Big Problem.

thebeginning · Mar 1, 2005

i just had my first roll of film developed. It was kodak (non proffessional) 100 film, i had exposed (or at least i thought i had) 24 photos within about 2 or so days, then i immediately had them developed. the camera wasnt in any type of warm climate or bright light for a long period of time, and neither was the film. but when i came to pick up my pictures, there werent any at all. All of the negatives were completely dark, as if they had never been exposed. This is beginning to worry me. The camera is a nikon f3, and everything seems to be working fine. any ideas? I'll need to know kind of quickly because i only have a little while left before the return deadline.

Rogue Monk · Mar 1, 2005

Sounds like your shutter is stuck in a closed state.

With no film in the camera, try taking the lens off, setting for a long exposure (speed=10+seconds) and press the button. You should be able to see the shutter open and close.

I know this works with my D70 and my older manual Nikkor, so it should work here too.

If the shutter doesn't open, you might have to take it in.

audreyld · Mar 1, 2005

I may be crazy, but if your negs are completely dark, isn't that a sign of overexposure, not under?

Underexposure presents as "thin" negs, or negs that are clear or nearly so.

If they are completely dark, then the film was massively overexposed, and all of the prints would be totally white.

KevinR · Mar 1, 2005

Yeah, sounds like the shutter maybe stuck open. If you didn't get any images, the film negs would be clear. Open the f-stop. Open the back, and click off some shots at 1 sec. Watch the shutter closely. If it is opening and closing properly, then maybe the lab screwed up your pictures and didn't say anything.

thebeginning · Mar 1, 2005

audreyld said:
I may be crazy, but if your negs are completely dark, isn't that a sign of overexposure, not under?

Underexposure presents as "thin" negs, or negs that are clear or nearly so.

If they are completely dark, then the film was massively overexposed, and all of the prints would be totally white.

okay, bingo. what was i thinking. they must have somehow been overexposed, but i have no idea how. the negs were dark dark and the prints were white. Just for the first roll of film the shutter speed was in auto mode, and it seemed to be about right (the shutter speed). I have already checked and you can hear the shutter opening and closing as well as see it. i did notice that i had the film speed dial between 100 and 400. like around 250. might that be it?

KevinR · Mar 1, 2005

Most print films have a big enough exposure latitude to handle the 250 iso. Is the whole roll black, or just the areas of the neg where the pictures should be? is the sprocket areas clear or black?

Rogue Monk · Mar 1, 2005

thebeginning said:
i did notice that i had the film speed dial between 100 and 400. like around 250. might that be it?

"Pushing" film to 250, would result in underexposure.

Christie Photo · Mar 1, 2005

Could it be that someone at the lab blew it and fogged the entire roll? If there are no frames recorded, this might be a place to look.

ksmattfish · Mar 1, 2005

KevinR said:
is the sprocket areas clear or black?

or orange?

thebeginning · Mar 1, 2005

no the whole thing is the same color. like it was completely exposed in every way. one thing that i think happened (eh heh heh) is that i was stupid enough to rewind the film with the back cover open. i just thought of that. i thought that it was dark enough in the room, but i guess not. it was a green bulb (i know its supposed to be red...) and i realized its like 25 watts. could that have done it? its not very bright...

Unimaxium · Mar 1, 2005

Yes, I'm sure that did it! You can't expose film to light before you develop it. By opening the back cover before rewinding it into the canister, you exposed the entire roll to all the light in the room. Keep in mind that film is very sensitive to light, as a normal image can be made in less than 1/100th of a second. You probably had the film exposed to light for half a minute at least, which easily explains the reason why it's completely overexposed. And safelights (those dark red lights) don't work with film, only for printing paper. And a green light is even worse, since film is even more sensitive to the green and blue end of the spectrum than the red end (since red is less energy than green or blue). The lesson: you should never be able see your film until it's developed! (except for that little leader that sticks out so you can load it into the camera) If there's enough light for you to see the film, then there's enough light to expose it.

Rogue Monk · Mar 1, 2005

Unimaxium said:
You can't expose film to light before you develop it.

...except to take the picture, of course. :wink:

That's a tough lesson to learn. I remember my grade 7 shop class teacher (super basic darkroom was part of shop class) tellling us that we wouldn't be aloud to develop film until we could but the developing tank together with our eyes closed. He emphasized that ANY light would damage the film, so no lights would be on in the DR.

I bet you had some good shots on there too. Isn't that always the way?

Oh well. Once burned, twice learned.