Who botched?

ditchlily · Aug 10, 2005

I hope this is the right board for this question - it's definitely a blooper although I'm not terribly amused by it. I also hope I can explain this problem in less than 5000 words. :mrgreen: Since you guys probably know what you're talking about I guess I'll just post a link to these examples and see if you can tell me right off the bat whether this problem is. I'm guessing film damage, but I have no experience developing my own color film so I don't know if it's light or heat or if my guess is completely incorrect. If it's not that easy to tell what the problem is, I'll give you all the gory details of the how those stripes look in relation to the entire roll, how I treat my film and who I sent it to for developing, ect...I have more mountain photos to develop and these are the some of the best I've taken, so if it's the developers fault I want to know and stop more dissapointment before it happens. Thanks!

Oh yeah, my camera's an old school Pentax SLR.

Blue and red streaks

Yellow streak

Red streak

Meysha · Aug 10, 2005

I reckon you'll get more responses if you posted this in the General Q&A. People usually just show off their funny bloopers here for fun. But don't worry, a mod will be along shortly to move it for you.

terri · Aug 10, 2005

Agree with Meysha. She's a smart little girl.

You'll hopefully do better with this thread here.

fightheheathens · Aug 10, 2005

what kind of old school pentax do you have?

and i dont know crap about your problems there...maybe a light leak in your camera?
ill hazzard a guess though
you have some yellow and red streaks, more so then blue, yellow and red light have the longest wavelength of visible light and thats all i got. maybe when they developed it they screwed up, i know they use red light to see the film because it has the longest wave lenght, yea, im just spewing crap, dont listen to me.

Jeff Canes · Aug 10, 2005

Light leaks was my first guest too, I have open the back by mistake before and end up with washed out yellow frames[font=&quot] [/font]

photogoddess · Aug 10, 2005

Looks like light leaks to me too. Did you open the back of the camera while the film was in there? If not, you should take it in for service.

Christie Photo · Aug 11, 2005

I too suspect the film was fogged somewhere along then line. Just curious.... what type of film is this, and how old is the film?

fadingaway1986 · Aug 11, 2005

Definately light leaks...

We had an old camera that did this on every film...

ditchlily · Aug 11, 2005

Thanks for moving this, Mods!

Well, it's not on every film. It's too bad I don't have any way of checking which box the bad rolls were from. I guess it's getting to the point where I ought to take my hobby seriously enough to make notes! (It's Fuji 400 and 800 film, which I thought was a decent brand...?) I bought "fresh" film for this trip, and had it three days before we went to the mountains. Forgot to check the expiration date though, and the boxes are long gone.

Last night I took a close look at the worst roll in the lot and there's a pattern to the streaks. They're in the same place and the same color on each photo that has a streak, and there are three perfectly good photos in between the ruined ones, and as the film progresses the streak lightens. I think that means my camera is OK. :thumbup: I wonder how this could have happened to the emulsion though...did someone turn a laser on it during shipping, or what? :lol:

I normally keep my film in an old oatmeal cannister out of the sun, etc, but as we don't use an AC I'm now keeping it in the fridge.

Can some explain this to me though? Why would light leaks show up as color streaks instead of blotches of overexposure (like Jeff's washed out yellow)? People have told me this before, but I really suspect that they've been fed a line of BS by their developer who hasn't got a clue what's going on but doesn't want to find out it's their fault. Though if light leaks really can do that, I'd like to know!

I'll grab some more film (from a reputable dealer this time, no more drug stores for me) and pop around town taking random pictures...that ought to tell me if it's light leaks. I'd simulate some light leaks by popping the back open, but my camera is engineered to make it very difficult to accidently open the back, and even resists if you try to do it on purpose! Once I forgot to rewind a roll, and no matter how hard I pulled on the rewind crank it refused to open! Duh...gotta love a camera that's idiot proof.

JTHphoto · Aug 11, 2005

i had a whole roll turn out this way once in my Elan IIe, and the developer told me it was a light leak, but i don't remember the back coming open, and it has never reproduced, so I didn't bother sending it in to have it checked out. It has worked fine ever since...

BTW, i have opened the back of that camera in the middle of a roll for a second or two before (doh!) and lost only about 4 photos that were immediately exposed to the light. The frames immediately next to the ones that were overexposed had similar red streaks, but the rest of the roll was fine.

summers_enemy · Aug 11, 2005

Definitely looks like a light leak to me. I've tested it out some with cameras as customer's think that I'm just a drug store clerk feeding them a line of BS when it happens to them.

Even if you do run into a processing problem from a store I can't even see it being possible to get streaks. You'll completely loose portions of the roll if not the entire thing. With any typical store machines, film processing is nearly idiot proof

It is very difficult to screw something up.

ditchlily · Aug 11, 2005

summers_enemy said:
With any typical store machines, film processing is nearly idiot proof It is very difficult to screw something up.

You really need to come out to Kansas. Our drugstores could teach you a thing or two about screwing up. :lmao: Black and whites through the color processor, whether you politely check the appropriate box or scribble B&W on it with a huge sharpie to get their attention? Pubes on the enlarger? (thank god that's not on my negs!!) Don't forget the disappearing act...urk. This is why I sent this newest film away, and if I couldn't even get a competent human being to do it for me outside of Kansas I was going to have a breakdown or something...but I don't think it's the developer. I've seen streaks caused by poor agitation (and made them) and they don't quite go like that.

How'd you test your cameras? Do you have examples? (Sorry, I'm a scientist...and I can't get data of my own, feh...oh wait, I like that feature...)

Mitica100 · Aug 11, 2005

dl, can you look at the camera's back to see if the foam seals are dry? Most likely they are and light seeps through. Easy to fix, placing new seals in there.

photogoddess · Aug 11, 2005

My first Rolleiflex SL35 had intermittant light leaks. Always the same type and place on the frame but not on every frame. I'd have the camera sent in for testing and and had it serviced when the problem popped up. No matter how many times I had it "fixed" the problem always resurfaced. I finally got rid of the camera. I'd try another roll of film, take it to a different developer and see what happens.

fadingaway1986 · Aug 11, 2005

It's definately light leaks.

And I'll tell you this. Cheaper stores have a higher turn around on film, so therefore, if you buy at a cheap store, you are more likely to get fresh film.