I NEED HELP PLEASE

chdcarroll · Sep 2, 2007

I have a pentax k1000 manual camera and i went to develop my first 3 rolls from the camera today and there were no pictures on the negatives. The negatives werent black like they had been exposed just no pictures on them. i usec 800 film and my shutter speed is on 1000. I have no idea where I went wrong?

Johnboy2978 · Sep 2, 2007

what was the setting that you shot the images in? ISO of 800 is a pretty light sensitive film and a shutter speed of 1000 is generally used in pretty much mid day sun light. Sounds like they were over exposed. I don't shoot a lot of film anymore, but the combination seems counteractive. Generally you use a higher ISO in low light and you would use a high shutter speed in brighter light w/ a minimum aperture like f/16 or maybe f/22. Did you use a light meter, or at least use the built in meter?

chdcarroll · Sep 2, 2007

ok i understand now my aperture was set at f/22. I do not have a light meter in my camera its a pretty old one from the 80s i think. So i have 2 rolls of 800 film left what should i put my shutter speed at? I have 1,2,4,8,15,30,60,125,250,500,and 1000 on my shutter. With my aperture i have 2.8,4,5.8,8,11,16, and 22. What setup shoud i use with the 800 film? How do i know what shutter speed and what aperture to use with each film type? Thanks for helping me with this

Johnboy2978 · Sep 2, 2007

chdcarroll said:
What setup shoud i use with the 800 film? How do i know what shutter speed and what aperture to use with each film type? Thanks for helping me with this

There really isn't a right or wrong answer for that. It depends on the conditions in which you are shooting. Without a meter, if you are shooting mid-day in bright sunlight, you can use the "Sunny 16" rule. That is set your aperture to f/16 and your shutter speed to the inverse of roughly the film speed. That is if you are shooting w/ ISO 100 film it would be f/16 with a shutter speed of about 1/125. I was thinking that the k1000 had a built in meter though? Maybe not. Anyway, you generally use the lowest ISO film speed you can get by with to reduce the grain (unless you like that). 100/200 would be more outdoor mid day film, 400 could be indoor/outdoor and higher speed (more light sensitive) for indoor where light isn't as available. In an indoor church wedding 800 might be a nice speed as it will allow you to maintain a higher shutter speed and avoid motion blur/camera shake. It really just depends on your environment and what artistic effects you are going after. I was outdoors today w/ my daughter shooting some snapshots (digital) and I kept the ISO as low as it would go (ISO 100). A proper exposure may be similar to the Sunny 16 rule and some I probably shot like f/16 with shutter 1/125. You can change the aperture to f/2.8 (allowing much more light in) which will require a much faster shutter speed like 1/2000 to get a proper exposure. The larger aperture of 2.8 will keep her in focus but blur the background behind her, or I can maintain an aperture of f/16 or f/22 and keep everything around her and behind her in focus, but it will require a slower shutter speed like 1/125 or 1/60 maybe.

Check out the book "Understanding Exposure" by Brand Peterson [ame]http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Exposure-Photographs-Digital-Updated/dp/0817463003/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/104-4109969-4788728?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1188788950&sr=8-1[/ame] and pick up a light meter off ebay if you don't have one built in.