View Camera Problems

[binaryfaith]

Howdy Everyone

I recently have been trying to teach myself how to use the view camera as I just wasnt happy with the detail I was getting with my digital equipment. Problem is my negatives keep getting screwed up. I took this great pic of the Taj Mahal in India and the colors came out all screwy yellow and greenish. I did run it through the x ray machine and some people suggested that was the problem the first time. Now with my second run the negative doesnt even seem totally exposed and is totally orange. I'm posting the pic here for any help I can get. Can anyone diagnose the problem I'm having? Is it the camera? Lite leaks?
I'm shooting with Fujifilm Velvia 50 with a Shenhao view camera and a Schneider Super Angulon 90.

Thanks

[Robert Hughes]

Did you have your film inserted backwards - emulsion side down?

[Ken Lee]

Get some black and white film and save yourself some money - before shooting/spoiling any more color film.

Find out if the camera/bellows has a light leak. Go into a dark room and stick a flashlight into the camera.

Make sure you keep a thumb pressed down on the film holder, whenever you insert or remove the dark slide.

[John Powers]

Do you have a friend who has view camera experience and can watch you go step by step to see if there is a problem in your process? If not the founder of this forum Q.-Tuan Luong wrote an article on the steps of the process that might help. http://www.largeformatphotography.info/how-to-operate.html Note that there are many useful article on the http://www.largeformatphotography.info/ page.

There are several books on getting started that might help.
“Kodak book of Large Format Photography.”
“User’s Guide to the View Camera,” Jim Stone
“Using the View Camera,” Steve Simmons, Amphoto, revised edition, 1987
“View Camera Technique,” Stroebel
Ansel Adams wrote a wonderful book, “The Camera,” but in my opinion it may be a little advanced at this stage.

Workshops are another way of learning.

Good luck and enjoy.

John Powers

[rdenney]

Howdy Everyone

I recently have been trying to teach myself how to use the view camera as I just wasnt happy with the detail I was getting with my digital equipment. Problem is my negatives keep getting screwed up. I took this great pic of the Taj Mahal in India and the colors came out all screwy yellow and greenish. I did run it through the x ray machine and some people suggested that was the problem the first time. Now with my second run the negative doesnt even seem totally exposed and is totally orange. I'm posting the pic here for any help I can get. Can anyone diagnose the problem I'm having? Is it the camera? Lite leaks?
I'm shooting with Fujifilm Velvia 50 with a Shenhao view camera and a Schneider Super Angulon 90.

Thanks

The white area signifies that the film was exposed to light not through the lens. That sort of a light leak could have happened when loading the film or at taking time because of a leak in the camera or through the dark-slide slot. Make sure your film holders are seating properly in the camera. Put a light bulb inside the camera and see if it shines out through openings you didn't notice before. Make sure the bellows are properly locked in place, if your camera has interchangeable bellows. Make sure you removed the film from the holders as carefully as you insert it, and store it properly for shipping or delivering to the lab.

I agree that starting with Velvia 50 is putting quite lot of pressure on you. Velvia has a narrow latitude and is unforgiving.

An airport X-ray might cause strange patterns or a color cast, but I can't see how it would cause gross light-leak-style overexposure seen here, especially with such slow film.

Finally, I would suggest working out your basic technique and testing your setup at home before committing yourself to photography on a trip to a special place. There are more things that can go wrong, and part of what avoids those problems is the habit and ritual of proper film handling. That takes some practice.

Rick "been there, done that" Denney

[Chris Jones]

If you have access to a darkroom using photographic paper is a good starter trick. You can watch yourself loading the paper into the film holder under a safelight and at the other end see problems.

View cameras are a mongrel of a camera to use and take some patience to learn. I had to put 25 or more sheets of black and white film through my monorail before I got back into the swing of using sheet film. (And I'm counted as a professional.)

Keep trying and good luck, Chris Jones.

[Michael Wynd]

It's always good to find out there is another LF user here in Oz.Where abouts in Nw NSW are you Chris?
Mike

[Stefan Findel]

I somewhat doubt, that the film received the unwanted exposure while in the holders, because some of the film edges are blown out as well. So I suspect it happened before or after the film was loaded into the holders. Is all your film from the same box, then try another box. If there is still a problem, it may be happening between when the film is removed from the holders until it is fully fixed.

[domaz]

The fogging on the right is probably either light leaks coming into to the film holder after you pulled the dark slide- which means your film holder is bad, or the film holder was not sitting in the camera back correctly. This used to happen to me all the time, make sure the film holder is sitting straight in the back and not sitting uneven somehow before pulling the darkslide.

[binaryfaith]

Thanks everyone. :)

[Nathan Potter]

Sounds as if your digital results were far superior to your LF results.:D Maybe you need to reconsider the transition to large format.

There is such a proliferation of catastrophe showing in the image above it is difficult to tell where to start. Three faults strike me right off. Right hand side shows irregular over exposure; nasty orange overcast masking a weak image and a fine line vertically bisecting the left hand side of the image. Assuming these are all on the chrome and not artifacts of scanning then we look for errors in all the image making tasks or the development process. You must shake down this whole process.

As suggested use B&W film to troubleshoot.

Check the light tightness of the bellows. Make sure the lens board and lens is light tight.

Practice loading a sheet of film in the holder in the light. Then close your eyes and practice loading. Get the emulsion side facing the darkslide.

Load actual B&W film in a totally dark area. Be careful to not accidentally expose the film when the box is open.

When exposing in the camera don't remove the dark slide all the way out of the holder. Make sure the holder sits flat against the back standard. When sliding the darkside out absolutely do not inadvertently lift the holder away from the rear standard.

Send your B&W film off to a good developing house. This eliminates any processing errors by you.

Finally return to the color chrome film but still use a good developing house for processing.

Nate Potter, Austin TX.

[Stefan Findel]

And make sure the film is boxed properly on its way from your darkroom to the lab.
Additional scans of your films might help us to figure this out.

[Doug Dolde]

I thought for sure you were talking about the magazine again :)

[William McEwen]

Sounds as if your digital results were far superior to your LF results.:D Maybe you need to reconsider the transition to large format.

There is such a proliferation of catastrophe showing in the image above it is difficult to tell where to start. Three faults strike me right off. Right hand side shows irregular over exposure; nasty orange overcast masking a weak image and a fine line vertically bisecting the left hand side of the image. Assuming these are all on the chrome and not artifacts of scanning then we look for errors in all the image making tasks or the development process. You must shake down this whole process.

As suggested use B&W film to troubleshoot.

Check the light tightness of the bellows. Make sure the lens board and lens is light tight.

Practice loading a sheet of film in the holder in the light. Then close your eyes and practice loading. Get the emulsion side facing the darkslide.

Load actual B&W film in a totally dark area. Be careful to not accidentally expose the film when the box is open.

When exposing in the camera don't remove the dark slide all the way out of the holder. Make sure the holder sits flat against the back standard. When sliding the darkside out absolutely do not inadvertently lift the holder away from the rear standard.

Send your B&W film off to a good developing house. This eliminates any processing errors by you.

Finally return to the color chrome film but still use a good developing house for processing.

Nate Potter, Austin TX.

Proliferation of catastrophe... LOVE it!