync.
4. Black Regions with Some or No Detail
u/Claverhu/veritas247
Issue: Flash desync
Cause: Using a flash at a non-synced shutter speed (typically faster than 1/60s)
5. Lightning Marks
u/Fine_Sale7051u/toggjones
Issue: Static Discharge
These marks are most common on cinema films with no remjet, such as Cinestill 800T
Potential Causes: Rewinding too fast, Automatic film advance too fast, Too much friction between the film and the felt mouth of the canister.
6. White or Light Green Lines
u/f5122u/you_crazy_diamond_
Issue: Stress marks
These appear when the base of the film has been stretched more than its elastic limit
Potential Causes: Rewinding backwards, Winding too hard at the end of a roll, Forgetting to press the rewind release button, Stuck sprocket.
7. Thin Straight Lines
u/StudioGuyDudeManu/Tyerson
Issue: Scratches
These happen when your film runs against dirt or grit.
Potential Causes: Dirt on the canister lip, Dirt on the pressure plate, Dirt on rollers, Squeegee dragging dirt during processing, and other less common causes.
8. X-Ray Damage / Banding Larger than Sprocket Holes
Noticeable X-Ray damage is very rare and typically causes slight fogging of the negative or colour casts, resulting in slightly lower contrast. However, with higher ISO films as well as new stronger CT scanning machines it is still recommended to ask for a hand inspection of your film at airport security/TSA.
9. Round Marks, Blobs and Splotches
u/elcantou/thefar9
Issue: Chemicals not reaching the emulsion
This is most common with beginners developing their own film for the first time and not loading the reels correctly. If the film is touching itself or the walls of the developing tank the developer and fixer cannot reach it properly and will leave these marks. Once the film is removed from the tank this becomes unrepairable.
Please let me know if I missed any other common issues. And if, after reading this, you still need to make a post asking to find out what went wrong please make sure to include a backlit image of your physical negatives. Not just scans from your lab.
EDIT: Added the most requested X-ray damage and the most common beginner developing mistake besides incomplete fixing. This post has reached the image limit but I believe it covers the most common beginner errors and encounters!
I bought this camera kit just for the roll of film. I tried looking up info on it but couldn’t find anything (maybe I wasn’t looking hard enough) but wanted to document it on the internet since I couldn’t find anything anywhere else. I shot the roll for the brand new day release and kept the canister and the camera and framed everything else.
Just kidding, I’m planning to shoot the first roll in the alps this fall. I didn’t plan to shoot positive because it’s so hard to get but now I will at least try one roll.
How are your experiences with expiration while keeping it in the fridge? Mine has over a year left but if it’s still good after that I won’t have to worry as much.
Anybody who is well versed in film development know exactly what happened here to get this look? Feels like I found them in some old photo collection or something... I took these with my Pentax 645 with Vision 3 250D 120 and they genuinely look like they're straight from a disposable camera lol. Was the film expired potentially?
I tried some slight colour grading but apart from that, the photos here are essentially how they were scanned.
My late father had a job repairing transmitters in various buildings in the western NY area. My mom found this in the garage today, in the little envelope there’s a digital key, I wonder if it would actually do anything at Kodak today! Probably they’ve switched to all new security systems, but I thought you all would think this is cool!
Shot on a Mamiya 645 1000s, used Portra 400, scanned on a negative supply stand using a Canon R5 with the 100mm macro from Canon.
Settings were iso 100, f8, 1/5th of a second exposure time.
Converted on Negative Lab Pro v3.1
I feel they have a lot of color noise, and whilst MUCH sharper than my Epson v800 scans, not TACK sharp, I autofocused with the camera AF and then left it on manual mode after I found the sharpness to be upmost.
Hi, I got my scans back from the Lab and I don’t understand why my recent roll of Kodak gold 200 (120) is looking orange (picture on the left) while I took the picture on the right with also Kodak gold 200 with the same way of exposing (+ 1 stop) and it’s not orange
To my dismay, I found a hole in the shutter of my Canon FTb only after I shot a roll of film through it and probably way too late to send it back. I bought it back in July.
Is it possible to fix a hole of this size? And if so how? Electrical tape comes to mind and I read that rubber glue might do it but I would love some advice from you guys.
I decided to “consolidate” my medium format cameras and switch to a more modular system. TBD if I sell the others 😄 After my first roll, I noticed that I missed focus on every shot. After doing some research, I found a great 120ist video detailing how to replace the foam yourself. Worked like a charm and pretty easy to do!
The camera came with the Zenzanon 50mm MC, and I added the Zenzanon 150mm MC. I love the 50mm focal length, and I’m really liking the 50/150 combination. I may end up adding the 75mm Nikko-PC eventually!
I've been getting into analog photography over the past six months or so, mostly on an old Agfa Shur-Shot 120 box camera, and managed to find this Yashica 635 last week for a good price! Just needed a little cleaning, but beyond that everything seems to work perfectly! I've shot two rolls of Rollei Retro 400S 120 through it so far (haven't developed either yet), but it did also come with the parts for 35mm as well.
I have a wide angle lens set coming and definitely want to get a cable release--any other accessories you all might think are necessary?
I’m working on a series at the moment shooting on Ektar 100 but through a Red 25 Heliopan filter. The shots usually come out in this rich blood iron red with minimal post processing. See shots 1,2 and 5 for examples.
But every now and then when I process a film something very odd happens and the hue goes crazy relative to the others. You can see this effect on the negative, but it’s totally thrown me as to what’s happening. Asked the lab and they couldn’t work it out either:
What I have observed so far:
- The affected image themselves are sharp and well exposed, not fogged. But their hue is completely different to other shots taken at the same time.
