I accidentally left a roll of Portra 400 in my jeans pocket and it went through a full hot water cycle with detergent last Tuesday. The negatives came out with this weird, muted color shift that actually looks kind of cool for street shots, like a permanent instagram filter. Has anyone else had surprise results from a dunked roll, or is my machine just gentle on film?
I shot a whole roll of Portra 400 at my cousin's wedding in Austin and every single frame had my thumb creeping into the top left corner. Turns out I've been holding my Pentax K1000 wrong for like two years, wrapping my fingers way too far around the lens barrel. Anyone else have a dumb habit like that that took way too long to figure out?
I picked up a roll of 10 year old Kodak Gold 200 from a thrift store for $2. Shot it on a sunny Saturday at the park near my house. When I got the scans back, half the frames had faint double images of things that weren't there. Turns out expired film can develop weird latent image retention if it's been stored hot. Anyone else had expired film do something totally unexpected like that?
I bought a used Sekonic light meter off eBay for about $60 thinking it would help me get better exposures with my old Pentax. Turns out the thing is off by two stops in low light, so all my night shots came out completely black. Has anyone else had luck calibrating old meters yourself or should I just save up for a new one?
I picked up a beat up Canon AE-1 from a garage sale last month for 15 bucks. The shutter sounded way off so I just assumed every roll would be toast. I shot a whole roll of cheap Fuji 400 anyway, just messing around in my backyard. When I got the scans back from the lab, maybe 4 frames actually came out clear and sharp. The rest are all over the place with light leaks and half the frame blacked out, but those 4 shots aren't bad. Has anyone else gotten lucky with a camera that looked totally dead?
I spent two hours last night in my bathroom in Portland trying to hand-roll a 36-exposure roll from a bulk spool and ended up with light leaks across half the frames. Switched to a used bulk loader I got for $20 and the first roll came out perfect. Has anyone else found hand-rolling just isn't worth the hassle?
I was dropping off a roll of Portra 400 at the photo shop downtown and this older dude was picking up his scans. He got a whole roll back with a light leak stripe down every frame and instead of complaining he goes, 'yeah the camera has a pinhole in the bellows, but I like the random orange streaks.' I'd been hating on my own double exposures all week but hearing him say that made me realize I was thinking about my screw-ups all wrong. What's a mistake you've kept in your portfolio because it grew on you?
I used to just eyeball my developer temperatures and hope for the best, figured close enough was fine. Then last month I ruined a whole roll of Portra 400 because my chems were sitting at 72 instead of 68. Now I keep a digital thermometer in every bottle and check before every single batch. Has anyone else had a similar wake-up call about temperature control, or am I just the slow learner here?
I had a roll of Portra 400 from a trip to the coast and I was SO excited to develop it. My friend told me to use his rotary processor at the darkroom but I figured I'd save time and just do a manual dip and dunk in a tall tank. Big MISTAKE. The film got all tangled up on the reel and I ended up with massive uneven development across like 20 frames. Some shots are totally clear on one side and black on the other. It looks like a weird abstract art project instead of beach photos. I should have just waited the extra 20 minutes for the rotary machine. Has anyone else ruined a roll by trying to rush through hand processing?
I was so excited to shoot that old Pentax K1000 from the Goodwill bin in the Pearl District but every single frame has a weird orange smear in the top corner and now I'm wondering if it's the shutter curtain or just bad luck, anyone else dealt with a mystery leak like this?
I keep seeing people post overexposed slides with this washed out look calling it 'artistic' but to me it just looks like they forgot to meter properly, so which side are you on where's the line between a happy accident and a basic mistake like forgetting to set your ISO?
I got this old Canon AE-1 from a thrift store and every roll had these weird orange streaks on the left side. Light leaks for sure but I didnt want to drop cash on new foam kits yet. My grandpa told me to just use black electrical tape over the door hinges and seal the edges before shooting. Tried it on 3 rolls now and the streaks are gone completely. Has anyone else done janky fixes like this or is it just me being cheap?
I spent about 4 weeks tearing apart my Yashica Mat 124G to replace all the foam seals. Thought I nailed it until I got my test roll back from the lab and saw a new streak of light across the same 4 frames. Turns out I missed a tiny gap near the hinge on the back plate. Has anyone else chased a ghost leak like this after hours of work?
I had this whole week where I was documenting a local soup kitchen in Detroit for a zine project. Everything was going fine until I got to the dark room and realized my developing tank had a crack in the lid. Half the roll of Tri-X 400 got completely fogged from the light leak, like a weird white wash over the faces of the volunteers. The other half came out with these weird orange streaks from some old chems I forgot to replace. It was a real bummer because I had this one shot of a kid laughing with his grandma that was totally ruined. Has anyone else had a whole roll go bad from something stupid like a cracked tank or bad chemicals?
I bought that steel Patterson knockoff from some random shop in Portland for $50 thinking I saved money. First roll got completely ruined - light leaks everywhere because the lid didn't seal right. I wish I just spent the extra $30 on a real Patterson tank instead of trying to be cheap. Anyone else get burned by those off-brand developing tanks?
I accidentally opened my camera back mid-roll at a wedding last weekend and panicked hard. Instead of trashing it, I loaded the film into a changing bag and developed it by feel alone in my bathroom at 2am. The top half of every frame has this wild purple light leak but the bottom half came out CRISP. Has anyone else tried salvaging a roll after a back pop or am I just lucky?
I used the same little camera shop in Austin for like 4 years and everything came back fine, then I moved and tried a place in San Antonio and my negatives look like sandpaper. Anyone else see a big shift just from changing who develops your film?
I see people bragging about burning through 100+ rolls in a year like it's some kind of milestone. But I hit 87 rolls last month and realized I was just wasting money on mediocre shots. Most of those frames were blurry or badly exposed because I was rushing to shoot more instead of slowing down. I'd rather have 10 great negatives than 100 that I'm embarrassed to show anyone. Anyone else feel like the quantity over quality mindset kills the whole point of film?
I was reading a repair blog from a guy in Portland and he said most mechanical shutters from that era just wear out around that number, so now I'm scared to even fire mine off at a family picnic.
I bought a 5-pack of Portra 400 from B&H last month for $75. Loaded it up, shot a whole roll at my niece's birthday party, and sent it off to The Darkroom for developing. Every single frame came back with these weird orange streaks running through them. I figured it was a light leak but I tested the camera with another roll and it was fine. Has anyone else gotten a bad batch of film from B&H recently?
I used to be super strict about following Ilford's times to the second, but after a batch of underexposed rolls from a dim forest shoot last fall I started pulling film early based on how the negs looked... has anyone else thrown the charts out and just gone by gut feel for push processing?
Used to tape every single roll like a maniac until one slip let the edge gap open and fried half a roll of Portra. Now I just press the canister lid down firm and load in the bag - way less hassle and no leaks since.
Loaded up my old Canon AE-1 last Saturday for a trip to the local flea market near downtown Austin, thought I was capturing gold. Got the scans back from the lab yesterday and every frame was just solid white light leak garbage. Anyone else had a camera ruin a whole shoot because of one stupid piece of foam?
Was out at a flea market in Austin last Saturday and got distracted by this old lamp. Popped the back open on my Pentax without realizing I had 14 frames left. Tried to quickly close it but I'm pretty sure half of them got hit by light. Going to develop them tonight and see what kind of crazy double exposures or light leaks I ended up with. Has anyone else done this and actually gotten cool results?