Darkroom Funnies

[ornate_wrasse]

I thought I'd share my darkroom experience where I almost ruined two rolls of 120 film, but recovered nicely to get good results in the end. It was an excellent learning experience, in other words, it taught me what NOT to do.

I had two 120 rolls of Fuji Neopan 400 film to develop. I carefully got my tank ready and the two plastic reels, and the film of course, and set them up in the changing room. I closed the door, turned out the light and began to load the film. That's when I realized that the reels were for 35mm film. Duh! I put the film in a safe spot away from light and exanded the reels so they would hold 120 size film. After the now expanded reels were ready, I loaded the reels with my film. Then I discovered that the tank was too small to hold the two rolls of 120 film! It's interesting that the tank was the correct size for the two reels when I brought them into the changing room, but became much too small after I'd converted the reels to hold 120 film! I realized that I needed to do something or else the film wasn't going to be developed. I asked my instructor, while I was still in the changing room, for advice on what to do. I ended up taking both rolls of film off of the reels and put them into the tank, and put on the top so there would be no light leaks. Then my instructor got his Super Size tank (needs 40 oz of developer and holds two 120 sized reels) out of the cabinet and gave it to me. At that point, I loaded the film on the reels and put them into the larger tank. Voila! The rest of the development process went smoothly, thank goodness 😀

Has anyone else had an experience like this?

Ellen

 

[ChrisN]

My lessons have come at a slightly higher cost - usually as a result of not reading exactly how much developer was required in the tank, resulting in a band of under-developed negative at the edge of the film.

My silliest mistake so far was to put the fixer in before the developer - that one was a total loss with no survivors! Haven't done that one again!

 

[capitalK]

Just yesterday I loaded a roll of 120 in my daylight tank in my change bag. Later, when I did my first inversion I head a rattle which could only mean the 120 spool had made its way into the tank. No adverse effect but it took me a second to figure it out.

 

[SolaresLarrave]

The first roll of film I developed was a smooth, nice experience.

The second?

I started spooling the film into the reel in the house back porche, using a black changing bag. My wife made a comment: I looked weird, she said. That was because I pushed the film into the reel a bit too hard, and suddenly it bent. Then the reel (the plastic type that turns and drags the film inside the threads), got stuck. I had to get up with my hands in the changing bag, go the basement (where I usually do these operations), figure out how to get the portion of the roll off the reel and back into the canister (I may have pulled out some 20+ frames), and then see what had happened with the plastic reel.

I managed to do as I wanted, and then set out to spool the film into the reel. It all went well... until I saw the results: the film was bent in several spots. The photos I liked the best were damaged, forget about photoshopping, the emulsion was scratched or cracked by my clumsy handling... It didn't look good.

After that, I've always done my developing in the basement, alone. No, it's not my wife's fault, it's simply that there's a place for everything, and the porche is not the place to spool film out of a canister and into a plastic reel, no matter the black bag. Lesson learned! 🙂

 

[t.s.k.]

When loading your reels, you're in a light-tight room or have your hands in a changing bag. You obviously can't see what your hands are doing. Why is it then that I always have my eyes closed during the procedure? Hmmm?

Another thing I've wondered is what my face looks while loading? I'm pretty sure I make funny faces (I use SS tanks and reels) but I'm reluctant to video tape it. Could be a good laugh.

 

[shyoon]

My silliest mistake so far was to put the fixer in before the developer - that one was a total loss with no survivors! Haven't done that one again!

Hear hear!

Did this a few months ago - I'm still traumatised from the experience.

 

[Keith]

When loading your reels, you're in a light-tight room or have your hands in a changing bag. You obviously can't see what your hands are doing. Why is it then that I always have my eyes closed during the procedure? Hmmm?

Another thing I've wondered is what my face looks while loading? I'm pretty sure I make funny faces (I use SS tanks and reels) but I'm reluctant to video tape it. Could be a good laugh.

I've always wondered why human beings close their eyes when kissing ... perhaps it's the same reason ... whatever that may be! 😀

 

[capitalK]

Also yesterday, while printing, I opened the aperture wide-open on the enlarger lens to check composition/focus... and forgot to stop it back down. Result... Black paper. I never realize until it jumps in the pool and turns almost immediately.

I do this at least once every 3 visits to the darkroom 😛

 

[Alpacaman]

When I load 120 film onto the reel, I keep on dropping them onto the floor. One time I couldn't find it on the floor, and I eventually had to give up and turn the lights on....

 

[ornate_wrasse]

When I load 120 film onto the reel, I keep on dropping them onto the floor. One time I couldn't find it on the floor, and I eventually had to give up and turn the lights on....

Same thing happened to me! :bang:

The reel had fallen to the floor in a spot I could not reach even when sweeping the floor with my hands Now I always make sure the reel is close at hand and there is no way it can fall on the floor.

