What if I don't have enough boxes to take to the lab?

[Rayt]

I am a newbie myself and this was the most perplexing question when I started out. For my first 18 sheets I used the dark photo bags that my Fidelity holders came in. When I brought the film to the lab (in Hong Kong) they told me to just bring the loaded double holders and they would unload them for me.

[BrianShaw]

... and then as someone said above ALWAYS get your empties back.

... and before you leave the lab, discretely check to make sure you got all 3 parts of the box. A couple of times I got home and found that they returned only 2/3s of the box. Bummer.

[Noah A]

I recently started shooting 4x5 and was in the same boat.

I bought two 10-sheet boxes of Kodak film. I would have just loaded a whole box of 10 into holders but at first I only had two holders.

Instead, I opened the first box and loaded four sheets into the holders, then put the remaining 6 sheets back into the second 10-sheet box. There's plenty of room in the Kodak 10-sheet boxes for more than ten sheets, even if you leave the film in its original envelopes.

Be sure to tell the lab you want your box back!

As others have said, most labs will take your holders and unload them for you, and some labs may give you a box if they have any sitting around.

[gnuyork]

This one stumped me as well when I first started, which was not that long ago. In fact I didn't even know to use the box. I was unclear as to what to do. I thought maybe I was supposed to send my film holders to the lab. I always thought this type of info was left out of any books or web pages on getting started with LF.

I think I asked here and got the answer, which became obvious, but like you I didn't finish shooting my box before I needed to send the film in. Luckily a friend gave me an empty box.

[Frank Petronio]

Obviously there is an opportunity here, selling boxes for $5 a pop. You gussy them up with anti-static bags or some bullshit to make them more official. Maybe red rubberbands?

Of course you MUST buy this:

http://www.filmtools.com/war.html

[rguinter]

There's nothing magic about film boxes: if your lab can't find some empties to give you and no one near you offers to send you any, any cardboard box with a tight-fitting lid will do. Wrap the film in an empty film or photo paper bag or even several layers of black garbage bag, and put it into an inner box and then within an outer box. Then wrap the box in another bag or two, if you're the worrying type, or in aluminum foil. Aluminum foil is an excellent, light-tight material (I once sealed a darkroom with it. Long story, but it worked great.) Keep in mind that from the manufacturer, film is in a non-light-tight inner bag, inside a cardboard box, inside another cardboard box. Cardboard works really, really well.

Try to avoid making the package look, um, suspicious. Lots of idiots out on the street and you don't want the local bomb squad blowing up your film. *Sigh*

Mike

Mike: Makes me recall an interesting event when I worked at Bell Labs.

Apparently one of the researchers tossed an old cigar box and the night cleaners forgot to pick it up off the floor.

Voila!... the next day on arrival to the lab building, the many thousands of us that worked there were entertained for several hours (from the parking lot of course) while the bomb squad did their thing... complete with bomb sniffing dogs, robots, and x-ray detectors... all to find a stash of old pencils in the box.

So maybe your advice about not using certain types of boxes is sound advice.

Other than that I can second the suggestion about using aluminum foil. Been there done that when I was in a hotel without enough empties to transport exposed film. Worked very well. I simply prefolded the foil with a nice straight edge and then placed my stack of exposed film sheets inside and completed the folds.

Cheers. Bob G.

[Robert Crigan]

Admitance:
I am new to Large Format Photography. I have mostly worked with 35mm and have done my own processing; plus the occassional lab with slides.

I've already found a highly recommended lab that is accessible (sort of). However, I don't have enough boxes to take to the lab. I plan on processing some B/W and slides with them. However I won't be emptying the box immediately. Some film will be saved for backup once i get my initial results back. I can't give them my darkslide. They dont' have anywhere to put it either...

I'm looking for a solution to transport my film to the processor. I don't have any extra boxes. ANd darkslides seem infeasible.

I just give the lab my double-dark slides. Been doing it for years, both 45 and 810. I tried boxing the film but it was extra handling. And one time the lab opened a box of unprocessed film...
The labs I've used have taken care of the dd's. I've never had any damage.
Perhaps you could ask your lab if they'd be happy with doing it that way.
Good luck
Robert

[wskmosaic]

I have a batch of 4X5 boxes up for grabs. If anybody's interested, ask me PM. I'll ship domestically on a pay-it-forward basis (if you don't know what that is, Google it or ask me).
Warren