How to Solve Common Exposure Problems

In film photography, there may be nothing more disappointing than shooting an entire roll of film, spending the time to develop it, and then realizing that the images didn’t turn out as expected. Here are a few common exposure problems and some tips to resolve them for the next shoot.

Negative is too light overall, resulting in a print too dark

When film negatives are too light, it likely means it was underexposed. The film speed may have been set too high, shutter speed was too fast, the aperture was too small, or possibly all of the above. It is also possible that the film received less development than necessary in the darkroom. The best way to avoid this problem in the future is to carefully review your film speed and ensure all camera controls are properly set. If rolls of film are frequently underexposed your light meter may also be inaccurate.

Negative is too dark overall, resulting in a print too light

When film negatives are too dark, it likely means it was overexposed. Film speed may have been set too low, shutter speed too slow, or the aperture too wide, or maybe all of the above. It is also possible that the film received too much development time. Again, the best way to avoid this problem is to carefully review all camera settings, including film speed, shutter speed, and aperture. If entire rolls of film are commonly overexposed your light meter may also be inaccurate.

Bright scene is too dark

Common with winter photography or when a scene is too bright overall, the light meter will average all tones for an average mid-gray tone. The problem is that this will turn any bright scene darker. To compensate for this, open the aperture one or two f-stops to overexpose the scene. Learn more about exposing in snow and bright scenes in winter photography tips and techniques.

Subject is too dark against a lighter background

If the subject is backlit by a light source, your light meter may be overly influenced by the background and underexpose the subject. To correct this, move the light meter closure to the subject, measure, set your shutter speed and aperture, then step back into position to take the photograph. Learn more about photographing backlit subjects in exposing for backlighting.

No picture is present but film frame numbers appear

If the entire roll is blank but the film frame numbers are visible then it likely did not catch on the film advance reel. If just a few frames are blank then the lens cap may have been on or the shutter may have failed to open. To ensure that the film is advancing, check that the rewind lever rotates when you advance the film or the frame counter advances. You can also check shutter functionality by opening the back of the camera and pressing the shutter release

No picture is present and no film frame numbers appear

If no frame numbers appear, there was a problem during the film development or it was not developed at all. It is also possible that the film was exposed to light prior to being developed. Review film processing to make sure the necessary steps were completed.

Double or multiple exposures

If images on the negative overlap over the entire roll, you may have accidentally put the same roll of film through the camera. To avoid this, simply be sure to mark film that has been exposed. If images overlap on just one or a few frames, the film did not advance properly. There is a slight possibility that this results from the photographer failing to advance the film a full frame between exposures. But if it commonly happens have the film advance mechanisms checked.

I hope this will help you understand and to get the best out of your Retro Camera

Developing your film

Developing a film is one if the biggest parts to film photography. The age we live in has lots of different ways to get your shoots to kthe printing stage. Most large supermarkets still process film and give you different options on what media you to have your images i.e. Prints, On CD or just your negatives developed.

Another option is to hire a darkroom. There are a few round the country, i would say they are not cheap but it will let you understand the full film developing process and also the photo process. It’s great fun to do and nice to see the out come, as we may take it for granted these day with printers etc. click here to find one near you.

The final way is the DIY/ do it at home. You can develop your film at home with a few bits of kit. The kits can be got from online shops like eBay and Amazon. The price ranges from £30 – £75, which is not to bad and won’t break the bank. There are a few things that you would need to sort out before you go out and spend some money on one of these kits.

1.  A place you can great a fully blacked out room, no light at all is allowed when processing film.
2. Running water is needed during the processing, so a good supply is needed like a kitchen or bathroom.
3. Take care, you will be working with different chemicals so gloves and goggles would be a good idea to protect your hands and eyes. Also a apron and old towels which can be placed in the bin afterwards.
4. A bath thermometer. There are thermometers designed specifically for photo labs, but you can use a thermometer for a baby’s bath, that will work as well.

The kit you buy will have step by step instructions, but if you would like to read more about this try this good websites step by step – Click Here or try this one Click Here

Scanning Negatives

Everyday flatbed scanners don’t work to scan slides and negatives because they need to be backlit — here are some ways to scan in your negatives without paying someone to do it.

Solution 1

If you have old negatives or slides that you want to preserve digitally, you probably know that just throwing them on your flatbed scanner won’t work. You need a bright light source that comes from behind the negative and the multi-function printer/scanner you use to print coupons is seriously lacking in that department. However, a new tutorial from Craft Magazine shows you how you can hack up a bit of silver cardboard, and get you film negatives onto your computer. – Continue Reading

Solution 2

It’s really important to make sure your negatives and your scanner are both clean, as tiny hairs and dust will show up quite easily using this technique. Also be prepared to experiment with the amount of paper you use and the brightness of the lamp, as you may have to change these depending on the original exposure quality on your negative.

Step One
Place your nicely cleaned negative (face down) onto your nicely cleaned scanner.

Step Two
Place your paper on top of your negative, I suggest starting off with trying 5 sheets of paper and adjust the amount accordingly. Obviously less paper lets in more light (you may want to try going down to a minimum of 2 sheets of paper if you have a particularly dark negative to scan)

Step Three
Place your lamp onto or over the paper (make sure you don’t have your bulb touching the paper – You don’t want to start a fire!!!) I suggest the lamp is about 30 to 40cm away from the paper; you can obviously experiment with the distance to get the best results. I also had my lamp on the first (dimmest) dimmer setting.

Step Four
Scan your results in, changing the amount of paper or brightness of the bulb to get the best result.

Step Five
When you are happy with your results, I suggest scanning them in at the highest dpi setting your scanner will do! Enjoy!

Solution 3

All you need is a way to turn a large portion of the screen entirely white (e.g. a “flashlight” app). Simply place the device facedown over the film on the scanner, and scan it with the cover open.

If you’re scanning negative film, you’ll need to invert the resulting scan: – Continue Reading

Solution 4

The basics are quite simple: you take a photo of a negative into a light source and invert. – Continue Reading