 

[ChrisN]

I've always wondered why human beings close their eyes when kissing ... perhaps it's the same reason ... whatever that may be! 😀

Plausible deniability. 😀

 

[pevelg]

Worst thing I've seen happened to two of my fellow students. To conserve chemicals, they worked together. 3 rolls from student A, 1 roll from student B, all 4 rolls in one tank. As student A turns away, student B pours in fixer first. The end.

We are in the dark room, I am developing a print. Same student B takes out film holder with enlarger bulb on, flooding the room with light. Luckily my paper was just put into the fixer.

I always forget to close down my aperture when printing.

I also sometimes forget to flip the dichromatic enlargers switch to print, enabling contrast control.

EDIT: Oh, and lets not forget printing to the wrong side of the paper!!! :bang:

 

[Sparrow]

i thought I'd learned all the lessons over the years .... then my mobile phone rang in a shirt pocket, and i discovered i hadn't

 

[sreed2006]

My hands sweat inside a small changing bag. I decided to fix that by using surgery-type gloves, so that the film and equipment would remain dry and uncontaminated from sweat. So, with gloves on, and everything in the bag, I quickly discovered that not only could I not see what I was doing, but I couldn't feel all that well either. Double blind!

That was a very frustrating disaster. I wound up mangling the film. That was last month.

 

[SolaresLarrave]

Pouring the chemicals in the wrong order was something I prevented from day one by putting them in front of my work surface in the order they will be used. So, I go to the basement, clean the sink, measure water temperature, make developer and fixer for the session (just what I need, by diluting concentrated chemicals like T-Max), and then pour them in bottles and put them in this order: developer, stop bath, fixer, HCS bath, Photoflo.

I've also have prevented brain farts by writing the times for each chemical on the bottles, in big letters, and covered with transparent packaging tape. Except, of course, for developer (times vary according to the film I'm working on). I don't want to draw a blank and wonder suddenly "How long do I have to use the stop bath?"

In this business, it's better to assume one's dumber than dumb. Because, alas, one may be right about it.

Knocking on wood! 🙂

 

[swoop]

I had two mishaps in college during advanced photography.

1) Once I was developing film and left the room to look up dev times and came back to it. I did everything right. But apparently another student and I had switched our tanks. I developed his film and he developed mine and both were ruined as they were two different brands and ISO's.

2) Another time I was extremely exhausted and when I went to pour developer into the tank, I ended up unscrewing the top to pour it in as if it were a jar or something. Once I saw my film there I quickly realized what the hell I was doing and closed it up quick. The top roll of film was a bit fogged on the edges and the bottom roll was fine.

Other than that all my experiences in the darkroom have been pleasant ones.

 

[Steve_F]

I've always wondered why human beings close their eyes when kissing ... perhaps it's the same reason ... whatever that may be! 😀

Maybe its that we still desire a 'spiral in each hand to rotate back and forth' 😀

My experience is that I no longer load 120 film onto Paterson spirals in a changing bag as my arms warm up too much and the film turns to fly paper. Just skids and buckles it way on to the spiral. (I'm certain the neighbours heard a long drawn out "B*st*rd").Don't know what my face looks like but I can feel the beads of sweat forming on my brow.

On the plus side has anybody seen this 20 min short film on Robin Bell - Master Printer?

http://vimeo.com/13659991

Steve.

 

[John Robertson]

years ago, in old flat in London, switched on the light to examine a print in white light, noticed I was being watched intently by a lovely little mouse, gave him something to eat and let him go before the cat got him.

 

[lorriman]

My first roll of 12 frames from bulk rolling I attached using parcel tape on to the spool. That was a mistake. It didn't hold and I ended up having to open the camera in the changing bag.

Unfortunately in the hope I actually had a few frames left (which I didn't) I had taken a few more shots. Somehow this meant that the last part of the film wrapped around the sprocketed feeder and I just could not get it off. It had my most valuable shots on it so I tried and tried. I had a cotton changing bag so I didn't sweat up (in fact it has saved me several times now: godsend to a beginner). See my excellent write up on Roger Luo handmade changing bags which no one is ever going to otherwise ever read. The force I was using was making me nervous. Eventually I fed a pair of sissors in via the arm hole (under a pile of blankets since they aren't light tight without an arm) and cut through the film saving the less valuable first 8 frames. After that I wept like a man and buried those last few frames with full military honours.

At least I didn't break the camera: I would have cried like a baby.

 

[Spavinaw]

When loading film, I think I close my eyes to help me concentrate on what I am doing. The reel in my first tank had a hook and loaded from the inside out. I experimented with pushing the film in a few times and quickly found it was a losing proposition. Haven't tried it again in decades!