Ask Ken:
Your source for expert advice.
Ken, My film is BLANK! What went wrong?
PROBLEM # 3: Nothing on the roll?
The lab calls and says there is nothing on your film. Not even a little. Its BLANK.
Well, we can't save this one, but if we find out what went wrong, maybe we can prevent it from happening again.
Even if your film is blank, don't throw it away until you have a chance to look it.
Here are three blank rolls. Let's see what went wrong.
There are no images on the film but the frame numbers and the bar code are clearly visible. Since the numbers are "printed" on the film by light...that tells us that the film was okay and that the processing was okay. If it wasn't the numbers wouldn't be there or would be very faint. What happened? Two most common causes: the film was sent to the lab without ever being loaded in a camera (happens to everybody sooner or later), or the film didn't catch on the take-up spool when it was loaded.
This middle blank roll is BLACK. The only explanation is that the film was completely exposed to light. Either someone pulled the film out of the canister(small children are frequently the quilty party), or a light was turned on in the darkroom during processing. Rare but it has been known to happen. Its okay for the end of your roll of negatives to be black; that's because it was sticking out of the canister to begin with.
In the bottom roll not even the frame numbers appear: this roll of film was mis-processed by the lab. It could have been processed in completely dead developer, or put in the bleach/fix before it was put in the developer(supposed to go in the developer first).
It's okay that the film has an orange cast to it. Color film is supposed to look like that.
Two keys to preventing this are
to handle, load and unload film with care, and to use a good lab(you knew
I was going to say that didn't you?).
Till next time.
KEN
Have a problem you would like to see addressed in this column? Send me an email at kencasey@caseycolor.com
