The double exposure that isn't

Carl Hall

Carl Hall

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A friend of mine has decided to try out film photography, so bought a Lubitel 2 to test the water. We went out for an afternoon so that he could try the camera out, and he's just got the results back from Filmdev. Weirdly, a lot of the photos seem to have this double exposure style effect, even though it was just a single exposure.

I'm wondering if anyone can help figure this out? About half the photos have this effect, but they're not all sequential on the roll. It can't be camera movement as there is no blurring, it's two distinct outlines like it's two photos. Taken at a variety of apertures and shutter speeds which we don't know, and the film was Portra 400. The film won't be back for a while so we can't compare to the negs yet.

Any ideas? The only thing I can think of is a scanning issue unless the Lubitel is doing something really odd.

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If it isn't, the imitation is perfect! :)
 
I would go with shutter bounce. That is when the shutter opens, closes and then the momentum in the shutter blades causes the shutter to reopen briefly. The double image is because the camera has moved slightly between the exposure proper and the bounce exposure.
 
Which is the correct exposure though ?

You would have thought, assuming the correct exposure was chosen, that at least one of the 2 captures would be correct and the other could be anything.
The best one looks to be where they converge, that puts both exposures, under.
Course, that could just mean the exposure was poorly chosen and the bounce was roughly equal.
I'm not convinced its shutter bounce, I'm going with scan trouble (without seeing the neg) or a borked lens arrangement....:)
 
..........orrrr......

they really are double exposures, errors bracketing, its not easy to go from a pas to fannying about with focus, altering the app and shutter speed, its easy to forget to wind on...:cautious:
 
joxby said:
...I'm not convinced its shutter bounce
Click to expand...

Me Neither.

To me it looks like the two shadows cast by a single object from two separate light sources. Did a flash fire? If so, that could be what's created the second shadow?
 
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I had an issue similar to this with one my old medium format cameras a while ago, and it was a shutter issue. The end effect was a second image on the same negative looking a little like the above. I am not sure if I kept the scans though, so this would be my best guess.
 
Woodsy said:
Me Neither.

To me it looks like the two shadows cast by a single object from two separate light sources. Did a flash fire? If so, that could be what's created the second shadow?
Click to expand...
Pretty sure those are not shadows.
 
Although it's hard to tell going by only that one image, I had a similar issue when using my Orion Werk 1920 folder... although I haven't shot it for a while I am guessing it happened when the shutter was left open briefly(user error probably), and it took one image with a ghosting of another when it was set correctly to take the image. Hard to explain, but I could probably replicate it if I tried again. I may have more like it, but this is the only one I could find.

38579470195_87f0d2b6e6_b.jpg
 
StephenM said:
Until we can view the negatives, this is my best guess - and it is a guess!

https://www.photo.net/discuss/threads/rolleicord-shutter-bounce-problems.481385/
Click to expand...

john.margetts said:
I would go with shutter bounce. That is when the shutter opens, closes and then the momentum in the shutter blades causes the shutter to reopen briefly. The double image is because the camera has moved slightly between the exposure proper and the bounce exposure.
Click to expand...

I wondered if the lens might bounce open again after it shut, but I'd never heard of it happening and Google didn't come up with much, so I figured it was a silly idea and must be something else! I'm not sure if this would explain it though as both of the ghost images are exposed almost the same, and it's the same with every other DE photo on the roll I think. Can't imagine that the shutter always bounces the exact same amount that the shutter was open for each time?

joxby said:
Which is the correct exposure though ?

You would have thought, assuming the correct exposure was chosen, that at least one of the 2 captures would be correct and the other could be anything.
The best one looks to be where they converge, that puts both exposures, under.
Course, that could just mean the exposure was poorly chosen and the bounce was roughly equal.
I'm not convinced its shutter bounce, I'm going with scan trouble (without seeing the neg) or a borked lens arrangement....:)
Click to expand...

That's what I'm thinking but we'll have to wait until the negs come back to find out I guess!

joxby said:
..........orrrr......

they really are double exposures, errors bracketing, its not easy to go from a pas to fannying about with focus, altering the app and shutter speed, its easy to forget to wind on...:cautious:
Click to expand...

I'm pretty certain they aren't double exposures, especially as there are 4 or 5 of them on the roll. It was his first ever roll of film so he was extra careful and I was helping him most of the time.
Woodsy said:
Me Neither.

To me it looks like the two shadows cast by a single object from two separate light sources. Did a flash fire? If so, that could be what's created the second shadow?
Click to expand...

Nope, no flash or external lighting. They were all taken in overcast natural outdoor light by the coast.
Nguss said:
I had an issue similar to this with one my old medium format cameras a while ago, and it was a shutter issue. The end effect was a second image on the same negative looking a little like the above. I am not sure if I kept the scans though, so this would be my best guess.
Click to expand...

Hmm this sounds interesting, maybe it's just some random issue with that camera that we'll never get to the bottom of!

ChrisR said:
Well, whatever it is, I like it!
Click to expand...

Yep, he likes them too! He's putting them all on Instagram so he's happy that some of them look quite arty :D
 
You didn't by any chance take those photos on your way home from your works Christmas party did you, Carl? If so, they might be an accurate representation of what you were seeing at the time. :D ;)

Teasing aside, I think it could be shutter bounce, or unintentional double exposure as it's easy to forget to wind on when using a roll film camera which has no double exposure prevention interlock winding system... or, as a long shot, if the double exposed subjects are different in some of the photos then check the camera shutter isn't opening momentarily sometimes when the shutter priming lever is operated (this last possibility should be easy to see with the back of the camera open [with no film loaded!] and looking through it when cocking the shutter lever, then firing the shutter and repeating this a few times at the different shutter speeds you were using on the day the fault occurred).
 
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