Large Format Woes

sirch

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The sun made a bit of an effort to break through the clouds this afternoon and not having anything on that couldn't wait I packed up the LF gear and lugged it up a hill to photograph a limestone pavement. Got some shots in reasonable light with the light meter more or less following the sunny 16 rule,. All we and good, lugged the gear back down the hill, unpacked and processed the 4 frames in the Stearman tank only to find all 4 frames are very over exposed and 2 look like they had light leaks. This was two double dark slides and I used two different lenses, all gear that has worked fine in the past. As far as I can remember I did everything that I normally do and there were no obvious cock-ups during the process.

So I'm really just having a moan, I'll check the camera and changing bag for light leaks this week but I'm not sure how to check DDS and lenses/shutters.
 
Load some film place dd in sun for about the time you took taking the pictures, develop film. Repeat but now insert in camera and remove darkslide etc
Bellows can be checked with a flash light in a dark room.
 
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:( You have good reason to moan, I would too!

I can't help re checking lenses / shutters and DDS for light entry issues but don't forget it could an error at any stage even prior to packing the kit ( loading the DDS for example)

There are so many things that can go t*ts up....I know as I usually succombe to most of them ( or so it seems!)

If it's any consolation, I shot 6 LF frames last week and only had two ( those that I posted on here) worthy of keeping.
Better than losing all of them like you have done but nonetheless …….

Slowly and surely is the only way forward in eliminating variables….Good luck!
 
Two points. I assume, although you don't I think state it, that the fogged sheets were in different DDSs? And I assume that the light meter was set to the correct film speed?
 
that the fogged sheets were in different DDSs?

It appears so….

This was two double dark slides


the light meter was set to the correct film speed?


the light meter more or less following the sunny 16 rule,.

Pretty straight forward metering if using sunny F/16 in good light
Possible serious human error calculating for a faster film than what one had loaded in the dds perhaps??
That said, overexposed is one thing, light leakage is quite another...
 
Thanks all, all four frames are well over exposed and I think the two that are fogged are from the the same DDS - it's a bit hard to guarantee that but highly likely. The meter has previously been on 400 ISO and was set to 100 today for the Delta 100 film but even if I forgot to change it they should be under not over.

I'll test the DDS as @soeren as suggested when I get chance.
 
I think the two that are fogged are from the the same DDS - it's a bit hard to guarantee that but highly likely.

Presumably you devd all four frames in the same soup??

Much as it involves the use of more developer and is more time consuming, I now try to dev each frame individually.

That change came about initially with 35mm, after I lost 3 full rolls of negs due to human error ...They were all in the same tank!

Not only does one risk losing all the frames if something goes wrong but also if there is something adrift, by deving each frame individually it can make finding the cause slightly easier.

Another way of knowing which neg relates to which DDS if of the same / similar scene and devd at the same time is to snip a corner when removing from DDS so one can distinguish which neg relates to whichever notes that were recorded

That's no consolation at this time Chris, I know, Sorry!
Maybe something to bear in mind in the future.
 
all 4 frames are very over exposed and 2 look like they had light leaks.
.
Sorry to hear this Chris. Asssuming you loaded the DDS with the film notches in a particular corner, can you tell from the light leaks which part of the DDS might be the problem?
 
Sorry to hear this Chris. Asssuming you loaded the DDS with the film notches in a particular corner, can you tell from the light leaks which part of the DDS might be the problem?
I might when I get them scanned but it looks to be fairly widespread

Was the lens definitely stopped down between viewing and exposing?
I'm pretty sure it was and it's unlikely I'd get it wrong on all the shots.
 
So here's the "best" of them and one that I thought was just over exposed, looks to me like the darkslide wasn't sealed into the back properly.

Farleton2-Pano.jpg
 
Worth asking about the aperture, just in case, although I agree it's unlikely that it would happen four times in a row.

In the photo, the dark band on the right is a shadow cast by light coming in from the side - I had traces of similar in the two test shots I did with the antique camera I'm working on. Interesting that it's on the right, which would be on the left in the camera, Which side do you pull the dark slide out? If you pull it out to the right, and if this happened in the camera, then it could be a leak on the left between the film holder and the camera body. If you pull it out to the left, it could also have come through the slit that the dark slide goes into.

You can check in a dark room with a torch. Lens board off, look through from the front and shine the torch around the edges of the film holder and slit. If nothing becomes apparent, it might happened during loading or unloading.

Either way, the shadow at the right indicates that the film was in the holder when it happened.
 
Good point about the dark band on the right. The back on the MPP rotates so the slide could be pulled out on either side but today I was using it on the left so that looks like a light leak around the slide or light got in while I was pulling the slide out. I do use one hand to hold the back against the body when pulling the slide out. I'll check it out with a torch.
 
Just thought I'd feed back on this in case it helps anyone else. I found a bit of time tonight to inspect the MPP Micro Tech and found the light leak. The back - ground glass and hood - comes off on the MPP, it's not something I remember taking off pretty much since I got it a year or more ago but I must have done because I had put it back on the wrong way round. Without looking closely it's hard to tell but one side has a groove that matches a ridge on the DDS, If the DDS is put in from the other side then the ridge on the DD causes a little gap!
 
Just thought I'd feed back on this in case it helps anyone else. I found a bit of time tonight to inspect the MPP Micro Tech and found the light leak. The back - ground glass and hood - comes off on the MPP, it's not something I remember taking off pretty much since I got it a year or more ago but I must have done because I had put it back on the wrong way round. Without looking closely it's hard to tell but one side has a groove that matches a ridge on the DDS, If the DDS is put in from the other side then the ridge on the DD causes a little gap!
Good detective work Chris, and a cheap resolution to the problem. ;)
 
Well done on tracking it down. :)

Yes, the little ridge and groove are quite important.
 
At least it was easy to fix, I was concerned that it could be something a lot more serious :)
 
Good news Chris….Quite a relief I suspect!
 
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