#failuretocommunicate

My problem first started about six months ago. I’d been finding light leakage on some photographs and it appeared to become more prevalent though fairly sporadic and unpredictable. My immediate assumption was to assume that I had a new problem on my hands, something that had not yet ever occurred and decided suddenly rear it head. The problem with assumption is well known but with limited understanding, observation and knowledge we can underestimate how deep these assumptions run.

I had ignored this sort of thing for a little too long and after losing one too many pictures to it. Those a little more experienced than myself will notice this immediately as bellows leakage. For those veterans of analogue photography, in particular bellows cameras and pee apart film, the details of the following may be of very little benefit. I hope the processes of though rather than specific detail may be assistance perhaps in fields where you consider yourself an amateur. For all other dilettantes I hope the same and God forbid, you may also learn something from my frankly stupid mistakes.

Having taken the 450 apart and reassembled a few times now I couldn’t have that much faith in my handy work so could not pin it down to this straight off. In fact, the thought hadn’t occurred to me, which is part of what I’ll cover first. My assumptions had in fact thrown me off quite greatly so we will break them down to show how easy they can occur.

The 450 had been in retirement for about 7 or 8 years and has certainly improved in it current incarnation but what I failed to take into account was that I had not spent a full year, though all seasons and conditions. Which brings me to assumption one:

1. That the fault we find is internal and contained to system with which we are dealing and not influenced by the environment in which it is in. The vast majority of my usage had been in cold climate and generally overcast weather. I also have a penchant for low lighting and long exposures so, my experience in working with direct sunlight was limited. Direct sunlight in this case is the condition with which the fault will show itself. The diffraction of light through the tiny pin holes overexposing large patches and, with larger holes streaks of focused light.

This had become much more noticeable on the high speed 3000ISO black and white rather than slower 100ISO colour. When the problem started to occur more and more on colour I knew it was time to stop before wasting any more shots on it.

The sunny weather had certainly tipped me off but, my attention was drawn more to the shutter and lens than the more correct bellows. Trying to figure out while it happened ‘in situ’ can also not be the wisest idea. You can start to come to some pretty wild conclusions through random trial and error rather than taken the time to asses. This gives us my second assumption: 2 ‘That the fault we find has been created instantaneously and is not affected by the systems history’ Since sunlight has to be present and direct, striking the bellows from a certain direction, the light leakage was not always occurring in the what assumed to be similar circumstanced. However, I failed to take into an account my usage of the 450 in preceding months. I had had it more at the ready in order to take pictures ‘in the moment’. Rather than being stored in a bag or in its clamshell it was out with bellows extended. Since the protective sleeve had been removed for the first shot, whatever negative was primed would be inadvertently exposed as I meandered about. This is important to note as now ‘time’ as well as physical position was a factor in how the problem presented itself. Walking for 15 minute, with the camera being jostled at my side, would introduce a  more random pattern of light leakage. In taking my first shot after that period of time I had not accounted for the history of the negative sitting primed.

[Streaking pattern after 15 minutes sun exposure]

In taking a second test shot under some conditions I could be misled into thinking that perhaps a “piece of card held just so” or “a tweak in shutter or aperture” could clam the problem down.

[A shot taken just after the above, absent of light leakage]

Trying to draw conclusion without thoroughly considering the problem, especially on the spot can sadly be wasted time. Its part of what drives us to seek the advice of others but our “foregone conclusions” may also hinder this process, which is main issue that I hope to cover.

After getting home I decided too add some shots to a pile of “failures” that I had been keeping. Peel part film can fail in so many different ways I had decided to put aside all those that had not turned out as intended. Partly as a reminder of some obvious mistakes but mostly as referenced for issues not yet resolved. I had found that some light leakage pictures were very similar to those I had previously taken in Germany. There, I had been primarily using 3000B&W and found some to have unpredictable exposure.

[Berlin underground]

I’d put this down to security scanning during the flight. A warning I had previously been given with high speed film was that it can be affected by X-ray scanning. [This piece of advice in particular I will discuss later on but, it is affect on my decision making rather than the advice itself I will cover first.] The advice I did not necessarily ignore but I had no means to counteract it (another point of discussion) so I had little option but to disregard it. Which bring me to my third assumption

3 That a fault in a system is a cause of your known action (or inaction). In this case, I had been giving a warning and failed to heed it, I now had a fault occurring. Therefore, it was reasonable to assume that the fault was caused by our actions. Again, what I had failed to make note of was the sunny weather at the time and again, I had been walking with 450 ready at my side. This was compound by me foolishly leaving shutter settings to 100 speed, thus over exposing some shots doubly more. I failed then to draw any correlation to light leakage and sunlight and instead focused on bot X-ray exposure and incorrect settings

Even now as I right, I cannot be completely certain as to what is at play in the above. It is important to only account for that which you are certain by taking note of that which we can observe. From my photos from Germany I can observe that

Light leakage is NOT exclusive black and white Not all black and white film has incorrect exposure Light leakage is NOT limited to photographs outdoors

Since I cannot count for what level of direct sunlight the bellows had been exposed to and what particular settings were at any given point, I sadly cannot draw any conclusions. If there is any remedy to the assumption is the recording of conditions that you are under as scrupulously as you can, particular in instances failure and the reoccurrence of fault. On the word of reoccurrence we come to the final assumption 4 That the fault that we observe in our system is new. This relates a little to the first point of environmental cause especially when we are not keeping tabs on it. Specifically though, it is directed towards our our ignorance rather than active assumption. That the problems that we come across are new, have only suddenly occurred and that their were no signs of its arrival. Going over some old photographs though, I could see that the problem had always been there, to some degree. The conditions were just right to bring it out but not enough that I was incapable of ignoring it.

[Isle of dogs] June 2015

[Cranes in Lewisham] March 2015

The fault was a long time coming but could be explained away to easily as the product of an old camera and it unpredictable behaviour. In a way that is an additional fifth assumption, that what we experiencing cannot be fixed, is inherent and beyond our comprehension and control and this just is not true. It may even seem that some problems are too trivial to even worry about.

Next time I hope to cover the resistance we can encounter, the fight for information and the important difference between advice sought or volunteered. Until then I’ll borrow the words of Richard Feynman: