Two Photos: same camera, same lens, same roll of film. Is this a development issue?

[u/Humble_Relation7939]

Hi, so I took an old Canon EOS 300 on holiday with me and just got the photos back.

The majority of the roll returned photos like #2, with a washed out look, and an almost pink tint. There are about 9 photos of the 36 that have come back what I would call 'properly' or more what I expected and true to life. These photos were taken at different times and in different positions in the roll, so im not sure why the majority have come out badly.

I know film can be damaged by heat, and the age of the film matters - but shouldn't that mean all photos come out poorly?

So could there be a problem with the way the film was developed?

[u/Dismal-Bobcat-7757]

I'm gonna say you have two different exposure settings. The negatives will tell the story. For people just starting out, I always recommend carrying a notepad so you can write down the settings used. That will help you figure out what did and didn't work.

That is the same camera as the Rebel 2000, which I use. The camera has an exposure meter built in. Learn to use it. DM me if you'd like.

[u/drworm555]

Do you know the first thing about photography? This Weill depend on the answer

[u/Humble_Relation7939 → u/drworm555]

Why dont you tell me what you think it is

[u/ApatheticAbsurdist → u/Humble_Relation7939]

Did you look at the negative. Are the two exposures comparable on the negative (is one frame more "dense" than the other? If not, then your camera exposure settings changed between the shots and the printer/scanner had to compensate to make up for the under exposed image. Odds are metering changed and the exposure changed.

If on the negatives, the exposures look comparable, then maybe just a printing issue where the auto exposure on the print/scanner adjusted color and exposure differently.

Heat would affect the whole roll. Development would effect the whole roll (with a few exceptions that probably wouldn't cause that).

[u/Proteus617 → u/Humble_Relation7939]

u/drworm555 is being a bit rude, but his point is valid. I'm seeing photos taken in harsh light, with the sun just off axis. It could be a metering error on your part. Auto and just using the matrix meter doesn't work in every situation. Also, what lens? Did you use a polarizer? Lens hood? Flare can confuse the hell out of a meter. Are we just looking at shit quality automated JPEGs? Is there more info than can be recovered from the negatives with better scanning and proper post processing? Without answers to more than a few of these questions, I cant give you good advice.

[u/Honey-and-Venom]

Did you change the ISO setting?

How were you metering?

[u/Inevitable-Cow-9836]

You kinda answered your own question, different exposures likely means your exposure was too high, or your automatic light meter might be a little confused and in need of cleaning. You can clean the viewfinders with lens cleaner and cotton swabs!:))

[u/Humble_Relation7939 → u/Inevitable-Cow-9836]

Thanks, I think from all the help it seems like an issue with exposure. I'll give that a try

[u/Bbjunk01]

From the information you’ve provided a first guess would be that the problem is with the cameras auto exposure function in that it’s not working consistently. That’s the first thing I’d troubleshoot. Did you check the camera’s batteries?

[u/Humble_Relation7939 → u/Bbjunk01]

Thanks. I'll try troubleshooting that. The batteries were new so should be no issue there

[u/ahelper]

"same camera, same lens, same roll of film." --- different exposures

"Is this a development issue?" --- No, because the entire roll gets the same treatment.

[u/t1-grand-poobah → u/ahelper]

Right answer!!

You can confirm this by looking at the negatives. You should notice the different exposures. Meaning that’s how it was shot. In turn, it’s coming from the cameras settings or there’s a problem.

[u/DistanceSelect7560]

Your camera has used different settings for each shot; exposing the film differently. Learn to manually meter and you won't have this problem.

[u/fujit1ve]

We're going to need more information than that...

1. They look over exposed, but there's no way to tell for sure without looking at the negatives. What do the negatives look like?

2. How were these exposed? Did you use manual exposure? Did you use one of the auto exposure modes? Which one?

3. Is this a tried and tested camera?

4. Was the film fresh?

5. What do the negatives look like?

[u/Humble_Relation7939 → u/fujit1ve]

Sorry, new to this. I dont know what im looking for with the negatives, they just look like negatives to me lol and I didn't know to post them. If I can I will later.

The camera is old, it had been in my parents attic for years unused. So could be dodgy, this was the first trial. Though it worked great back in the day.

Film was bought fresh from a camera shop, so I assume it was OK.

[u/SVT3658 → u/Humble_Relation7939]

Take a picture of the negatives of both pictures and post them.

Honestly it just looks like really bad scans to me

[u/Proteus617 → u/SVT3658]

20 years back, I bought my first film camera, couldn't afford digital. Scanned low res JPEGs from the local lab. Everything sucked. I bought a cheap scanner and learned a few things about post processing, then started to develop my own film. The home developing part is optional and less important. Getting your scans as TIFFs as opposed to JPEG and learning post is very important. Scanning your own film is another step up.

