Light leak, developement or scanning problem?

Hi everyone,

 

Don't know if this is the correct place for this question, i did not find where to put it. Sorry for my bad english in advance.

 

I've just received the scans of a pair or 120 rolls i shot with my bronica etrs. I hadnt used this camera since 7 or 8 year ago. I've sent the rolls to be developed and scanned at a little lab here in my city and, when inspected, i started to see there are some strange light variations in the sky. I've search all across the internet for info about light leaks and dont seem to me this is my exact problem, but i'm hoping you could help me. In the meantime, i have written the lab to re-scan or check the negatives once more.

 

Both rolls are not expired, one is ektar 100 and the other portra 160. In both there are issues, but in portra more "dots" type than in ektar. Ektar was just finished some hour ago before i put in the hands of the lab.

 

Here are some crops. I have made some strong contrast curves and clarity in lightroom so the light variations could be seen better, but i'm putting also the original images where you can see the problems too :

 

 

 

 

 

 

I hope some of you more expert in film photography and negative scanning could help me here. The lab claims to have a Noritsu HS-1800.

 

Another thing i dont understand and maybe you could help me too is that, even the send me the scans in tiff 16 bit, they embedded the sRGB profile on the images. Isnt that a little strange? if i want 16 bit tiff, i assume the profile must be also wide, not the sRGB... what do you think?

 

Thanks a lot

Good English, don't apologise.

 

I am no expert, but light leaks don't normally follow straight and parallel lines like that. More likely a scanning error I would have thought, but there are others here far better qualified to comment, so I would wait for better advice. Are you able to scan one yourself, o see if you get the same problem? If so, we would know the problem is in the film.

Not light leaks

I concur with the others.. .this is not likey a light-leak. My thoughts also lean towards the scanner. However I did see something similar with an old 616 folder and the bands, I theorized were related to the winds or turns of the advance. It seems the ruby window was just lightly hazing the film enough to create these bands. I did get a much better result by covering the window while winding and the peeking to see if I passed the number.

I concur with the others.. .this is not likey a light-leak. My thoughts also lean towards the scanner. However I did see something similar with an old 616 folder and the bands, I theorized were related to the winds or turns of the advance. It seems the ruby window was just lightly hazing the film enough to create these bands. I did get a much better result by covering the window while winding and the peeking to see if I passed the number.

 

I thought also a problem while advancing the film... however, what's a ruby window? i think the bronica ETRS doesnt have any...

 

Good news for me is that all of you think is not a light leak

I thought also a problem while advancing the film... however, what's a ruby window? i think the bronica ETRS doesnt have any...

 

Good news for me is that all of you think is not a light leak

 

She was a blues singer in the ‘40s.

 

It’s that little red window in the back of old cameras that lets you see the frame number that is printed on the rear of the backing paper. Red as the film is not sensitive to that colour and it does not fog the film. Normally.

Do you have the negatives? If you do, take a loupe and inspect them for the line that appears on the right side of every shot you posted. I think you would see the line on the negative if it shows up so prominently in the images you provided.

If it's on the film and not just the scans, then I'd suspect a focal-plane shutter fault. If the shutter blinds don't run across the frame at a constant speed, then you'll get density variations like that.

 

The effect can be very similar to scanner streaks though. Clean the scanner and see if that fixes it.

 

Sometimes shutters that have lain unused for some time become sticky, and will 'stutter' instead of running smoothly. If this is the case, then the shutter might unstick with use. Maybe working the shutter 100 or so times might cure the problem. If not it needs repair.

if i want 16 bit tiff, i assume the profile must be also wide, not the sRGB... what do you think?

 

Colour spaces like sRGB or AdobeRGB have nothing to do with how much data is available in the image, only with how the data in the image will be "mapped" to colours on the output device. So whether you have sRGB or AdobeRGB files coming out of your scanner doesn't matter: it still has captured the exact same amount of data.

(snip)

Sometimes shutters that have lain unused for some time become sticky, and will 'stutter' instead of running smoothly. If this is the case, then the shutter might unstick with use. Maybe working the shutter 100 or so times might cure the problem. If not it needs repair.

 

You might be able to hear the sound of a non-smooth shutter.

 

At higher speeds, a focal plane shutter has one motion. At slower speeds, one curtain opens completely, then a delay, then the closing curtain. You should easily be able to hear the difference between those.

 

One way to see the effects of a FP shutter, is to shoot a CRT TV screen, at speeds faster than the frame rate (about 1/60 s for most).

 

You will get a diagonal stripe in the image, from where the beam is at the time.

 

(I am not sure how multiplexing works on LCD screens, so the effect will be different.)

 

If the diagonal stripe isn't smooth, then the shutter motion isn't, either.