Best part of film photography!

Fraser Euan White

Fraser Euan White

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Fraser White
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I still get ever so excited at this part of the image capture - I just love seeing the images 'come off the spiral' and know I haven't poured the wrong chemicals in!


Charlie Negatives by Fraser Euan White on Talk Photography

This was going to be my Natural light portrait entry for this months FPOTY but thought I had run out of time!
 
It's the best part when it goes right and the worst part when it goes wrong. Too many of mine have gone wrong recently.

Yesterday I processed two rolls in C41 chemicals. One roll was OK (but rubbish once scanned) and the other roll was, er, E6, and errrr, completely unexposed. I had picked up the wrong roll from the fridge.
 
Kevin Allan said:
It's the best part when it goes right and the worst part when it goes wrong. Too many of mine have gone wrong recently.

Yesterday I processed two rolls in C41 chemicals. One roll was OK (but rubbish once scanned) and the other roll was, er, E6, and errrr, completely unexposed. I had picked up the wrong roll from the fridge.
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:eek: :banghead: I managed to process an unexposed b&w film recently as I don't have a serious methodology for identifying exposed films which I've rewound with the leader still out of the cassette. My AF cameras rewind fully, but that's a pest for home processing.
 
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C41 off the spiral is good, B&W neg off the spiral is good also, but for me E6 coming out of the tank, looking like a little row of stained glass windows* is definitely THE BEST :)


* okay, cut sheet film is even cooler in it's way - and I'm sure that wet plate is cooler than a penguins chuff, but there's a certain magic from 120 and 135 on the roll...
 
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Peter B said:
:eek: :banghead: I managed to process an unexposed b&w film recently as I don't have a serious methodology for identifying exposed films which I've rewound with the leader still out of the cassette. My AF cameras rewind fully, but that's a pest for home processing.
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I rewind and leave the leader out. My solution is to fold over the tip of the film leader so that I can see that it has been used. If I have a marker pen handy I might also make a note on there of the camera used and whether it has been pushed.
 
For me, the magic moment of self D&P was watching a print emerge from the pink as the dev did its magic under a safelight. Seeing a print creeping from the output slot of an inkjet is still a bit magic; one going back and forth in a dyesub as each layer of colour is added is a bit more so but neither really comes close to a wet print.



Peter B said:
My AF cameras rewind fully, but that's a pest for home processing.
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IIRC (been a while since I used the F80) my AF body can be set to leave the leader sticking out or be fully rewound...

mdjchat said:
I rewind and leave the leader out. My solution is to fold over the tip of the film leader so that I can see that it has been used. If I have a marker pen handy I might also make a note on there of the camera used and whether it has been pushed.
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...which means I can do the same as Mathew.
 
mdjchat said:
I rewind and leave the leader out. My solution is to fold over the tip of the film leader so that I can see that it has been used. If I have a marker pen handy I might also make a note on there of the camera used and whether it has been pushed.
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FujiLove said:
Mine do too, but I use one of these film pickers: https://www.ilfordphoto.com/ap-35mm-film-picker-retriever
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Nod said:
IIRC (been a while since I used the F80) my AF body can be set to leave the leader sticking out or be fully rewound...
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I can confirm that FP4+ will tear across quite readily if you bite through one of the sprocket holes at the start, so that pretty much now works for me. :cool:
 
Peter B said:
:eek: :banghead: I managed to process an unexposed b&w film recently as I don't have a serious methodology for identifying exposed films which I've rewound with the leader still out of the cassette. My AF cameras rewind fully, but that's a pest for home processing.
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With manual rewind, once the film is out of the camera I wind the film further in until there's only half an inch or so left out, fold that round tightly and and put back in the pot. That has a 98% success rate so far! :)

I think my only AF Pentax (now sold) had a slight pause when the film came off the right hand spool, before continuing to wind in. If you popped the back at that moment the leader would stay out. The mju II seems to go all the way in (but it does show a countdown on the back of the camera, so you might be able to try the same trick... I only use colour film in that camera, and get it lab-processed so I don't worry).
 
