Fuji NPS 160 returned with massive red cast. Why?

[Bob._3483]

"But if the negatives are red the prints should be cyan. Right? From the sound of it both the negatives and the prints have the same colour cast. Shouldn't they have opposing colours?"

There are two things going on here: the negatives look red (actually orange) because of the film base is orange (this is normal) and the prints look red because putting them in backwards and shooting through the base is the same as shooting through an orange filter - you would not expect to get a cyan cast in teh print with an orange filter (granted, it would look cyan on the neg, but the film base's strong orange colour will overpower it visually).

[Nick_3536]

He didn't actually say that. He said everything was red which doesn't make sense. I'm curious if he really meant everything was red. The negatives are red. Or the prints are red.

[Walt Calahan]

Hey Jack, what did you really mean by a "deep red is the only color present"?

You've got us all guessing!

[Jack Schow]

To clarify a little bit,

The contact sheets are where the red cast shows most notably. I say that the negatives are red too, though I am beginning to think that this may be a function of my inexperience with the different (i.e. polyester) bases and dyes used in large format film. I will post pictures of the offending negatives and contact sheets tomorrow, although I think that you guys may have hit the nail on the head with the backwards loading hypothesis. Thanks to all of you for the help.

[Walt Calahan]

I think Steve's got the right answer.

Jack, if you are looking at your film holder in a horizontal orientation, with the dark slide pulling out of the holder from the left and the flap is on your right, the film code notches should be in the lower right corner of the holder when the film is loaded properly.

Look forward to seeing your posting.

[Scott Davis]

I'll third/fourth/whatever the assessment of shooting through the base. Been there, done that, have the lab bill to prove it. Your negs will look wierd, and your contact prints will look worse. I've also done this (years ago) with transparency film, and you get Halloween slides- all black and orange. It is beyond disheartening.

[Jack Schow]

All right, here are the offenders. As I've said, I think that the backwards loading appraisal is spot on. Check and see for yourselves.





Thanks again for helping me with my bad beginners luck.

[Walt Calahan]

Jack

Are you shooting 8x10 film cut down to 5x7? It looks that way from the images you posted.

If so, the film notches should be in a different location from what I described in my last posting.

[Phong]

> Are you shooting 8x10 film cut down to 5x7? It looks that way from the images you posted.

I was thinking that myself, what with the location of the notches. It could also explain how an "experienced photographer" could have misload the film. Cheers,

[Jack Schow]

The film is 4x5 actually, I hope you experienced LF gurus don't sneeze at my (relatively) small format. No cutting was done.