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View Full Version : What is this? (Problem with a photo....)



Sheldon N
31-Mar-2007, 12:20
I noticed this on a shot that I took last weekend, and I can't figure out what caused the problem. Notice the band angling across the top left corner of the photo. Has anyone got any ideas what might have caused this?

My theories:

1) Film got bent while I was loading or unloading the film holder
2) Some sort of underlying defect in the film
3) Development problem (rotary tubes)
4) Some sort of reverse flare (lens is 150mm APO Sironar-S)
5) I caught part of the dark slide that I was using to shade the sun in the shot.
(It was a fast shutter speed (1/125) and the sun was at the top left of the shot.)

What confuses me about option 5, is that there is still detail in the top left corner. Wouldn't catching the dark slide block the upper corner entirely?

Thanks for the help!

Louie Powell
31-Mar-2007, 12:36
One of the salient characteristics of LF is that it offers so many more ways to screw up. This is clearly an example of the notorious error number 23475.

Actually, my guess it is either #1 or #3

Jack Flesher
31-Mar-2007, 12:41
It almost looks like a strip of maybe baffling material from the holder (or maybe a piece of plastic or tape ???) came out of the holder and was laying at an angle off the film surface.

John Bartley
31-Mar-2007, 12:43
I've had something similar to this a couple of times. It turned out to be a spider thread inside the bellows of my 8x10. A dust off with compressed air followed by a wipe down with a damp rag on the inside of the bellows fixed it up. It stumped me also as the shadow line was never "quite" in the same place.

cheers

Bill_1856
31-Mar-2007, 12:52
There is no evidence of the "bar" in the sky above, or beach below, so I think that it is just a natural reflection.

Ole Tjugen
31-Mar-2007, 13:08
... This is clearly an example of the notorious error number 23475...

Looks more like no. 342 to me - light meter strap in front of the lens.

As to the OP's theories:

1: Doesn't look like that
2: Very unlikely, and even more unlikely to be diagonal.
3: See 2 above
4: "Reverse flare"? That would mean you have severe flare everywhere except in one line. I don't believe that's possible.
5: No, it would have been a full dark corner, not just a line.

jnantz
31-Mar-2007, 13:08
i've done that before ...
looks like the cable release :)

john

Scott --
31-Mar-2007, 13:08
Looks like something from The Omen. I always get creeped out when I have inexplicable dark slashes in my pictures... :eek:

Ole Tjugen
31-Mar-2007, 13:11
i've done that before ...
looks like the cable release :)

Cable release in no. 48, isn't it? I think you're right. :eek:

Bruce Watson
31-Mar-2007, 15:54
There is no evidence of the "bar" in the sky above, or beach below, so I think that it is just a natural reflection.

That's what I see also.

Glenn Thoreson
31-Mar-2007, 16:03
Cable release. :)

Sheldon N
31-Mar-2007, 20:45
Well, it's not dust/spiderwebs in the camera or a problem with the film holder, since I just checked both of those out.

On the original negative, I can see the area with a lack of density extend into the sky and down into the log on the shoreline, so it's not a natural reflection. I also have almost exactly the same shot taken a couple minutes earlier and it doesn't have the band.

I was standing on the left side of the camera and paying more attention to my lens shading than my cable release, so I'm going with the majority on this one.

Number 48 it is - Cable Release.

DOH! :)

Thanks for the help everyone!

roteague
31-Mar-2007, 21:04
We have all done the cable release thing, at one time or another.

D. Bryant
31-Mar-2007, 21:16
We have all done the cable release thing, at one time or another.

Oh yeah! At a lecture given by John Sexton a few years back, he admitted to making this error - more than once!

Don Bryant

Brian C. Miller
1-Apr-2007, 09:18
Yesterday I was shooting some architecture with my Graflex, and I had to be careful about holding filters in front of the lens. I'm hoping I didn't also photograph any of my fingers.

Kirk Gittings
1-Apr-2007, 09:59
a spider thread inside the bellows of my 8x10

As an aside.........the best way to kill spiders in you bellows is with a very sharp icepick.