underexposed neg confusion

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ozziemandril

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Hi All,

I received back some processed photos today only to be very frustrated by the results. A lot of them have come out as grey, but are in fact, on the negative, black - IE the neg for the grey images is transparent; this presumably means that they are underexposed. Many of these photos were taken in rapid succession and there was no time for me to change any dials and i heard to shutter clunking during them. Does anyone have a bright idea as to what the problem could be? I would be most appreciative if you do.

Below is a link to a scan of the neg sheets. Thanks :)

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/803/scannedimageg.jpg/


N.B. the white dots on the grey are from the scanner bed and are not present on the print.
 
Last edited:
ozziemandril said:
Hi All,

I received back some processed photos today only to be very frustrated by the results. A lot of them have come out as grey, but are in fact, on the negative, black - IE the neg for the grey images is transparent; this presumably means that they are underexposed. Many of these photos were taken in rapid succession and there was no time for me to change any dials and i heard to shutter clunking during them. Does anyone have a bright idea as to what the problem could be? I would be most appreciative if you do.

Below is a link to a scan of the neg sheets. Thanks :)

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/803/scannedimageg.jpg/

N.B. the white dots on the grey are from the scanner bed and are not present on the print.
Click to expand...
 
Check your lens for a sticky aperture.

Hard to say without the exposure and light details :(
 
ozziemandril said:
Hi All,

A lot of them have come out as grey, but are in fact, on the negative, black - IE the neg for the grey images is transparent;
Click to expand...


:thinking:

so are the negs black or transparent ??

regardless...its not processing because you have a few decent exposures.
Its under or over exposure, the cause or likely causes could be debated more concisely if we knew what sort of camera you were using...:D
 
Hi, the negs are transparent. The funny thing is that some of the photos preceding and proceeding the transparent ones have come out fine. I'm using a nikon fe and, for most of those, a 28mm lens. Thanks!
 
I think you have to check for shutter curtain problems, transparent negs so numerous suggests not just under exposure but no exposure at all, I mean surely one of those frames was shot in good light, and if any light was reaching the film there ought to be at least something.
So no exposure = mirror stuck in the down position, or not syncing with the curtain, shutter curtain not cycling, you shooting a black cat in a coal shed @ f/22 1/1000th..at 2am......with the lens cap on.
There are other possibilities but they mostly still allow at least some light through.
 
After looking at them,i would adgree with the above,those frames have not been exposed,i would put it down to the shutter.

Open the back of your camera,and fire of a few shots and see if the shutter sticking :)
 
Hi, after about 50 shots the curtain and mirror have not stuck once. Any other ideas? This is an odd one i know...
 
I'm not familiar with the camera at all but could you have wound the film on too much so missing out those frames on the film, if there was a problem with the winder (never heard of this, just thinking of other possibilities).

There is an image on the frames 19, 20 and 25 (only just) so maybe the shutter is working but too fast for the shutter speed you have it set on, again i don't know if this is possible, would have though it would have gone the other way and be too slow rather than fast.
 
Would help if we knew what camera you are using. If you shoot another roll and the same thing happens then it's definitely a camera issue.

With a film camera there are only so many things that can cause exposure issues.
* Sticky shutter, which you say doesn't happen
* Shutter speeds not working at the speed they should, so say 1/100th actually firing at 1/25th
* The aperture in your lens is stuck at a particular f-stop, but if your camera has TTL metering then it would correct for that.
* If you are using in-camera metering it could be malfunctioning giving incorrect exposure, check against another camera to make sure.

Without knowing the camera model i can't really suggest any more potential problems.
 
jimmyb said:
I'm not familiar with the camera at all but could you have wound the film on too much so missing out those frames on the film, if there was a problem with the winder (never heard of this, just thinking of other possibilities).

QUOTE]

there aren't any frames on the film , so not that
Click to expand...
 
Heh fair enough i missed that. I actually picked up a Nikon FE last week so nice coincidence.
There's not a huge amount to go wrong with it and my points from the last post stand.
Since it's an FE the shutter speeds are most likely spot on, it's electronic so no problem, if the lens is fine then one more down.

If the meter is wrong (easy to test) then problem solved, i can't think of much else to go wrong that would give the results the OP described, it's being caused by gross overexposure, accidental double exposures from a broken double exposure switch under the film advance?
 
Morinaka said:
If the meter is wrong (easy to test) then problem solved, i can't think of much else to go wrong that would give the results the OP described, it's being caused by gross overexposure, accidental double exposures from a broken double exposure switch under the film advance?
Click to expand...

if you are talking about the op's pics i would had said underexposed ,in fact some of the frames that did come out are a fair bit underexposed
 
It's hard to tell from the crappy contact sheet, i just assumed they were black frames which is over exposure on negatives, but either way it's an exposure problem (whether under or over) and the list of causes for exposure errors are pretty small on a FE.
 
with black and white film , black frames on the negatives would be overexposed , but thats a contact sheet in the first post
 
i wonder how the op used the camera to get the exposure ?????? was he using it in ap mode or was it set manually ???
 
Hey, Just bought a Nikon FE from ebay and am having the exact same problem, just wondering if you found out what the problem could be? I've tried all of the above but still having issues, VERY frustrating.
 
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