Re: Paper negative mystery

Perhaps there was some damage to the camera or pinhole that let a lot more
light in. Most likely, it was due to the increase in light intensity when:
a) the atmosphere is cleaner (this increases as you get closer to the poles)
b) there is a lot of reflection from snow or water
I have to decrease exposures when I go from upstate NY just to the Maine
coast!
Test it first.
Jim K

-----Original Message-----
From: HypoBob <hypobob@pacbell.net>
To: pinhole-discussion@pinhole.com <pinhole-discussion@pinhole.com>
Date: Saturday, September 23, 2000 12:43 PM
Subject: [pinhole-discussion] Paper negative mystery

>Recently I took a pinhole camera to Alaska and exposed several negatives
>
>on a developer-incorporated, B&W, variable contrast RC paper.
>
>Upon my return, development of these paper negatives resulted in very
>dense, very flat negatives, as if the whole negative had been uniformly
>and heavily fogged. This was a complete surprise because exposure and
>development were exactly as I had done in the past with no problems.
>
>My first thought was that the latent image had degraded in the six days
>between exposure and development. However, a subsequent test reveals
>that while the latent image will change a little in six days, the change
>
>is not nearly enough to explain this problem.
>
>I also wondered if the airport carry-on x-ray machines had fogged the
>paper, but unexposed paper that went through the x-rays has since been
>used and shows no fogging at all.
>
>Another thought is that maybe the abundant UV at higher latitudes had
>simply overexposed the negatives. With no glass to attenuate UV, the
>UV-sensitive B&W paper negatives were exposed to the entire UV spectrum.
>
>Do any of you have any answers, suggestions, thoughts as to why a
>process that works fine here in sunny California would meet with such
>disaster on a trip to Alaska???
>
>Bob
>
>
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Received on Mon Sep 25 07:54:54 2000