Mistakes are an annoying but inevitable part of analogue photography. At some point we’ll all mess up and get back a roll that just doesn’t match up to your expectations, or worse, comes out completely blank. This Halloween, we take a look at some of the most common (and disappointing) mistakes made when taking photos on film.
Accidentally rewinding the film before you’ve finished the roll
So, you’re out and about with your trusty point and shoot and only taken around 10 photos when you accidentally press the rewind button and your film goes back in the canister.
Firstly, you’ll need to grapple to get the leader back out (if you bring it in, we’ll do this for you) but then you have the dreaded conundrum. Do you shoot over the photos you’ve already taken and use the rest of the roll, or do you sacrifice the remaining shots and get it developed knowing that you’ve not finished the roll? Decisions, decisions!
Opening the back before the films rewound
You thought your film had fully rewound when you got to the end of the roll but you open the back of your camera and your heart sinks, there staring back at you is your film still outside of the canister. It’s a gutting moment, as once you’ve done this you can guarantee that you’ve at least lost a handful of shots and potentially added a load of light leaks to the others but if you’re quick to close it back up, you might not have lost everything!
Getting to the end of a roll and realising you left the lens cap on
We’ve all done it, and we can’t lie it’s absolutely gutting when you get back a roll back completely blank instead of the shots you were hoping for. This one is so easily done, we’ve received so many rolls of film from people who’ve been gotten the better of by a pesky lens cap.
Rolling a 120 film the wrong way
You loaded a 120 film in wrong and everything came back blank. When starting out shooting on 120 film, a common mistake is that the roll is loaded backwards by mistake. If you load the film in the wrong way, all of your photos are being exposed onto the backing paper, not the film and your roll will be blank.
Taking an untested camera on holiday
You got a new camera and took it on holiday with you to capture all the magical moments but you get home and realise the camera hadn’t been working properly.
It’s a tough lesson to learn the hard way but the moral of the story is to always test a new camera before taking it anywhere important, like on holiday or to a commissioned job!
