First, thanks to all for their answers to yesterday's "Residual developer" quest ion. The darkening effect of hot water on that negative remains a mystery, but e veryone's input was helpful and with some experimentation, maybe I can track the source down.

Secondly, I have another basic question:

When I started LF photography 8 months ago, I used to unload exposed film by com pletely removing the slide from the holder, removing the film and then storing t he slide/holder seperately in dust free containers. About 3 months ago I started to only pull out the slide far enough to remove the film, and then re-seating t he slide to store the slide/holders together. Easier, quicker, more elegant (and obvious -- but such discoveries take a while for me). Fine. Except that I short ly afterwards discovered that I was devoloping light leaks, particularly on the corners of negatives, on the side where the slide was removed during exposure. T he only thing I can figure is that by storing empty holders with slides in place , the felt (I assume there's something like that) in the slot through which the slide moves is constantly in a compressed state except for the short time it tak es to remove the slide and expose the film -- it never has a chance to uncompres s and therefore stays compacted when the slide is out, causing light leaks. Is m y theory a reasonable possibility? What is the dominant practice of holder/slide storage? Would not completely removing the slide during exposure help? Is there any other reason why I should be getting fogging on that side? All thoughts wel come, as this has become a real issue for me, with many shots ruined.

Thanks,

-Michael