dark strip on processed films
some of my processed films have a slight darker strip running vertically about 1cm away from the edge opposite to the notch edge. It's irregular and hard to predict. It doesn't even seem to be consist with certain dark slides. It happens with whatever film... Has anybody seen similar problems at all and figured out what went wrong? Thanks
A darker strip on a negative is a lighter strip on a print. More likely than not, indicates a light leak somewhere.
Could be the film holder. Possibly the camera. If you can post a picture, it would be easier to help to make a diagnosis.
Light leak close to the film. Perhaps a leak at the camera back.
Re: dark strip on processed films
I have a few thoughts. Sorry for the long post.
Have you checked to make sure that your bellows is secured to your camera?
When your holder is in the back, is it securely in place and does it rest flat against the camera?
It could also be your bellows intruding into the shot. I have seen this before and determined that the holders were fine, but for some reason, either too much movement, or merely the shape of my bellows caused me to see such a line.
Take an empty holder, insert it into the camera as usual, pull the darkslide like normal. Remove any lens board and shine a flashlight into the camera. What you are looking for is whether you can see the entire edge of the film holder on the inside of a camera.
I had this happen on my Century whole plate camera when I was trying to take landscape shots using a modern Chamonix holder. I don't recall seeing it happen with the old Kodak holders I got with the camera. However, in landscape orientation, the bellows covered the end of the Chamonix film holder opposite the flaps by about 1/4 inch and when I developed the negative, there was a line across that edge of the negative.
Hope you get it sorted out.
Diane,
If the bellows were intruding into the shot and blocking the light, wouldn't it show up as a lighter area on the negative?
Yan's problem is a darker strip on the negative.
Could also be a light leak during the processing procedure.
True.I noticed that just before I hit send, but then was having trouble visualizing it and sent the reply anyway. All I could see in my mind was the dark strip on the print... Oops.
Could be reflection from inside of bellows, particularly with longer focal length lenses.
Could be light leak from around lens board so do the torch shinning on camera front whilst looking inside bellows from back test.
Does the dark strip go the other way across the film when you expose in portrait mode rather than landscape? If it does, then it is definitely an in camera light problem. If not, then it may be a developer tank filling problem. Which dev tank do you use and how do you fill it? Slow fill can sometimes leave streaks down a negative.
Sounds like a camera fit with to the holder problem. If the dark slide is pulled out for a longer time, does it get worse? Is it worse in high light (ie., bright sun) and gone in dim light? If so, it's likely some kind of a light leak.
Keith
Hi everybody, thanks for all the replies. To make things clearer: the darker strip on the film always appears on the side without the notch. It happens with both landscape and portrait format; it happens with my two lenses: 150mm and 80mm; it happens on both B&W and colour which I process in different ways; recently I set the camera up and took 17 shots without any alternation of the camera between the shots (same shutter speed and aperture), about half of them have the problem. I did one test while I pulled the dark slide out but didn't open the shutter in order to see if there's light leak on the bellow, the processed film was clean without anything on it. I've checked the bellow again tonight it doesn't seem to be leaking, although I'm not sure if it intrudes into the shot or not. Somebody said it might be the reflection from the flap, I'm not sure. The trick thing is I can't predict when it happens or which dark slide will have it, so it's a bit strange. I've scanned one photo for you to have a look. Let me work out how to upload the image.
Hi please have a look at this photo, the lighter strip was the darker bit on the film. Look forward to some clues!
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