- These later shots have also wiped over part of preceding exposure in some way. You can see that at the bottom of photo 3
- At least some of the image has carried past the frame, you can see the dark streaks at the bottom of the top image on the negative. Which would indicate movement or advancing the film, which is not something I did.
- These later shots were shot with a polariser over the top but the one that got wiped wasn’t. However I shoot many other shots, like the stream photo (no.5) with a CL on and no issues.
- This was the end of the roll, but have also had it mid roll before and the same colour shift happen on Kodak Portra so not this specific film .
- I also shoot B&W and never have any replicable issues with those rolls, so I doubt it’s the camera.
I shoot on a Bronica SQ-B, the affected images were on a 40mm lens, Red 25 plus CL filters, shutter down.
I had this Olympus OM-2S program sitting around that I had given up on fixing a while back due to the circuit board being trashed and had seen a video of someone taking an IPhone 3 apart and mounting it in a case and got the bright idea to do this to the Olympus.
I chose not to display the electronics because A. I didn’t have enough room, and B i felt like it wouldn’t be as pleasing to look at but that’s just a personal opinion
I might do the same idea to the Lens I had gotten with it (Kiron 70-150mm F/4) and display that parallel.
I phoned Kodak’s movie film support line this morning asking if and when Ektachrome would be back in stock and the representative told me that production of Ektachrome has to wait until the next batches of color negative films are finished and the machines free up. There is no intention to discontinue, they simply have to wait until the coating machines are available which should be in September. There should be stock available in late October approximately for major distributors but stock levels will likely not be fully back to normal everywhere until early next year
Summer is ending and winter is coming. Vacation is over and I’m not looking forward to a bleak, concrete colored sky for the next six months. But I’m stuck here, traveling not possible.
So I do need a new photographic project. A theme, a topic, a goal.
What’s yours? What photographers should I check out? Can you help inspire me?
I just got a bunch of scans back from my trip to Japan. I noticed that some (probably 1/4th) of the photos have this weird barcode-like strip across the image that basically looks like it was stretched. Has anyone seen this before? Was this something wrong with the film, my camera, or the lab I used? They're a little frustrating because when they're more obvious it just ruins the photo.
Shot a roll of Kodak Gold 200 in my trusty Chinon point and shoot during a recent trip. It came back almost totally blank, this was all the lab could salvage (included pic of the negatives next to some Fuji 200 negatives from the same trip for reference).
Such a bummer because these are the only pictures I took on the trip.
Ordered the film from B&H, it wasn’t marked as expired, I flew with it but had it hand checked, no issues with the camera before or since. Can’t figure it out!
Hi everyone, I would like to share with you my latest project - a 3D printed film holder for DSLR scanning. You can find the project on the GitHub
Let me explain why I made it and also manage your expectations about the whole thing.
Why I made it?
I wanted a holder that would keep the film straight and flat so that I don't have to rotate the scans in post and also to make cropping pretty much work for the whole roll. I also wanted to have the corners of my scans as sharp as the rest of the image, something that was demonstrably a challenge with other methods I tried. So I decided to sandwich the film between two pressure plates to flatten it. The tube that holds the lens also makes it that the camera is pretty much level with the film-plane and there is no ambient light ruining your scans.
How universal is it?
In theory, it is pretty universal. It is designed to be modular, you can replace the part that I designed to fit on top of CineStill CS-Lite-Brite with a different part. You can also replace the part that I designed to fit my EF compact macro lens. The files are in the project, if you have Fusion 360 or a different program that can open those files, you are all set.
The bottom pressure plate is meant to be printed for each kind of film specifically. I learned that different manufacturers produce slightly differently sized film. It is worth it to have multiple bottom pressure plates. I have one for Fomapan and one for Kodak films. Both dialed in so that the vertical fit is as snug as possible. (I seem to remember Ilford films fitting one of the plates just fine.)
How safe is it?
I have tested it on multiple rolls of different films including Fomapan Action, Kodak Portra and Gold, and Ilford films. It never scratched my film. If the film has the natural bow curve to it and you always raise the pressure plate up, it should not happen.
Expectations
I want to be clear that I am not going to be able to extend it or make changes to it at the time. I have made it and used it more than 9 months ago. I thought I would share it sooner, but I haven't shot any photos for essentially 9 months now. It is what it is. For that reason, I am only asking you to please have understanding with my situation.
I want to share something that I believe is worth of sharing, I liked building it and after getting used to it, I liked using it too. But I don't have the resources to work on it in any capacity in the near future. I would like to build a V2 that would have the slider move orthogonally to the film plane not with it so that your fingers stay out of the film's way - something that become apparent the first time I used it but somehow didn't occur to me before (funny how these things work).
That being said, I really want to be transparent - it is not in my ability to make changes to it or to modify the dimensions of the components to fit other lenses or light boxes. I am giving it away to the community because I believe in sharing. Hope I will find understanding here.
Got this Canon Eos 500 secondhand and still has a roll inside on frame 1 (which means the whole roll is pulled out and it will start winding back inside each shot). When i set the camera to its ISO setting it says "1600", but it doesnt look like Fujicolor Natura 1600 to me, the cannister..
Anyone who recognizes this or might be able to identify it? Im asking because whatever it is, it is for sure expired and i dont want to overexpose it too insanely, but maybe someone before me put in the 1600 while its actually like 200 film.
I'll also be doing some more research while on the train to the city im shooting at today 👍🏻
Either way, thanks for reading and have a great day!
Shot on an RB67 (in Death Valley heat), other rolls of film from this trip didnt have these white streaks, if you can call them that, only this one roll did. Possible I loaded it badly or it got exposed to light, or maybe the way I stored it? Some of the film I used this trip was new from store and some was my cold stored stuff from 5ish years ago. Kinda bummed they came out this way, hoping it's not the camera itself and hopefully the film.