# My Negatives Were Black, Only a few pictures came through, What happened?



## guitar8101 (Feb 5, 2011)

Starting off, I am new to Photography. Well I have a 1985 Nikon N2000 camera.  I brought it out today to shoot.  I loaded it with fujifilm chrome velvia 100 film.  So I made sure to load it in an almost dark room without the light on.  The film seemed to take and the number counter was going up when I pressed the shutter release.   I read the entire manua so I thought I should be ok.  I had the correct film speed selected.   I dropped the film off to cvs to get developed and when I came to pick it up the lady said it wouldn't even get picked up by the computer. I looked at the roll of film and about 98% of the film strip was pretty much just black. Some pictures were visable in the negatives but for the most part it was just black. Any ideas why this happened and what I can do to fix it?  Thanks everyone.


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## dxqcanada (Feb 5, 2011)

Ok, if there were some almost dark images ... then the film was being moved through the camera.

Under exposure.
BTW ... you really do not need to load the film in the dark (unless you are using Kodak HIE Infrared film).

Sounds like a problem with either:

- shutter 
- lens aperture
- both
- light meter

Without film ... open the camera back
Set shutter speed on Bulb
Take some shots and look through the camera to see if the lens aperture is closing (go through the different apertures).
Set shutter speed on 1s
Take some shots as you increase the shutter speed ... you should see/hear the shutter changing in duration.

Find someone else with a camera and compare exposures readings.


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## CCericola (Feb 5, 2011)

CVS took your reversal film (aka slide film) and processed it in C41. Your film has to be processed in E-6 or Fujifilm Process CR-56.


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## dxqcanada (Feb 5, 2011)

Are only the exposed image areas dark ... or is the entire film (ie area around the film sprockets and between the frames) dark/black ?


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## guitar8101 (Feb 5, 2011)

Thanks so much for the help .  The photos were all taken outside in the daylight.  Last time the camera was used by my father, the pictures came out great.  I checked the shutter speed as you suggested DX and it does change in duration.  The camera is pretty much in mint condition.  I think it was only used about 4 times since 1985.  The last time it was used was about a year ago when my father used it and it worked great.  Just the exposed image areas were black, it was normal color on the borders.  So is that my fault for bringing it to cvs CCericola?  or was it there error meaning do you think they are capable of developing that specific film? The lady was telling me it was because my camera was old. I was assuring her that was definitely not the case.  Maybe I should find  a camera place to develop the film to cancel that option out.  I guess I can chalk this up to experience.  I bought some kodak gold film at cvs just to see if that develops there from my camera.  Might help narrow this down.


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## Josh66 (Feb 6, 2011)

guitar8101 said:


> I bought some kodak gold film at cvs just to see if that develops there from my camera.  Might help narrow this down.


That's what I was about to suggest.  Run some cheap film through it and see what happens.

If only the image area was black, I would tend to think the problem lies with the camera, or the settings used.


How does the shutter look?  Any gummy residue on it?


The Velvia is slide film - CVS can't develop it in-house.  Even if they ran it through C-41 chemicals though, you still should have got *something* (cross-processed).


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## djacobox372 (Feb 7, 2011)

CCericola said:


> CVS took your reversal film (aka slide film) and processed it in C41. Your film has to be processed in E-6 or Fujifilm Process CR-56.



I suspect this also.  Only a specialized photography store can develop slide/e6 film in house, if they didn't send the film out to get developed then they probably developed it wrong.


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## compur (Feb 7, 2011)

guitar8101 said:


> Starting off, I am new to Photography. Well I have a 1985 Nikon N2000 camera.  I brought it out today to shoot.  I loaded it with fujifilm chrome velvia 100 film.  So I made sure to load it in an almost dark room without the light on.  The film seemed to take and the number counter was going up when I pressed the shutter release.   I read the entire manua so I thought I should be ok.  I had the correct film speed selected.   I dropped the film off to cvs to get developed and when I came to pick it up the lady said it wouldn't even get picked up by the computer. I looked at the roll of film and about 98% of the film strip was pretty much just black. Some pictures were visable in the negatives but for the most part it was just black. Any ideas why this happened and what I can do to fix it?  Thanks everyone.



Since you say you're new to photography I'd have to ask: How did you determine the exposures?  Did you manually set
shutter speed & aperture based on the camera's meter? Did you use an auto-exposure mode?  Some other method?


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