Photography - - MAJOR Idiot Moment: Film vs. Negatives

irshgrlkc · #1 07-05-2006, 04:11 PM

I am almost too embarrased to post this, but here goes...

I'm home sick today and thought I would do some of those things I've meant to do, but just hadn't the time to do because they were so tedious.

Having recently purchased a scanner with the ability to scan negatives, top on my list was to scan all the undeveloped film my family had accumulated over the years (can you see where this is going yet?)

So I crack open a can of film with a bottle opener and proceed to load it into the negative loader (thinking to myself, gee, this film looks blank). What do you know, scanning it and I get NO picture. I chock it up to blank film and proceed to open five more canisters before I start thinking perhaps I am missing a step (thank goodness I had the sense to open the canisters in the dark - at least I got that part right).

Now, having sobered up from the Nyquil I took last night, I have realized that I forgot to get the film developed first, d'oh!

My question is, does anyone know of a developer that will take the film outside of a canister? I don't live in a bustling metropolis so mail-away would be great. If the answer is no, does anyone know of a cheapy beginner's kit I could purchase to develop the film I pulled?

Feeling like a royal idiot here,

Kerry

Feel free to point and laugh, I probably would too if I knew what I was doing.

Doug Nelson · #2 07-05-2006, 04:26 PM

If you've seen the film, it's ruined. However, any prolab that uses "dip and dunk" processing should be able to process it for you. They were common a few years ago, but might be extinct nowadays. Check the yellow pages, call and ask.

irshgrlkc · #3 07-05-2006, 05:19 PM

Thanks for the reply Doug.

I was afraid that my looking at the film has ruined it, but at least maybe I'll be able to give someone a chuckle when I call up and tell them what I did and ask if they can fix it.

Living and learning.

K

Photo678 · #4 07-05-2006, 06:05 PM

hahahha, its ok, we have all done silly things like that before....a few years ago in college, i was in the darkroom with some people making prints for a show...the one kid i was in there with, couldnt see too well in the dark room and was having trouble opening his box of paper....he proceeded to go out of the dark room, opened his box of paper, took it out of the black "light safe" pouch it comes in, and flipped through the paper.....for the rest of the day he was trying to print on the paper and couldnt figure out while all his prints were coming out jet black.

cardmnal · #5 07-05-2006, 07:20 PM

even one hour photo labs should be able to develop your film if it is not ruined. Sometimes film gets wound kinda goofy and needs to be extracted completely through the end and then loaded into reusable cassettes to run through those machines. Also any lab that developes 120 film would be able to help you since they put that film in those cassettes as well.

Photo678 · #6 07-06-2006, 01:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by irshgrlkc

So I crack open a can of film with a bottle opener and proceed to load it into the negative loader (thinking to myself, gee, this film looks blank). What do you know, scanning it and I get NO picture.

To answer your question....if that film saw any light, its done for...sorry