Peter B said:
My AF cameras rewind fully, but that's a pest for home processing.
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Ahhh, Canon EOS-3 and 1n, custom setting 2, set to 1. Leader out. Then, crease the end of the leader and drop it in the film canister.

Back when I was shooting on the cruise liner though, rattling through upto 20 rolls off 35mm per sitting, 2 sittings a night, it was basically 2 lowepro "pockets" on my belt, left was fresh film, right was exposed. Take a roll out, load one of the cameras, shoot, when it ran out use the other body until you finished that table, then reload the camera that'd rewound by then, and dump the roll straight into the right hand pocket. My co-photographer would be running between the dining room and the camera-shop/photo-lab, taking exposed film and bringing fresh, and loading a couple of reels into the mini-lab so that we had a head start on processing. To say it was somewhat fraught is a bit of an understatement. We HAD to have the shots dev'ed, printed, decollated (cut up off the reel) and onto the photo easels by the end of the evening shows, so that punters could come and browse their shots and take the ones they want (charged to the cabin) the same night if they so wished. Most people ended up coming in the following morning, either before or after breakfast, but we were contracted to have the shots up in the evening - as people with a good meal and a few drinks tended to "spend" more...

I have to say, compared to working on film, shooting digital and using touchscreen displays and print on demand would be a doddle in comparison - just the "waste factor" of all the pictures taken, printed, and never even looked at by some of the persons on the cruise was ridiculous...
 
If the film leader is completely rewind, I have a bottle top remover which does the job no problem and costs much less than a tool marketed for that job. There's a slight advantage over pulling the film out by the leader as it's one less opportunity for scratching the film.

If I do want to get the film out for some reason, then a moistened piece of 35mm film, stuck through the light trap and wiggled about, will draw the film out easily. (Moisten with water, not with your tongue). I use a similar method if I drop a sheet of darkroom paper in the vertical slots of my Nova processor - the next sheet of paper can be used to draw out the stuck piece.
 
I must be honest, for normal home-processing I usually just stick my thumb in the back of the film-slot and pull the canister apart inside the changing bag if I've wound the film too far on a manual wind camera - there's a knack to it, but I simply CBA using the normal "tricks" to get the leader - if it's wound back, i'm going to be processing it anyway, so I don't need the canister to be in good shape...
 
While I do very much enjoy seeing the images appear on sheets, for me personally, the part I enjoy the most is being somewhere amazing and taking it all in, coupled with the (rare) feeling of finally firing the shutter knowing that I'm going to be happy with that frame and that all the wait was worth it. I guess I just enjoy being outside more than I enjoy being inside.
 
Kevin Allan said:
If the film leader is completely rewind, I have a bottle top remover which does the job no problem and costs much less than a tool marketed for that job. There's a slight advantage over pulling the film out by the leader as it's one less opportunity for scratching the film.

If I do want to get the film out for some reason, then a moistened piece of 35mm film, stuck through the light trap and wiggled about, will draw the film out easily. (Moisten with water, not with your tongue). I use a similar method if I drop a sheet of darkroom paper in the vertical slots of my Nova processor - the next sheet of paper can be used to draw out the stuck piece.
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I do exactly this! Works well :)
 
Woodsy said:
While I do very much enjoy seeing the images appear on sheets, for me personally, the part I enjoy the most is being somewhere amazing and taking it all in, coupled with the (rare) feeling of finally firing the shutter knowing that I'm going to be happy with that frame and that all the wait was worth it. I guess I just enjoy being outside more than I enjoy being inside.
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I think that part of it is my outright favourite part of photography, but it's not an exclusively film thing... I feel that if i'm shooting film or digital - but for something that IS exclusively film, then it's definitely seeing finished pictures emerge out of the soup...
 
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For me, it's seeing the negatives when I hang them up to dry, as I then know I succeeded, and the rest is simple.
 
Nod said:
For me, the magic moment of self D&P was watching a print emerge from the pink as the dev did its magic under a safelight.
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This. Nothing else in the entire world of photography has ever come close to the feeling I get when I see the print developing in the tray. Sepia toning is also another rather magical experience, watching the print you just made slowly fade in the bleach and then go brown in the toner.

Seeing the negs looking good is a somewhat reassuring feeling that you've done everything right.
 
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