Favorite shot from my first roll of B&W film

[Gavjenks]

So I had no idea what I was doing with my cheap old film camera with my first roll, and snapped the film inside by accident. I DID know at the very least not to open it, of course, until I has my hands under a blanket in a dark room at night, so I didn't ruin any exposures, but I did scratch up the last few shots a lot until I could find the edge and get a roll going.

This is the last shot before the film broke, missing a big chunk of film on the right, and covered in scratches from fumbling around for the broken end to start rolling. I just really liked the "distressing" for some reason. The broken bit also almost looks vaguely intentional.




And well why not, some other sort of keepers, not so damaged:

 

[BlackSheep]

Nice job on your first roll! I like the shot of the bolts on the wall.

In the first shot, the scratches look like huge spiderwebs at first glance. I get what you mean about kindof liking it.

 

[TCampbell]

Just tell everyone you were going for the "distressed" look in your photographs. You know it's all the rage these days!

Great job on your first roll. I like your typewriter shot.

As for developing film... there are a few things that might help.

They do make a black bag that has sleeve holes in it. You put the film spool, light proof developing tank, and film in the bag, zip it shut, put your hands through the holes and you can get to work without hiding under a blanket. You can also just use a closet as long as the door closes well. Put a towel under the door after you close it (to block out the most obvious light-leak). Make sure there are no lights on in the room outside the door (just in case the room isn't as "light tight" as you might think.

It takes the human eye MORE THAN 30 MINUTES to "dark adapt". That means if you walk into a "dark room", spend a few seconds looking for light leaks and conclude that there aren't any... wait a while. You'll be surprised at how many light leaks will start to show up once you've been in the room for 20 or 30 minutes. After about 40 minutes your eyes will be about as dark-adapted as they'll ever get. Astronomers know this (and are always in search of excellent "dark sky" sites to observe. All it takes is one careless persons their car lights and your vision is ruined for deep-sky objects for the next 30 minutes.

We used to give students rolls of negative film that were either already developed or expired film that we didn't plan to shoot. That way they could practice loading the film spools to get the technique down while looking at it and keep practicing until they could easily do it without looking at it.