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  #1  
Old 12th August 2021, 04:31 PM
eedia eedia is offline
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Default Why do my pictures look like this?

Hello everyone!
I'm new to film photography and lately I've been having a problem I don't know if it's the camera, the roll or (most likely!) something I'm doing wrong.

On my last roll of film the pictures look horrible. I've tried expired film before and these ones look like that but the difference is this roll was brand new! Also, I'm a novice with film photography but it was not my first time shooting film and this has never happened to me before so I don't understand what I did wrong this time???
I'm attaching the horrible ones and some of the pictures I've taken before so you believe me that I've made this camera work before lol

Sorry in advance for being dumb

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  #2  
Old 12th August 2021, 06:26 PM
Michael Michael is offline
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1. Did you process the film yourself?

2. Are these scans of prints or of negatives? If prints, did you print them or did a lab?

Without knowing that much, I don't think you'll get many answers on the Forum.
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Old 12th August 2021, 06:44 PM
eedia eedia is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Michael View Post
1. Did you process the film yourself?

2. Are these scans of prints or of negatives? If prints, did you print them or did a lab?

Without knowing that much, I don't think you'll get many answers on the Forum.
1. No, it was the lab. I've taken another roll to that lab before and they came out alright as well.

2. Scans of negatives.

The camera I used is a Zenit 12xp and roll Kodak Gold 200. Also the light conditions when I took those pictures were good.
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  #4  
Old 12th August 2021, 07:46 PM
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skellum skellum is offline
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You haven't done anything wrong here. Using a lab to develop and print your photos just puts you completely at their mercy in terms of finished quality. Many years ago there were lots of labs making millions of prints every year. Chemicals and paper were (usually) fresh and quality was good- if not, customer just went elsewhere.
Now there are far fewer labs, often printing digitally from scanned negatives. We do have a lab locally, which I won't use as the results are often miserable. There are still good places to send film, but unfortunately these days 'cheap' and 'good' are pretty much incompatible. If you get good prints from a reputable lab you'll be astonished at how good modern film is. At the top of the page you'll see one of our sponsors is Ag Photographic- it might be worth using their service for a film, to give you a comparison to whoever you're using now.
You'll also hear different opinions on this, but using expired colour film should always be looked on as a gamble. Mostly you'll be OK, but the older the film the greater the risk of poor results- typical odd colours.
Good luck with your next film.
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Old 12th August 2021, 08:45 PM
John King John King is offline
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Scanning the negatives will usually give the appearance of increased grain. The increased grain is usually worse as well if the resulting image is a little too dark. If you have prints can you scan these instead and post those to let us see the print.

If the negative was underexposed you will get increased grain and subdued colours which which No1 looks like
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  #6  
Old 13th August 2021, 10:38 AM
Nat Polton Nat Polton is offline
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I quite like the first photograph of the rocks in landscape format.
It reminds me of old forties and fifties seaside postcards.
A bit of nostalgia.
Nice.


As for professional processors, or not so professional as the case might be...

I was fitting some equipment in the back room of a chemists shop in the eighties when I overheard two assistants in the next room talking about the developing of a film.
One of them had screwed up the film processing.
The other lady knew immediately what the cause was. The chemical baths had been changed that morning and mixed up in the machine.
Then best of all was the discussion on what lies to tell the customer.
They settled on deciding to tell the customer that their camera was faulty and exposing incorrectly.

I had no idea who the customer was, but felt sorry for them as the camera would probably go in a drawer and never be trusted with film again, or simply dumped, plus their holiday snaps lost forever.

After that my colour films were never trusted to local chemists but sent to a big colour printing firm.
One bad apple spoilt things for all the rest.
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Old 13th August 2021, 07:13 PM
alexmuir alexmuir is online now
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The new film may not have been properly stored by the retailer. Heat and humidity can cause the emulsion to deteriorate rapidly. Before digital imaging came along, when film was the only option, retailers knew and cared about how to store film. Nowadays, unless you buy from people who know about film, there is a risk of poor handling. I agree with the comments about labs. You really need to identify and use a specialist. In the UK, our sponsors Ag Photographic are good, as are Peak Imaging and some others. Your camera should give good results. The Helios lenses are very good.
Alex


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Old 14th August 2021, 10:58 AM
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photomi7ch photomi7ch is offline
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The last picture in the set look as though it has light damage. I would check to see if the camera is light tight. It maybe why the colour is off.
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Old 14th August 2021, 11:44 AM
Terry S Terry S is online now
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Quote:
Originally Posted by photomi7ch View Post
The last picture in the set look as though it has light damage. I would check to see if the camera is light tight. It maybe why the colour is off.
And picture 3 of 4.

Terry S
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Old 14th August 2021, 03:43 PM
Mike O'Pray Mike O'Pray is offline
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There would certainly look to be a big difference between pic 3 ( the normal looking one) and pics 1, 2 and 4

If it was a lab film processing error I'd expect to see problems with all the frames and for the problems all to have a similar impact.

eedia, I think we need to ask you if you have the negs. If you have, do the actual negs from pics 1,2 and 4 look as if they have colour casts and a washed out look?

Ideally photo the negs digitally on a lightbox or on white paper against a window, This is probably the most faithful way of reproducing the negs for examination

If these are scans of reversed negatives to give positives then there is so much that can go wrong in the scanning that can lead the investigation up blind alleys

Mike
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