Does travel cause sheet film to shift in holders?

[AtlantaTerry]

Earlier this month I drove about 150 miles out to the set of a period motion picture film to create portraits of some of the actors in mid-1840s costume. Sadly, it rained so I could not create one portrait. Then, of course, I had to drive back home.

Then I did the same thing this past weekend - I drove 300 miles round trip again. This time I was able to create portraits of four of the actors.

When I got back I had 18 sheets of film exposed. But when I tried to remove the sheets of Arista.EDU Ultra 100 to develop them, about 1/3 had shifted inside their holders. So much so that I had to actually struggle to get them out.

I know how to load sheet film holders, I've been doing it for 50 years. So I assume I'm loading correctly. Can long distance driving actually cause film to shift in the holders?

BTW, the negatives show the blank areas along the five inch sides to be uneven therefore at some point prior to being exposed, the sheets of film shifted.

I carry the film with the dark slide handles facing down in an old Speed Graphic case. I will be going back to the film set this weekend and am considering using the same film holders but this time transporting them flat, just to see what happens.

I store my processed 4x5 film in acid-free Print File Archival pages (4 to a page) after writing information on the negatives with an India Ink pen.

To show y'all what is going on I taped one of my Print File pages onto my LCD monitor and photographed it with my Nikon D3S. Sorry, but I was not perfectly centered on the negative when I copied it so the representation below is a bit crooked. But the important thing I want to show is how uneven the two blank areas along the 5 inch sides of the film are. You can also see that the blank areas along the 4 inch top and bottom edges is quite uneven. As I said, this indicates to me that the film shifted in the holder some time prior to exposure.

Thank goodness the negative is sharp where I focused on her eyes.

I would appreciate any tips or suggestions as to how to prevent this from happening again.

Thank you.



Technical Information for "Field Slave"
camera: Crown Graphic
lens: Tele-Congo 240mm
exposure: 1/60 at f.16
lighting: bright sun behind her + a gold "pop-up" reflector to fill the shadows
film: Arista.EDU Ultra 100
developer: D76 1:1
actress: Gelena Piper
location: 2,000 acre cotton farm in Unadilla, Georgia USA
motion picture title "Doin' Time"
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2883090/combined
4x5 sheet film holder: one of two "no name" units that I bought a couple years ago from an eBay vendor based in Los Angeles, California USA. The two halves of each film holder are riveted together. The funny thing is there are no 4 inch ribs across the holders which are supposed to be there so they can drop into the channel in the camera back both for registration and minor light baffle. I fully suspect these are some sort of Chinese "clones". At least they don't stink like cat pee.

[Drew Wiley]

Nice portrait, but otherwise, I've never, ever had anything like that happen. But then, I've always used name-brand holders like Fidelity or Lisco in good condition.

[adelorenzo]

I've seen advice to 'rap' the film holder before shooting to make sure the film is settled straight. Oh yes, it was on this very site:

http://www.largeformatphotography.in...o-operate.html

I have never personally done this but it might be something to try?

[Daniel Stone]

sure the film isn't 9x12cm?

9cm = 3 & 35/64 inches

9x12 will fit into 4x5" holders, but not the other way around IIRC

-Dan

[AtlantaTerry]

sure the film isn't 9x12cm?

9cm = 3 & 35/64 inches

9x12 will fit into 4x5" holders, but not the other way around IIRC

-Dan

Dan,

All I have to go on is the box the film came in. The label says:
100
The Educators Choice
ARISTA.EDU
=== ULTRA ===
4" x 5" 50 sheets NIF
ONLY OPEN IN TOTAL DARKNESS

[AtlantaTerry]

Anthony,

Thanks for the tip. I will add it to my workflow.

But I don't know if it will help because when I was removing the sheets of film to develop them, they were actually stuck, not loose as they should have been. I had to pull hard to force them out of the holders.

[Heroique]

When you remove film sheets from the holder, be sure to get hold of the sheet in the middle of the side, before pulling.

If you're holding the sheet to the left or right, it might not want to come out smoothly, since the force of pulling is favoring one side.

-----
I'm a devout tapper, every time before placing the holder in my camera.

Just remember to tap the correct side!

[AtlantaTerry]

When you remove film sheets from the holder, be sure to get hold of the sheet in the middle of the side, before pulling.

If you're holding the sheet to the left or right, it might not want to come out smoothly, since the force of pulling is favoring one side.

Remember that I wrote only 1/3 of the sheets of film had this problem. The others were easily removed. Since I always use the same removal technique, I don't think that is the root of the problem.

Thanks, anyhoo.

[Michael Clark]

Looks like that film was to small for the holder from the way the edges look, it was chocked a bit to one side.

[Keith Fleming]

Micheal Clark may be on to the problem. You may have a box of film with some sheets trimmed slightly too small. It might be a good idea to check out the film in the darkroom to see if that is the problem.