Strange looking skies in my shots. What caused this?

FishyFish

FishyFish

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Nige
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I shot a roll of 2013 expired Tmax 100 recently and some of the shots have an unusual appearance in low contrast areas (predominantly skies). As the effect lessens through the roll (it's pretty much gone by frame five), I'm assuming possibly that heat damage has affected the outermost part of the film (the first frames) more than the innermost part? I also wondered if it was a light-leak of some sort (the Sun was pretty bright) but there are no signs of the effect on some frames (or on any frames of another roll I shot a few days previously in similar light).

Any ideas?

There's always a risk when shooting expired film, and as far as signs of deterioration go, this one's not too bad (I quite like the effect), but I think I'll avoid shooting low-contrast scenes with the remaining roll of it I have.

Shot with my Zeiss Mess-Ikonta 524/16.


FILM - Trees with strange skies by fishyfish_arcade, on Flickr


FILM - Trees with strange skies-2 by fishyfish_arcade, on Flickr
 
FishyFish said:
There's always a risk when shooting expired film…
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Right…
and as the photosensitive compounds have a "better
before" date, results are quite unreliable after that!
 
Woodsy said:
Did you develop this yourself? If so, what developer, concentration and agitation did you opt for?
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No, it was done at Peak Imaging (they'll have used Xtol, but I don't know what concentrations etc.). They obviously know their stuff too, so I'd be surprised if it were a processing issue. As I say, the effect is only present on the first few frames though - the later frames are fine.
 
Ahh, ok, yes I would tend to agree regarding their developing.

I only ask because I've had issues which look very similar to this before with brand new fresh stock sheet film from the middle of the pack. Because of its age etc, I assumed it was a developing issue, as muggins here developed my troublesome frames.
 
Can you see it on the negs? Could it be a light leak? Feel free to bring it in next time you're nearby by all means and I'll try and work out what's going on.
 
RumpFace said:
Can you see it on the negs? Could it be a light leak? Feel free to bring it in next time you're nearby by all means and I'll try and work out what's going on.
Click to expand...

Yeah, looks like it's on the negs (well, from looking at them using an iPad as a lightbox anyway) - the first few, at least. There's no sign of a similar effect on the other roll you processed for me (which was in-date Fomapan 400). Those were shot on a different day, albeit in similar light. It could possibly be a light leak I suppose, albeit one that perhaps only presents itself under certain conditions.

I've looked back through the other rolls shot with the same camera too and can't see the effect in any of those - there's some vignetting from time to time, but not the cloudy blotchy effect seen in the shots above.

If I think on, I'll drop the negs in next time I'm in, if you have time to take a peek. Cheers. :)
 
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