Troubleshooting color issues and light leaks

[robstrong]

Hello all. I'm hoping you can help me diagnose some problems I've encountered with a fresh set of LF negatives. All of the enclosed were shot on a Tachihara 4x5 wood field camera with either a 135mm or 210mm Nikkor lens, generally around f/22. All were exposed in bright daylight.
Film is Kodak Ektar 100, exposed at ISO 100, and processed by Color Services Inc in Massachusetts. Scanned by me at home on an Epson V700.

From a set of ten negatives, 5 of them have some kind of light leak or general color issue that seems beyond my power to photoshop away. (I have done basic color correction on all of the images.

Problems I see on first look:
03: huge leaks top left and center.
04: vague leak left side, rays of light top center
05: lots of leak left and right; generally messed up color (this is a cornfield in the daylight)
07: rays of light top left; color a little jacked up

This was my first box of Ektar, and I just bought a set of used holders on Ebay. This is my first box of color film in Fidelity holders. (I've shot a lot of Readyload Portra, and I learned large format 5 years ago by shooting black and white film in fidelity holders).

1) Is it possible my used fidelity holders are sabotaging me?

2) Is the camera itself leaking? I tried to be careful to shade the back of the camera while the darkslide was out of the holder.

3) Is it possible my scanner or software (or my inability to use them properly) is responsible for the weird color shifts? (I can see the light leaks in the negatives, so at least that problem originated earlier in the process).

4) I loaded the film sheets into and out of the holders in a dark bag. Did I somehow mess up during that process? I've never used a dark bag before.

5) Processing problems? I have extremely high faith in Color Services, so I don't think it's this.

I'm willing to be the guy who messed up here. I just want to know what I need to do differently (or replace in the technical setup) so that I can eliminate the problems with a minimum of trial and error.

I appreciate any insights you might have. As a general index for my level of skill with this camera, with photoshop, and with this kind of photography, the portfolio at my website ( http://www.robstrong.com ) was created entirely with the Tachihara, the same lenses, and Kodak Portra readyload film. I occasionally experienced some red light leaks on images from that setup, but never at the rate I'm seeing here.

If you help me fix the problem, I'll send you a grateful postcard!

Thanks,

Rob Strong

[Peter Gomena]

A common problem with lightweight wood cameras is that the spring back is not very robust. It is very easy to open the back just a crack when removing or inserting the darkslide. Make a habit of pressing against the center of the ground glass with your thumb while removing/replacing the darkslide with the other hand. This will help ensure a good tight seal around the holder. It also is a good practice to keep the filmholder shielded from light under your dark cloth during the entire remove/expose/replace sequence. Yes, light leaks around the film holder can make some odd color shifts.

Peter Gomena

[Peter Gomena]

Another thought is that your film holders are not seating properly in the back. If your camera back is worn or warped, you'll have leaks. Put a holder into your camera with no lens on it and the bellows extended. Turn out the lights in the room and put a flashlight into the bellows from where the lensboard would be. Look for light leaking around the holder. This test also will expose any leaks in the bellows.

I like your work - good luck finding the gremlins in your setup.

Peter Gomena

[Steve M Hostetter]

what film holder you using? pack film holder?

[RichardRitter]

Film holder not sitting right in the lock grove or when you pulled the dark slide or put it in you pulled the holder from the camera back.

[robstrong]

Thanks, Peter and Richard! I will investigate with a flashlight as soon as it's dark tonight.

Steve: The holders are plastic double sided Fidelity Custom 4x5 inch sheet film holders. I bought six of them used, on Ebay. These are from the first 10 exposures I've made with these particular holders (previously I was using a Kodak Readyload holder with Readyload Portra film).

Thanks for looking, all.

-Rob