Factory Defect Sheet?

[tgtaylor]

What do you make of this?

152747

This is a 5x7 Ilford FP4+ sheet that I shot last week but after taking it I decided that the light was not right (the sun was on the wrong side of the subject) and went back yesterday to reshoot it. Both exposures were close (f22.3 @ 1/15 sec vs yesterdays f32 @ 1/15 sec) and the sheets were over-developed for alternative printing. Not a hint of an image appears in the negative and the exposure bleeds across most of the rebate. Nothing was out of the ordinary when I shot it and yesterdays negative came out fine. Both negatives were from the same box of film.

Thomasv

[Erik Larsen]

If that's a positive image I'd say you left the lens cap on[emoji49]

[tgtaylor]

If I left the lens cap on, then wouldn't the negative be clear instead of exposed? On the other hand if I left the shutter open, then the shutter wouldn' have closed when I tripped it with the cable release.

Thomas

[Erik Larsen]

That's why I said "if it's a positive"

[tgtaylor]

In other words, you don't know.

Thomas

[Erik Larsen]

Never mind

[ic-racer]

Factory Defect Sheet?

You think it was coated with an emulsion that had already been exposed to light? Perhaps it was exposed to light after it was coated, or perhaps even after the sheet was sold.

[Daniel Stone]

Test another "random" sheet from the box, and see if you can duplicate what happened to this sheet?

[jnantz]

hi thomas

did you shine a flashlight through the film to make sure there is no image on it ?
the very bottom has clear bits on it, do your other films from the same holders
have clear bits that look like that ?
i ask because i like processing film to be bulletproof, totally black looks like this
but it contact prints like a dream with a really bright light. you can't see through it,
and barely can see through it looking with a bright flashlight. if no other film was processed at the same time
it might be a processing error, or over exposure error or both ( which will give you super dense film ).
if you have a 300 watt bulb and a sheet of rc paper make a contact print of the black film for 10 seconds
you might have an image trapped in there, and if so, you might be able to use farmers reducer to get it out.
i've haven't used farmers reducer, for film like this, but it removes layers of darkness so it might be helpful.

good luck !
john

[vinny]

Modern Art.

[tgtaylor]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I can't imagine what went wrong with this sheet. It's difficult to imagine that its a factory defect as it was on the opposite side of the holder that produced the good negative. That means that it was immediately adjacent to the good negative in the box. I first thought that it had fallen from the production line and exposed and then put back with the run. But that is highly improbable. More likely I made a mistake somewhere but i don't see how as my routine is unvarying: after composing on the GG I remove the DC and insert the holder. Then I determine the exposure, close the shutter and dial it in, and always trip the shutter at least once or twice before the final cock, and only then remove the DS. Because of the Compur "B" issue I recently switched to using a short cable release with the 8x10 so that I can clearly hear the shutter operate and was standing next to the lens when I tripped the shutter. Somewhere, though, it got a lot of light.

Thomas

[BrianShaw]

Interesting. But maybe it would be more accurate (and fair to both Ilford and the forum readers) if the thread be re-titled to "My Exposure/Processing Error?"

[barnacle]

I've made images like that; it's easy. All I have to do is pull the wrong dark slide out... the one facing the ground glass.

Neil

[sepiareverb]

I've made images like that; it's easy. All I have to do is pull the wrong dark slide out... the one facing the ground glass.

Neil

That's how I have accumulated a collection of these negs also.