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Being new to large format I am of course making plenty of mistakes but today's was probably the dumbest so far.

I’ve just acquired a Horseman 6x9 roll film holder and decided to head out at dawn to try it out, two hours and almost 2 rolls of film later I finally noticed I had my light meter set to ISO 400 instead of 50 so everything except the last couple of shots will be 3 stops underexposed . Oh well, live and learn.

This got me thinking and I started to wonder what silly mistakes others have made, sharing them might help me avoid them

So, go on, fess up.

Paul.

Commonest - even still - is to open the quickload / dds with the shutter open. Usually happens when distracted by a passer by who wants to look at the GG so I show them, have a discussion, then the light goes wonderful, quick insert of film open and DOHHHHHH.

One that worries me most having done it a couple of times and been lucky is changing lenses and not getting the board seated properly. You turn away and suddenly the lens flls out...

- Distracted by my better half and shooting a shot wide open when metered for f/22. (Surprising amount of detail still on velvia even 3.5 stops over exposed!)

- Unintentional double exposure, presumably due to putting the darkslide back in the wrong way round. A particular bummer as you ruin not one but two perfectly good shots.

- Having loaded the film incorrectly into the holder, take a shot a find that the darkslide won't go back in. At least this one is apparent at the time.

- Shooting without accounting for the extra exposure due to polariser or center-filter. I have a box of undeveloped film needing a 1.5 stop push as a result.

A recent medium format mistake by me too - shooting a series of 20minute moonlight shots.....with no film in the camera (and no I don't mean a digital camera, although granted that would also count as a mistake ).

This is all sounding very familiar.

I've haven't yet tried shooting with no film in the camera but I'm sure that day will come

Paul.

For some reason I have the annoying habit of loading the Quickload into the holder the wrong way round. Another is not making sure everything is tightened up before inserting the film holder resulting in having to re-focus when you feel the back move.

Paul

Not LF, but from when I was using Hasselblad. Up at dawn, walked couple of miles across moor to get a pic of sun rising over Mull. Exposed a roll of film (12 pics). Walked home for breakfast & discovered I'd taken the B&W back instead of the colour. . . Dennis.

dennis wrote:Walked home for breakfast & discovered I'd taken the B&W back instead of the colour. . . Dennis.

Some may say that was just inspired genius

Just remembered another classic: having the swing get knocked out of zeroed position whilst in the bag, don't notice it when setting up, then shoot a load of ruined shots with a wide lens. There's a lot to be said for buying a camera that has only the movements you need and use often.

Paul, mistakes made in the field can be very frustrating especially if there was an outlay of big dollars to get to a locale and then we fail to capture images properly. I think we all have left the lens open here and there expecting to trip the shutter at just the right time, only to have no cable release action. Having shot QL's most of the time when using a LF unit, has now only brought back all the bad memories and mistakes I made early on with cut sheet loading. For whatever reason it seems worse then when I first began with LF years back and using the standard holders at that time. I think a lot of that comes with having been so spoiled with the simplicity of the QL's.
I will say one bad habit I've had off and on is not cinching or tightening down ALL movements prior to prying open the spring loaded graflock. Not a good move as it seems to always stir up ugly thoughts that I might have moved something during the insertion process. Hence a need to re-verify the focus and then tighten everything properly.
Good luck narrowing down the mistakes, we all make them at one time or another.

I spent a great day out capturing some superb images in the Spring using my M645 Pro TL with what I thought was a roll of Velvia 100. Only after I got home did I discover that there was no film in the film holder. I now only put the film roll label in the back of the holder after I've loaded the film!

My other boo-boo is occasionally shifting a lens beyond its range, a particular problem with my old Schneider 120 Apo and the 58XL.

My most embarassing mistake was when I set up a nice view with my 90mm wide angle lens and took the picture. Then thinking the view would also look good with a 150mm standard lens, I changed lenses, turned the DDS over and took another shot. Whoops! Forgot about re-focusing for the lens change.
I had a little chuckled at my stupidity. Very embarassing. But nobody knows about it, so.... Doh!

I trained as a radiographer/darkroom technician (industrial) biggest mistake loaded up the combi tank and proceeded pour in fix instead of dev. not good

My biggest mistake so far has been putting the film holder not in the correct position inside the camera back. Result: a nice band of bright light on 7 negatives out of the 10...

I must be doing something wrong. I have two Ebony cameras and although I have put them together in a cupboard overnight they absolutely will not breed!

yup...............

we've all done it..........

and we'll keep on doing it.......................

no one is infallable when it comes to LF stuff.........................

one of the easiest, is to go out to a location without all of the gear............


andrew