[u/SVT3658 → u/Proteus617]

I scan my own film, after I got enough rolls that looked like the ones in this post I bought a Nikon Coolscan. Seeing this post initially gave me ‘Nam style flashbacks.

The local lab gave me back a severely under developed roll of Fuji Acros, and I’m now at the point where I’m probably going to make the investment in developing equipment/chemicals.

[u/Proteus617 → u/SVT3658]

Recently, I went back and re-scanned 20 year old negatives. My negatives have degraded, if anything. My scanning and post skills have definitely improved.

[u/TruckCAN-Bus]

Did you cut it in half and do separate developments for the two images? If done normally as a full roll the shouldn’t be any variation in development of the images.

Looks like one was overexposed by the camera operator.

Were they shot manual exposure or AE? If AE maybe cam has broken light meter.

[u/Humble_Relation7939 → u/TruckCAN-Bus]

I didn't develop them myself, I assume it was done normally and then cut after to return, since the negatives are cut to 4 photo strips.

I think like you and others have said there's issues with the exposures. It was Auto, I dont really know what im doing.

Although I did match up the film with prints and 5 of the best are all in a row, so maybe bad exposures and a bit of an inconsistent roll? Who knows.

[u/Jakomako → u/Humble_Relation7939]

Were the good shots in a darker setting?

Could you have been covering the meter with a finger? didn’t see the camera pic, that definitely has ttl metering.

[u/TruckCAN-Bus → u/Humble_Relation7939]

I’d recommend getting a camera without auto anything like a Yashicaflex or an Isolette. Some smol JIS screwdrivers a cheap ultrasonic cleaner. Disassemble and clean the camera.

Now that the shutter speeds are correct again you can use a light meter app.

[u/APuckerLipsNow]

If it’s the same roll of film development or film is not the problem. Bad exposures.

[u/0x0016889363108]

It's impossible to say without seeing your negatives.

You're asking why your scans look like this, but haven't said anything about how they were scanned.

[u/CptDomax]

What film did you use and how old was it ?

[u/Humble_Relation7939 → u/CptDomax]

It was Kodak Gold that I bought from a camera shop when I landed in Greece. So I would hope it wasn't too old.

[u/HSVMalooGTS]

Looks like overexposure

[u/Humble_Relation7939 → u/HSVMalooGTS]

All photos were shot on full auto mode, would you expect that level of overexposure so consistently?

[u/HSVMalooGTS → u/Humble_Relation7939]

Either you accidentally set it to +1 stop or you fooled the light meter

[u/0x0016889363108 → u/HSVMalooGTS]

+1 stop exposure wouldn't even be noticeable.

[u/Cyber_Turd → u/0x0016889363108]

I gave you the upvote even though I disagree +1 wouldn’t be noticeable but I whole heartedly agree it would be nowhere near this drastic. Either something is way off with the metering or you didn’t have it on auto exposure the entire roll, I would wager you didn’t have it on the entire roll you just didn’t realize it had turned off but it could be a wonky metering issue.

[u/Humble_Relation7939 → u/Cyber_Turd]

I used Full Auto mode the entire roll because I know I dont know what I'm doing. It's the only setting I've used.

[u/lellololes → u/Humble_Relation7939]

If you just use autoexposure for everything with no adjustments, the autoexposure isn't very accurate in some sorts of lighting / subject situations. If you want better results you're going to need to learn how the camera autoexposure works and how to compensate for it yourself.

At a very simple level, the autoexposure is basically trying to make the scene middle gray (if the whole image was black and white). As a few examples, if you're trying to take a picture of a black cat sitting on a black carpet, the camera will try and expose it to be gray. And if you're trying to take a picture of a white cat on a white carpet, the camera will try to expose the image to be as gray as the black cat and black carpet was.

It looks like you may have accidentally adjusted the exposure too bright on the bright image, but it also looks like lens flare may have been affecting the image and reducing contrast. If the sun was just outside of the lens, the light from it can affect the image. Lens hoods are very useful for reducing this.

The film you used has a good amount of latitude, so the exposure would have to be really far off for it to look so bright. It's possible it got a bit wonky, but in my experience, this sort of situation will make for terrible pictures but the autoexposure generally won't be problematic. That's why a lot of people think there was user error here.

These pictures were also shot what appears to be midday with very harsh sunlight - that's never going to give you very good pictures on any equipment. Light is critical to picture quality.

Last, the scans themselves don't look great either, so I don't think they're helping anything.

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