First experience w/ film developing

[rexbobcat]

I'm wondering if maybe my camera is overexposing the film. I just developed another sheet and it came out darker than the first. And it has those dark edges again as well and they're uniform. Could it be that my film holder is not sealed well enough and it's overexposing the film?

Here's my second attempt. Again it's super dark. I developed three minutes less to see if it would make a difference. There's still black on the edges.



Also; is it normal for the crop on the negative to be different than what you see on the ground glass on the back of the camera? It cropped A LOT off the top of the image.

 

[gsgary]

I'm wondering if maybe my camera is overexposing the film. I just developed another sheet and it came out darker than the first. And it has those dark edges again as well and they're uniform. Could it be that my film holder is not sealed well enough and it's overexposing the film?

Here's my second attempt. Again it's super dark. I developed three minutes less to see if it would make a difference. There's still black on the edges.

<img src="http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=68930"/>

Also; is it normal for the crop on the negative to be different than what you see on the ground glass on the back of the camera? It cropped A LOT off the top of the image.

Why blame the camera, if it is overexposing it is your fault

 

[photoguy99]

How long are you washing? Some films have various crap that needs to wash out, and may change visually for 10-20 minutes of sitting in gently running water. A trickle from the tap is plenty.

The edges (the parts that appear white in your attached photo) should tell you what's going on with base fog and so on. If those are not about as clear as say a lightly tinted car window, or tinted glasses that are NOT sunglasses, then you've got some base fog. Not enough light tightness in handling the film, you cooked your film a bit, your development is off, you're not washing enough, etc etc etc. The point is, anything in THAT area is not the camera. That stuff is tucked away and hidden in the dark while the camera is doing its thing. I can't tell from the picture or your description, but it does sound like there may be more density there than there ought to be.

If you're not totally sure you've washed enough, throw the neg back into the water and let it wash some more. You can always re-wash, and it never hurts much of anything. You're just testing now, anyways.

Mentally subtract whatever density you're seeing in those edge areas from the image density in the center area there, and if what's left is the camera's fault. 1/400 is probably the top shutter speed you have, and I would not be surprised at all if it's off, a little or lot, depending on the age of the shutter and whatnot. If you eventually decide that the shutter is just slow at the higher speeds, dry fire it a dozen times or so, see if it comes back a bit. If not, just try to include a mental fudge factor when you shoot.

 

[rexbobcat]

Why blame the camera, if it is overexposing it is your fault

Well aren't you helpful.

I used a light meter, then checked it with my digital camera.

I could understand if it's slightly over exposed but it's almost blown out similarly in both shots.

 

[timor]

^^^ Good advice. And make sure you agitate with a consistence, you may also pre-soak the neg for about 1 min.

 

[Designer]

I'm wondering if maybe my camera is overexposing the film.

Is this an older camera? Sometimes the shutters begin to stick or run slowly. It might snap out of it with more use, but at any rate, you should have the shutter timed to check its accuracy.

Also; is it normal for the crop on the negative to be different than what you see on the ground glass on the back of the camera? It cropped A LOT off the top of the image.

I would say it is not "normal". If everything is properly adjusted, what you see on the glass might be a little larger than the film being exposed, but if it is crowding one side, and there is nothing to adjust, then you will have to make the adjustment by holding accordingly.

 

[Gavjenks]

The negative in front of the window shows a pretty clear image, and from the way your hand looks it does not appear you had to ridiculously jack up any sliders to get there.

Compared to the scan in the OP, that's night and day. I feel like this is mostly just a SCANNING issue after seeing that. Yeah, the negative has various other issues that you'll want to iron out eventually, and it should be crisper, and you still want to worry about lightproofing and double checking exposure, but it seems to be in the ballpark enough that the scan should not be failing that hard and now feels like the main bottleneck to me in getting you to where you were in the OP. I'd focus on the scanning first. What scanner and process are you using?

 

[timor]

Why blame the camera, if it is overexposing it is your fault

Well aren't you helpful.

I used a light meter, then checked it with my digital camera.

I could understand if it's slightly over exposed but it's almost blown out similarly in both shots.

You will be surprised by how central shutters could be off. Specially the older ones. This kind of shutter is open to the element, dust has easy access to it and the lube is drying up faster. Ask Rick how much effort it was with getting my Compur from 1936 to work without full disassembly. Now fires like brand new, but that was an exercise in futility as the bellows of this Zeiss Ikon leaks.

 

[rexbobcat]

Why blame the camera, if it is overexposing it is your fault

Well aren't you helpful.

I used a light meter, then checked it with my digital camera.

I could understand if it's slightly over exposed but it's almost blown out similarly in both shots.

You will be surprised by how central shutters could be off. Specially the older ones. This kind of shutter is open to the element, dust has easy access to it and the lube is drying up faster. Ask Rick how much effort it was with getting my Compur from 1936 to work without full disassembly. Now fires like brand new, but that was an exercise in futility as the bellows of this Zeiss Ikon leaks.

Here's the lens I'm using.



It seems to be working correctly and isn't old at all. This is a camera and lens that amolitor donated to me and it was in working condition while he had it.

 

[Designer]

Is the film old?

As to the framing; have you accidentally put in a little bit of tilt? Not so much as to be noticeable, but enough to skew the image to one side?

 

[dxqcanada]

The image on the ground screen should be similar to what you will capture on the film ... IF the film and the ground screen are the same size.
It may be possible that the ground screen/back was designed to accommodate larger formats, and it may have guide lines (that you missed) for the format film you used.
Or the film holder is not sitting correctly