LF mistakes made so far

[Amund BLix Aaeng]

Surely, I'm not the only one who has forgotten to check for vignetting due to excessive movements? (and paid the predictable price!)

Yep, been there...

Or how bout` the 6 amazing 8x10 shots I did today without film in my holders...
And I found out after setting up my bathroom for development, mixing developer ect.... Ahhrgg!

[cyrus]

Using grafmatics with two different film speeds, and not remembering which grafmatic is holding which speed film.

Using grafmatics with two different film speeds, and not remembering to change ISO setting on lightmeter when switching from one speed film to another.

Putting yellow post-it notes on grafmatic holder slides to remind me of the film speed and to change the lightmeter setting -- then forgetting to remove the post-it notes when using the grafmatic, resulting in nice little rectangular blank spots on the negatives.

[Rick Haug]

I think the chance of making some of these errors greatly increases if the photographer is distracted, say by a talkative onlooker. While making a close-up photo of some outdoor plants I had an unwanted vocal "companion" who just couldn't take my hints that I needed to concentrate on what I was doing and couldn't carry on a conversation. After a long wait for the wind to subside I clicked the shutter only to discover I hadn't pulled the darkslide! Then I had to wait an equally long while for another lull in the wind to make the shot (with darkslide removed) while this guy stood there, this time with a smirk on his face.

[Slade Zumhofe]

Well, I have a ton but the one that REALLY urks me is---when I first started LF many years ago i was having trouble getting absolutely everything sharp from edge to edge no matter how hard I tried---I had HORRIBLE cheap dark lenses at the time. I took a week long trip to the Oregon Coast (top to bottom) and thought I would play it safe by shooting everything at f/64 or greater--depending on the lens whichever was the smallest lens opening. Well, had more success with the increased DOF but every single shot is ruined with defraction!!! Did I mention how old my lenses were? I can print a single image without it looking like my eyesight is going bad! Everything is sharp.....but not sharp.

This was a costly error for a beginner!! Boy did I learn about optics very quickly after that!

[JBrunner]

You have six holders. You decide to load three of them. You do this, and put the film away. The phone rings. You are distracted. You pick up the wrong three holders, label them, pack them, and then go out and merrily shoot six great shots with your empty film holders for an afternoons worth of (in retrospect) comedy.....

now i leave them black side out, but pull the label tape. This is my symbol for an empty holder. Silver sides out are loaded and labeled . Blacks with a label are of course, exposed. It's all about having systems.

[Leonard Metcalf]

Leaving both of my light meters at home.

[Capocheny]

So many mistakes and so little time...

Hi Mark,

LOL... I suspect there's still a LOT of time to do some of the above gaffers that you've not done yet!

So, your wife will have lots of laughs coming down the turnpike!

My favorite one is forgetting which holders have already been exposed. Been there, done that!

Good luck.

cheers

[Donald Qualls]

Leaving both of my light meters at home.

I only own one light meter, not counting the one in my head. Fortunately, that latter one can't be left behind. When shooting negatives, Sunny 16 and a few rules about compensation for things like backlight, shade, etc. is more than good enough for 95% of scenes -- and a little thought about what zone those rules apply to will cover about another 4%, leaving only 1% of outdoor scenes that you *really* can't expose correctly without a meter (and more than half of those will be dark enough the meter won't work anyway).

Sad to say, however, the meter in my head won't compensate for weak, almost-dead developer (I now have a policy of simply discarding the last quarter inch of liquid in the bottom of the jar of Parodinal, and I won't try to use two-year-old HC-110 stock solution no matter *how* good it looks). Nor will it help light fogging of the negatives by the luminous hands and number of the darkroom timer, standing about a foot from where the negatives were stacked while holders were unloaded, and less than that from the clear plastic food containers that serve as 5x7 trays for 4x5 film processing.

I think everyone misloads a holder or two while learning LF techniques. So far, I've only gotten two film sheets (loaded at the same time) backward in the holder, and I caught the error in time to salvage the image on one by pushing development beyond all belief. I've also had two film sheets that popped out inside the camera when I tried to reinsert the dark slide, and one holder flap that didn't quite stay closed and blocked the dark slide from fully reinserting, resulting in some fogging. Several old 9x12 cm plate holders have been demonstrated to fog film if direct sunlight falls on the dark slide slot with the slide out, however, and I pulled a couple partly opened 4x5 holders right out of the camera before I graphite lubricated the dark slides in the old wooden Graflex holders in my bag and started pulling the slide with a little offset toward the camera front, to keep the ridge in the groove.

Other than that, I *never* screw up...

[chris jordan]

--I get everything all set up, composed, focussed, adjusted, etc., pull the slide, then kick the tripod while stepping arond to the front to cock the shutter. How many times have I done that? I ran out of toes and fingers a loooong time ago...

--Arrive in a far-away place with all equipment ready to go, and the first time I get my camera all set up for a photo I discover that I had packed my light meter in such a way that its trigger was pulled for the entire trip, and the batteries are dead.

--Set the 8x10 up on the tripod, hoist the whole thing onto a shoulder to walk around, and suddenly the tripod feels much lighter just as I hear a loud crunching smash right behind me.

--All set up on a small bridge over a rushing creek, just hung my bag of lenses on the tripod crank arm, and I bump bag with my elbow, oh, the memory is just too painful...

[Kirk Gittings]

I once drove 4 hours to a shoot in Tohajali on the Navajo Reservation, did a walk around with the client, went back to the car to get camera and oops!!! I had left the tripod in Albuquerque, I tell the client "geez I really don't like the light today (for no good reason), we'll come back tomorrow", I drove back to Albuquerque, picked up the tripod and turned around and drove back.

I once grabbed the wrong stack of film holders, the ones that were not loaded, and went off for a weekend of shooting. I missed some great images.