I've shot 1/2 of the roll of film. Now what?

[Steve M.]

I've been away from the nuts and bolts of photography for a spell while doing more traditional art stuff. Now I've forgotten basic photography things.

There's 12 frames out of my 24 that are exposed. I want to snip the film so it can be developed to confirm that the exposure are good on a camera I've never used before. I can take the camera into the bathroom where it's totally dark at night and snip the film and load it into the tank, but what then? Get the scissors out in the dark and try to cut a leader so the remaining film can be advanced into the camera? Or just assume I'll lose a few frames, and after the film's in the tank, turn on the lights and cut the leader then?

 

[wjlapier]

Go outside your house and find 12 things to take photos of. Then develop the test roll. Or develop the roll as is and move on.

 

[Siluro]

If I was in that situation I would:

- Open camera in dark
- Cut the film close to canister (~1cm)
- Remove exposed film and load into tank
- Turn on lights and cut a new leader into unexposed film

You will lose 2-3 frames, but if you're still testing things probably worthwhile.

 

[Ko.Fe.]

Pull out all film. Fold it to have it half and half. Cut where middle is.
One part will be exposed, then part still connected to cassette will be not exposed.
Roll it in and re use.
It will works for camera with regular film advance.
Some cameras will rewind whole film and wind it back to cassette with every exposure.
If so swap the halves🙂

 

[Steve M.]

Thanks. W/ the price of film these days, having half the roll left (thereabouts) means I can play with those exposures once I see how the first half went.

I did what Ko.Fe. and Siluro suggested and it went just fine. Funny, as soon as I went in the bathroom and turned out the lights w/ all the stuff laid out, it all came back to me. What also came back were memories of how difficult things can go if you fight the film's curl. A few times I had to stop and just take deep breaths because the more you try to push the film where it doesn't want to go, the more difficulty you have. Doing all this in the bathroom is SO much easier than doing it in a change bag.