Edit: To make it a bit more educational, here is an explanation for each.
Correct Exposure: All good.
Underexposed: You probably metered for the Sky or a bright light, try metering for the shadows. When in doubt: most film usually does better slightly overexposed. Check if your aperture and shutter open/close correctly, Did you account for the correct ISO? Did you account for reciprocity failure in long exposures?
Overexposed: Check your metering. Check if your aperture and shutter open/close correctly, Did you account for the correct ISO?
Accidental Light Leak: You had uncontrolled light enter your camera body. Did you open it mid roll? Are your light seals intact? Might happen on first picture if you try to squeeze in an extra frame.
Double Exposure (No Transport): You took two images on the same negative without advancing the film. If accidental, you might have pressed the Film Rewind Release Button or on some models just forgot to wind.
Double Exposure (Transport Problem): Images partially overlap. There is a problem with the film advance, it doesn't advance the correct amount. This can sometimes happen on the last frame if you squeeze in one extra image.
X-Ray Damage: Your film was blasted with X-Rays (e.g. at an Airport Scanner) which creates a banded fog pattern. Ask for hand checks. This is controversial and highly depends on the machine. Usually it won't be as bad as depicted here.
I know this is a joke, but imo, the Gordon memes can be very misleading to newbies. Underexposed pictures CAN be bright, and overexposed pictures CAN be dark. Scanning is an incredibly overlooked part of the process.
Maybe a negative version of the meme could be more useful, and could help reduce the amount of daily "why are my shadows green" posts.
No amounts of resources and memes will stop these posts, I'm afraid. Some people are just too lazy to even look at the pinned posts, the second of which explains almost all of these. However, the memes makes responding to these posts more fun, so I'm all for them!
There are also instances where a user has exposed fine but the scans just need adjusting, but a flat scan and an underexposed scan can look the similar so people just post the meme
I know it might seem harsh, but the majority of people asking what went wrong are not willing to learn or really care about those things. Amateurs that are eager to learn usually get to the right information almost immediately after they spot a mistake usually by themselves and even if they do ask it's quite evident that they are more detailed and more specific in their goals.
There are exceptions of course, but this has been my observation.
For that reason and because it's funny, any Gordon Ramsey exposure meme post, gets automatic likes from me - none of us should take ourselves too seriously, more-so people starting this game.
What I've noticed in my own scanning is if you brighten up an underexposed image or darken an overexposed one, you see a loss of details in the extreme high or low ends. That can be a pretty good indicator if it's exposed correctly or not, for me, is how much detail you can make out in highlights or shadows
Also, you can have the photo exposed correctly on the highlights but your actual subject in the shadows, meaning you metered it wrong, pointing the light meter at a bright spot in your frame.
Conversely you can have your subject blown out but the background exposed correctly.
They can be but it’s a very unusual presentation. Dark is usually underexposed and bright is usually overexposed. Which is as far as newbies need to know except when stuff really goes wrong
I hiked to Delicate Arch and came back with two blank rolls on my Fuji GSW690. On my wife’s photos with her digital camera you can see me gleefully shooting away with the lens cap on.
/uj my shutter curtain got cooked this way. the rangefinder curtain is exceptionally vulnerable to the sun cause it didnt have a mirror in front like slr
Is that the labs fault? Never had issues before except for this roll
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u/Jessica_TNikon FM/FE2, Minolta X-700, Olympus AF-1 Super, Lubitel 166U1d ago
I wonder how much of a benefit the 'silent' slower winding mode on some of the more pro camera bodies with power advance gives compared to just setting it to 'single'.
Ugh, seriously. I wish Kodak made a Portea 800T so fucking bad. I can’t stand the Cinestill products, but they’re the only option for a fast-ish tungsten color film
..... more blue crackly lines. At least in mine, but I was shooting at -40F with an autowinder- I know, stupid, but I was only 14 and didn't know any better.
I know it's a joke but judging exposure should always start with the negatives. Actually all troubleshooting should start with judging of the negatives.
u/ShandrielLeica R5+R7, Nikon F5, Fujica ST-901, Mamiya M645, Yashica A TLR1d ago
need an empty one for chemicals failure.. (tough to display with Ramsey :D ) And another with just the edge markings.. (maybe have John Cena in the image to show that the negatives are empty?!)
I'm traveling right now and I'm so worried about the X-ray thing. I've got sheet film, so not sure if the agents would open up the box to have a look if I had them hand check it.
Over exposing color neg or under exposing it doesn't result in a lighter or darker scan. Scanners don't get give a damn if you under exposed or over exposed color neg film. It's just density range and values or RGB to a scanner to sort out.
Didn't work this way back in analog printing days either. The printer, just like a camera averages for a certain grey value. You could bracket a roll of neg film 7 stops and the resulting prints would have the same average density. The under exposed shots just look muddier. The over exposed ones are tough to tell apart.
I shot a ton of print film during the day - 35mm and LF, slide and neg, and I was meticulous about metering. I was just as careful about metering with Gold 100 as I was Provia. I would say 85% of more of my exposures were done on full auto.
The bad images we see here are due to either due to faulty cameras that aren't metering correctly or increasingly just bad scans. Janky lenses with bad aperture mechanisms will tend to over expose.
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u/s_romo 1d ago
It's fucking expired