I recently took my Wista DX out for the first time in several years . When I got back the negatives there is an orange/red cast around the edges. All 14 negatives were affected, most on 3 sides. The film is Portra 160 and they were processed at Samys in Santa Barbara.When I checked for light leaks none was visible. What is going on? They are proof scans and not finished scans.
Kinda looks like fogging. I think this has happened to me with black and white film. I got over zealous and turned on the light to check out my negs while they were in the fix (but apparently not for long enough!)
You should go to Samy's and make them replace your film, as I think it might be their fault.
Probably fogging, but....
The alternative is that the film is curled.
With 120 film I get rainbows and orange bows whenever the film curls on an edge - the light can't go through the film so it reflects off it, or something. Check the film is flat.
Shame - look like nice shots.
If you haven't used the camera for years, perhaps the film holders weren't seating properly? Or film curl, if it was old stock you've had on hand for some years. or something that happened in processing. Whatever the cause it has to be something that happened to all 14 sheets.
Let's know when you find out.
Barry
Check the age of the film you used. I don't think this is fogging; I think this is oxidation from the edges of the film.
I got some Tri-X which expired in the mid-1980s. There was a packet which had been opened. This packet's film had increased density around the edges, which was very reminiscent of your problem.
Hmm... Did you transfer your exposed sheets to a box to take them to Samy's?
Could be that the box leaked light. Best to tape up the boxes before taking them outside, or put the box in a black bag.
Nice images, I hope you figure it out.
Thanks for all the ideas. After also talking to Samys and sending them the scans, they think it is a light leak. How do I go about figuring out where it is coming from? I have placed a flashlight inside the camera in a darkroom and cannot see any evidence of a light leak. It seems unlikelly that all 7 filmholders would fail, they appear in good condition and have never leaked before. The film was five years old and I did transfer the film to an old film box(taped) that I had used many times in the past to send in to Samys for processing. Is it possible to repair the damage in photoshop?
This may be a stupid question, but have you checked to see if the marks are on the negatives themselves or just on the scans? I sometimes do proof scans on my epson and I often get edge color casts like these, though usually they're not quite as extreme. They're not on the neg though, and the final drum scans look fine.
If the film were curled, the edges would also be soft. Not sure how they'd curl that much in a film holder, but it's easy to check the edge sharpness to rule it out.
It seems like if it were a holder light leak, it wouldn't be in so many frames from different holders. A camera light leak doesn't seem like it would be around three edges. And the color cast is strange, wouldn't a light leak be white light?
Do you still have the film box you sent the film in? If so you could check it, though samys was constantly returning my film in different boxes.
It could have been a film problem, though five years really isn't all that old.
I had been using Samys for a few months and a few hundred sheets with good results. But, sure enough, I recently sent them a large batch of film from an important project and they did a poor job. The film had lots of uneven development, drips and mottling around the edges. It didn't look like your problem, but I wouldn't be too quick to dismiss a processing issue. I'm no longer using Samys.
This would be really hard to fix in photoshop, unfortunately. I'm sure it could be at least partially corrected though, and you could crop some of it out.
Good luck, and I hope you'll report back when you've solved the mystery.
Somebody jump all over me if I've got this logic wrong, but this does not look like a light leak that would occur inside a camera. A light leak in camera just usually doesn't look anything like this. It is usually form a single direction and has a directional pattern.The effected areas would have been partially under the edges of the film holders and thus, partially blocked from getting light, therefore, an outline of the "keepers" would have been obvious. Also, I can't begin to imagine how an in-camera light leak would show on three sides, and not in the "meat" area of the film. For that matter, I can't imagine how it would even get to three sides at one time. Doesn't make sense!
As for a leak in a film box, it's almost exactly the same logic as with a camera leak. The only things I can think of that make sense is that these are very old film that oxidized from the edges as mentioned before, or that they were in some kind of container like a black plastic bag and that someone accidentally opened the end in the light, even subdued light. You mention that the film was five years old, so I'm suspicious there. How did you store it? Frozen would likely be perfect for use. Refrigerated, maybe okay. Left on a shelf in varying temps and humidity could easily have problems like this, so try some new film and see if you still have issues.
You said there were 14 negs. Were they all about alike, or was there one (that might have been on top) that was completely fogged all across?
The fact that each of the samples has a different exposure pattern would be likely if the one with the worst was near the top (got the most light) and the one with less was further down the stack. Did the negs all vary like this from extreme damage to less, and then even less if you put them in a sequence?
I suppose it is also a possible chemical stain if these were washed in some way that failed to completely clear the chemistry from the edges or during processing or if the chemistry did not completely get to the edges during development. Do you know what kind of holders Sammy's uses or if they have a roller transport system for their processing?
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