LF mistakes made so far

[Michael Kadillak]

I recently loaded two sheets of 8x20 into the same side of the holder. Very interesting double imaging there if you want to be unique.

But IMHO the most offending "mistake" in LF I continue to see particularly among part time LF photographers is "Overexposing and Overdeveloping"

Cheers!

[Ed K.]

You haven't lived unless you've found a creative way to do those mentioned in this thread, however just for safety, go ahead and do all the ones already listed on this very site:

http://www.largeformatphotography.info/mistakes.html

Don't be timid about it - just go down the list and do them!

Ole - I've done that one - ( pull the rear dark slide, ouch! ) and too little sleep the night before helps one really feel dumb about it. That sickening feeling knowing that even the 1/8th to 1/4 inch it came out before noticing what was going on was enough to ruin the film. Seems like once is enough to cure it though.

[raucousimages]

Shoot went great. No mistakes! Loading/unloading, travel, shoot, everything perfect. Got to darkroom, load 10 film hangers dunk in developer, move to fixer. Cant find fixer tank. Reach to other side and find the developer tank. Thats right the best moonset/sunrise I have ever seen went right into the fix. I now have a small notch in the edge of the darkroom sink where the doveloper tank sits. Feel the notch-find the right tank.

[poco]

I've made all these mistakes mentioned, but the one that sticks with me because it had me stymied for so long was getting ghosting on long exposures due to film settling or even shrinking (during winter) while the shutter was open. It took about a year's worth of occasionally ruined shots to finally figure out what was going on. I kept thinking I'd knocked the camera during exposure or something. Finally the light clicked on.

Oh, and here's another related one: discovering 5x7 film is too big to shoot with the camera pointing straight down -- the film sags out of focus position.

[Michael Kadillak]

Oh, and here's another related one: discovering 5x7 film is too big to shoot with the camera pointing straight down -- the film sags out of focus position.

5x7 sheet film is not to big to cause a problem with film sag when you are shooting straight down. Something else is going on to cause this problem for you. I have shot 8x10 and 8x20 straight down and never had a film "sag" problem.

Cheers!

[poco]

<I have shot 8x10 and 8x20 straight down and never had a film "sag" problem.>

Likely at f45 or better. I was shooting at f11 because it was very dim and the film sagged too much. Put a developed piece of film into a 5x7 holder without the darkslide, hold it upside down and tap the middle of the sheet -- it'll bow up and down about 2 mm or so. That was enough to throw off critical focus for me.

[DrPablo]

My favorite is loading the film in the darkslide guide rails (so you can't push the darkslide back in after the shot).

I've been lucky so far in my 1 month old fledgeling LF career, but the above quoted gaff is one I've made a number of times (to my complete horror). I'm still trying to decide whether I prefer to load the film from the top or bottom of the holder.

[Michael Kadillak]

<I have shot 8x10 and 8x20 straight down and never had a film "sag" problem.>

Likely at f45 or better. I was shooting at f11 because it was very dim and the film sagged too much. Put a developed piece of film into a 5x7 holder without the darkslide, hold it upside down and tap the middle of the sheet -- it'll bow up and down about 2 mm or so. That was enough to throw off critical focus for me.

I performed this "test" with modern Fidelity Holders as stated above. I put developed sheets of FP4+, T Max 100 and 400 into them and with the dark slide removed and the flap closed and a strong light to observe the situation and I could not see any obvious film sag present. I was very careful to use a sharp pointed stylus into the center of the film as the test probe. Even a couple of mm's of movement to the back against the sheet film holder should be capable of being observed if it was there but the film to me appears perfectly flat as a pancake against the back of the holder when facing straight down.

Maybe someone else can shed some light on this when you try this for yourself. I shoot down fairly regularly and have never give it a second thought. Maybe a thinner film than I am using is more prone to this situation. Just my $0.02.

[poco]

<Maybe a thinner film than I am using >

That might be the key. I was shooting Ilford which has a thinner base than Kodak. Anyway, not sure what to say but that my film sagged. I schlepped the camera out into the field two days running and got soft negs both times. Luckily I doubled up with a 4x5 on the second day and that gave me a sharp shot. It wasn't until I got the second set of soft 5x7's out of the soup that I tried the test as described and spotted the problem.

[Linhof]

1. Don't talk to others when shooting, even wife or kids, except police
2. Shoot 2 films for one scene if film available
3. perform shutter test before actual fire
4. before going to shooting location, simulate the setting up procedure in mind to check equipment in bag
5. stay calm during the course of shooting
6. don't change film loading procedure once you get used to one