HELP: Underexposed Film

Hi Folks!

A good friend of mine got married (eloped actually in a park

yesterday). None of the family was there. Outside of the bride,

groom, witnesses and pastor the videographer and I were the only

attendees so they are relying on our videos/photos to share the event

with the family.

I am an amateur and was just doing them a favor . . I rented a

Nikon F100 (the only Nikon body the camera shop had). And it is

sufficiently different enough from my N80 that I didn't have some

things set properly . . . .

I shot:

--- 7 rolls of fuji superia color negative film iso 400

--- 1 roll fuji sensia color slide film iso 100

--- 1 roll fuji superHQ color negative film iso 200

But . . I discovered this morning when perusing the F100 manual that

the camera was NOT set to automatically detect the DX coding. It was

set on ISO 1600.

WHAT DO I DO?

--- Will I be able to salvage these picts?

--- What instructions should I give the processing lab?

--- I was planning to have WOLF camera send it to their labs.

Are they a custom-enough lab to help me make the best of this

situation?

--- I'm in the Chicagoland/Western Burbs area. Does anyone have any

reccs for labs I should work with that are better than WOLF?

--- Any other advice for me?

Thanks,

-J

First you need to take it or send it to a pro lab. Forget Wolf.

You may be able to salvage the pictures. The development needs to be pushed by about 3 to 4 f stops. You can push upto 2 fstops without too much loss of shadow detail. 3 stops it depends on the film. In your case you need to push the 400 ISO 2 stops--no problem there, the 200 ISO 3 f stops--possible issues of loss of shadow detail, the 100 ISO you will have to push 4 stops --I see real problems here.

If this was my film I would not push 4 stops--just do 3 stops (for the 100 ISO) and then manipulate the prints digitally. If you keep under 2 stops push for the other films you should still be able to salvage the prints.

WHAT DO I DO?

First, learn from the mistake, the N80 would have worked just fine for this shoot without the issue of being unfamiliar with the features/functions of a much more complex camera.

--- Will I be able to salvage these picts?

I agree with Vijay...trash the slide film, it really isn't worth processing. Push the rest as he suggested, you'll probably be fine--it won't be perfect, but it will be OK.

--- What instructions should I give the processing lab?

As above.

--- I was planning to have WOLF camera send it to their labs. Are they a custom-enough lab to help me make the best of this situation?

Nope

--- I'm in the Chicagoland/Western Burbs area. Does anyone have any reccs for labs I should work with that are better than WOLF?

I don't, there should be plenty, call a local pro.

--- Any other advice for me?

Just my first one.

<i>I rented a Nikon F100 (the only Nikon body the camera shop had). And it is sufficiently different enough from my N80 that I didn't have some things set properly.</i>

<p>It's clearly water under the bridge now (and I wish you the best with your processing), but this is the part that seems bewildering to me. Unless (for whatever reason) you didn't have access to your N80, I can't understand why the rental. An unfamiliar camera does nothing but introduce any number of potential errors to your shoot -- one of which, unfortunately, you found the hard way.

<p>Please tell me that you didn't have (nor could get) your N80; not that you rented because you felt like you needed a 'better' camera to take better pics.

<p>Please? :-)

Hi ALL!!

Thanks for your GREAT responses!

Since the question has come up a couple times . . . WHY DID I RENT IT? . . . let me clarify . . . . I was having problems with my N80. (particularly focusing in low lit environments). The wedding took place in a park close enough to sunset that I was worried about having problems with the N80.

My friend asked me with about 24 hrs notice (when I was just getting back in town from a week out of town). . . . becuase she just wanted a few basic picts . . . So, I obviously didn't have enough time to take the N80 in to get checked out/fixed.

I really preferred to rent another N80 but they didn't have N80's or N90's. . . only F100's. The guy at the camera shop (who has been a great help to me in the past) said I wouldn't have any trouble learning to use it given my N80 experience. So, I went with it . . . figured in the time before/ater the wedding I'd have a good time experimenting with a great camera.

So, now . . . it was not really an issue of feeling like I needed a more advanced/professional camera to take good picts. But, I guess it was a series of not-well-thought-out decisions.

Lesson definitely learned . . . .

NOOOOOWWWWWWWW, Here's my follow-up question. I will chuck the slide film. But, with the color negative iso400 film, what can I expect the impact on the pictures to be? I was told they'd be more grainy. Do you think 2 stops will make it considerably more grainy that the picts won't be decent. Just curious.

Thanks,

-J

Forget the sensia roll.

Have the 400ISO rolls pushed 2 stops and the 200ISO roll 3 stops (good luck finding a lab doing a 3 stop push). Most likely you get grainy, contrasty negs, that will have little if any shadow detail and your prints won't look too pretty. If I were in your shoes, I would go to the best prolab I could find, tell them what you did and say "Please do your best."

"I wouldn't chuck any of it- give it the best shot you can, you never know" ... when you need some welding goggles.

Seriously, just out of curiousity I asked several prolabs and the most they would do are 2 stop pushs (for both C41 and E6). So if you underexposed slide film 4 stops and get a 2 stop push, you have still an underexposure of 2 stops on top of increased contrast and shadow loss. Have you ever seen what 2 stops underexposure does to slide film? Even if a drum scanner could blast through the dense stuff without replacing the lamp with the electron beam from the Stanford synchrotron, all you would get is no detail in the shadows (which will make up 95% of your slides) and funky colors in the brighter areas and not much in between (high contrast).

Unless you are in a desperate need for 36 darkslides, save your money on the roll of sensia.

Regarding your justification for the F100:

I won't fault you for doing what you thought best, I wasn't there and I can't blame you for wanting to make sure you had a properly working camera... you took that criticism well, BTW.

Regarding the Difficult focus in low light:

If that was the main problem you were having it is probably NOT a malfunction of the camera. The N80 focuses poorly in low light, esp. with slower lenses; f3.5-4.5zooms for instance. If that is, indeed, the case with your N80, in hind sight the better option for you would have been to use AF if the light was good, or rent a faster/better lens instead of a different camera, or (horrors) focus manually!!! That's what I do with my wife's N80 when light gets low, it just isn't worth fighting all the hunting it does in low light.

If that is not the 'problem' then my apologies.

Hi All,

Thanks for all of your help/input. I found a local pro lab . . great lab! And, they were able to push my film 2.5 - 3 stops. I was able to salvage everything except the 1 roll of slide film.

Anyway, as for the camera problems . . . the AF focus assist light was burned out, thus preventing AF in low-light situations (Yeah, I could have done MF . . . but that's another story). Anyway, I talked to the Camera Tech today . . turns out there's some major electrical problem with the camera today that caused the light to die. It's been in the shop 2 weeks already and they think it's another 1 - 1.5 weeks to go.

Well, all that said, thanks for the support (even those of you who did a little bit of fussing) :-)