Plate--What went wrong?

[Two23]

I shot 7 Lane plates, 5x7 recent batch, and 2 didn't come out well. Curious what happened with the plate shown below? The black triangle in the top left corner could be my black t-shirt I used as a shutter. The plate looks very dark and if viewed from behind it has a milky cast to it. Not sure what went wrong. The other one that didn't turn out has no image at all, just a bunch of wavy black lines.


Kent in SD

[Jim Noel]

The milky cast is lack of fixing. Place it back in fixer and then re-wash.
I believe you are correct about your T-shirt being in view.

[Nodda Duma]

Do you often use you t-shirt as a shutter?

[Two23]

Do you often use you t-shirt as a shutter?

Yes. Mostly using 5x7 with pre-civil War lenses.


Kent in SD

[Mark Sawyer]

Looks like a simple light leak at the bottom. The top could be the plate starting to dry out, but that's harder to tell on a scan.

[paulbarden]

Looks like a simple light leak at the bottom. The top could be the plate starting to dry out, but that's harder to tell on a scan.

He’s using J. LaneDry Plates, so they don’t dry out.

[Jim Noel]

Get in the habit of wearing a cap or hat and use that for shutter. Use the focusing cloth, or black T-shirt to cover bellows and back of camera during exposure.