Latest Film Ruined, Was it Me or Them?

[kreuzberg]

Ive just got my latest film back from the processors and the whole film has come out very dark and underexposed and I was just wondering if it was my fault for not exposing them properly or the developers fault for not doing their job properly?

Not meaning to be arrogant, I find it hard to believe I managed to under-expose an entire film as the pictures where taken in a variety of lighting conditions over a period of 7-10 days. What has happened to the film and is there anything I can do to save it?

I was so gutted when I saw the pictures as I've been trying really hard to improve my photographs and was looking forward to seeing the results as i was sure I had at least a few good pictures.

I guess this is what happens when you choose film over digital

 

[JC1220]

Can you post a scan of the negatives?

You said they are dark, this would indicate over exposure, not under.

 

[kreuzberg]

They were supposed to have put them on cd for me but when I got the prints, the cd was missing. I gave them back the negatives and they said the cd will be ready be Friday so I'll be able to post some then.

 

[Battou]

Ive just got my latest film back from the processors and the whole film has come out very dark and underexposed and I was just wondering if it was my fault for not exposing them properly or the developers fault for not doing their job properly?

Not meaning to be arrogant, I find it hard to believe I managed to under-expose an entire film as the pictures where taken in a variety of lighting conditions over a period of 7-10 days. What has happened to the film and is there anything I can do to save it?

I was so gutted when I saw the pictures as I've been trying really hard to improve my photographs and was looking forward to seeing the results as i was sure I had at least a few good pictures.

I guess this is what happens when you choose film over digital

No, this is what happens with inexperience and or mechanical error, the same thing likely would have happened with digital, only difference being you would have know imeadiately.

This sounds like exposure during the shooting process. This could result from a number of things:

Lack of attention to the meter
Lack of attention to the aperture
Inaccurate meter calibration
Low battery


Lets just assume, that is is not a case of ignorance and it is mechanical.

It is entirely possible to overexpose an entire roll of film even if you know what you are doing with a camera but do not know the camera in your hand. I've done this countless times with my TLb. Despite the fact I know my TLb needs to be recalibrated and the meter is two stops off, I don't use it frequently enough to compensate and usually end up reading the meter at it sais because I forget.

There is also the possibility that you have a low battery, My EF (my primary every day camera) has this thing where the batteries don't just die, they kinda fade. This results in severe meter misreading that is often unanticipated. I can't tell you howmany times I have been using my camera for hours on end under one lighting condition with a preset aperture and shutter speed and later go into a different lighting situation and find that the camera wants 8/1 (8 seconds) to get f/1.4 on an extreamly bright sunny day with 800 speed film....Uh, I really don't think so, me thinks me battery is dying But there have been occations where I did not notice this untill it was too late due to time away from the camera, it is possible.

As for what you can do about it, we'll have to wait and see when the scans come back because it varies.

 

[c.cloudwalker]

Two other possibilities:

1/ ISO was set wrong. It happens to the best of us.

2/ Film was bad. How long had you had this film and how do you store it? Where do you buy your film? When a lot of people were buying film, there was enough turnover so that it was okay to buy from drugstores and such places. Today, I would buy only from photo stores.

Film vs. digital has nothing to do with this.

 

[Battou]

Two other possibilities:

1/ ISO was set wrong. It happens to the best of us.

2/ Film was bad. How long had you had this film and how do you store it? Where do you buy your film? When a lot of people were buying film, there was enough turnover so that it was okay to buy from drugstores and such places. Today, I would buy only from photo stores.

Film vs. digital has nothing to do with this.

Absolutely right...I can't believe I forgot about those two, I can't tell you howmany times I bolloxed up on the ASA ring.....

 

[kreuzberg]

Two other possibilities:

1/ ISO was set wrong. It happens to the best of us.

2/ Film was bad. How long had you had this film and how do you store it? Where do you buy your film? When a lot of people were buying film, there was enough turnover so that it was okay to buy from drugstores and such places. Today, I would buy only from photo stores.

Film vs. digital has nothing to do with this.

The film was the 4th out of a pack of 5 Fuji films that i bought about 6 weeks ago and kept them in a dark cupboard out of the sunlight, is this ok?

All the films were iso 200 and this was set when I put the first film in and hasn't been touched since.

In relation to the battery going flat, it seems ok but just to be sure I'll pick up another battery on friday when I go pick up the cd and check to see if the light meter shows different values when I swap them over.

 

[dxqcanada]

Negatives appear dark (dense) all over = over exposure = Prints appear too light

Prints appear under exposed = dark = Negatives will appear light (thin)

Depending on how the photofinisher prints the negs ... the appearance of the Print may be deceptive. Use the negative as a reference to under/over exposure.

 

[Battou]

Kreuz, What is the make and model of the camera are you using?

 

[kreuzberg]

Its a Fujica ST605

 

[kreuzberg]

Negatives appear dark (dense) all over = over exposure = Prints appear too light

Prints appear under exposed = dark = Negatives will appear light (thin)

Depending on how the photofinisher prints the negs ... the appearance of the Print may be deceptive. Use the negative as a reference to under/over exposure.

I wont get the negatives back until Friday when I pick up the cd so I'll just have to wait and see if the scans come out any different

 

[Battou]

Negatives appear dark (dense) all over = over exposure = Prints appear too light

Prints appear under exposed = dark = Negatives will appear light (thin)

Depending on how the photofinisher prints the negs ... the appearance of the Print may be deceptive. Use the negative as a reference to under/over exposure.

I wont get the negatives back until Friday when I pick up the cd so I'll just have to wait and see if the scans come out any different

It's unlikely that the scans would come out any different than any prints you recieved.

What dxqcanada was pointing out is that many consumer photofinisher facilities will compensate for exposure errors when printing. Now I want to add that when you use an out side photofinisher to scan, this compensation is applied to their scans, in other words what is on the print will be on the CD.

This is why I scan all of my own negitives at home after consumer processing and never get the photofinisher scanning, I simply don't trust it personally.

 

[Battou]

The Fujica ST605 takes two SR44 batteries, and I have seen no noteworthy tendancy for the meters to go in them, in fact a couple sites praise the meter accuracy. But the reason I did not buy one when I had the oppertunity is it's a stop down meter camera.

This begs the question, where you stopping it down to meter?

 

[kreuzberg]

The Fujica ST605 takes two SR44 batteries, and I have seen no noteworthy tendancy for the meters to go in them, in fact a couple sites praise the meter accuracy. But the reason I did not buy one when I had the oppertunity is it's a stop down meter camera.

This begs the question, where you stopping it down to meter?

I'm not really sure what that means, from what I've been able to gather stop down metering is when the aperture closes when you take a meter reading. As this is the only film camera I've ever used, I'm not sure how this method differs from other cameras.

If you are asking if I set my aperture before I meter then yes, checking the meter is the last thing I do before I press the shutter release.

If this doesn't answer your question, please forgive my ignorance

 

[Dwig]

The absolutely first thing to check anytime there is a question about whether this type of problem resulted from camera/film error or lab error is to check the film itself. Part of that check should always be to look at the edge print (frame numbers and brand identification).

The edge print is exposed onto the film in the factory. It develops just like the exposed image. If a blank or very thin roll of film has nice dense edge print, the problem occured in the camera. It wasn't the film manufactor's error, it wasn't the storage of the film, and it wasn't a lab error. If the edge print is missing on a blank roll or equally weak on a roll with thin, weak images then the problem is almost certainly in the lab's processing of the film.

When you get the film back from the lab, the first thing to do is compare the images to the edge print and compare the edge print to one of the other rolls from the same box that have already been processed.