What is "Blank" Film?
"Blank" film typically refers to a roll of 135 format or 120 format film that shows no images after completing the development step. This can happen for several reasons. Before we proceed to the main course of today's topic, it's important to understand what "exposure" means in film photography. Film exposure refers to the amount of light that reaches the film inside a camera when you press the shutter button. It’s a crucial aspect of film photography because it determines how light or dark your images will be. Proper exposure ensures that your photos have the right balance of brightness and detail.
We won't go into full details in this article but to make thing easy to understand, just remember that the three main factors that control exposure are as follow:
- Shutter Speed: This is the amount of time the camera’s shutter is open after you press the shutter button, briefly allowing light to go through the lens and hit the film, causing the film to be exposed in certain way. Faster shutter speeds (e.g., 1/1000th of a second) let in less light, while slower speeds (e.g., 1/30th of a second) let in more light.
- Aperture: This is the size of the opening in the lens through which light passes. It’s measured in f-stops (e.g., f/2.8, f/16). A larger aperture (smaller f-stop number) allows more light to reach the film, while a smaller aperture (larger f-stop number) allows less light. Compact camera such as Kodak H35 half frame camera has a 28mm fixed focus lens with a fixed f/8 aperture and a fixed shutter speed of 1/100 making it not ideal for low light situation.
- ISO: This is the film’s sensitivity to light. Lower ISO values (e.g. ISO 100) are less sensitive to light and require more light for proper exposure, while higher ISO values (e.g. ISO 1600) are more sensitive and require less light. The trade off is that higher iso film tend to produce photos with more visible grains.
How does "blank" film looks like?
Either nothing, or the film negative is too dark/too light to notice anything. Most of the time, blank films don't yield any good photos, it's either fully grey, fully white or overly grey with some -hard to notice- photos depends on the reason why the film becomes blank. That being said, it's not the end of the world. If your lab informs you that your film is blank, always ask what might be the potential cause or ask to see how your negative looks like if possible because since you've already paid for the processing & scanning service, if the film turns out to be blank, it's important to at least learn something out of it such as where did it go wrong so the same mistake won't occur again.
Often time, a "blank" film negative will offers several clues to help you identify what might be the cause, what went wrong etc. So this raise another question....
How to identify the cause of a "blank" film?
Now that we've learned there are several types of actions that can cause a film to become "blank", how do we identify what type it is and what could be the cause?
First and foremost, the most important step is to check the color of the negative under a good light source to see if you can identify any subjects you've shot with your film camera on the negative.
Here are some photos to compare how a normal negative and "blank" film negative looks like:
Can you tell what caused Negative Sample #2, #3, #4 and #5 to be the way they are?
- Negative Sample #2
Negative Sample #2 is clear and clean, from first glance, you will notice there are almost nothing on it which means the film is either very underexposed or not exposed at all in any way. This is most likely caused by the film roll not being loaded correctly into the camera which means that when you were taking photos, the film was not advancing at all inside the camera, so even after you press the shutter button 36 times, nothing is actually exposed on the film which also means that there will be no photos at all since you'd be sending an unused film roll for processing. Another potential cause is faulty camera with malfunction shutter, if you suspect this is the case, consider sending your camera for servicing.
- Negative Sample #3
- Negative Sample #4
Negative Sample #4 is just like Sample #2 but the negative's color is odd. Some expired film's negative may look like this due to deterioration. Even if you load the film and shoot the film correctly, sometimes the negative may come out like this. Will there be any images? Most likely yes but at the same time do be prepared for poor image quality. For more info about expired film, check out our previous blog post where we talked about expired films.
- Negative Sample #5
Negative Sample #5 looks like the opposite of Sample #4 but it's also the outcome of an expired film. The whole roll may look like it's exposed under light but surprisingly it was actually shot properly, the only issue is the deterioration was much more severe than Sample #4, most likely due to heat.
What will happen if you scan a "blank" film?
The scan result of a "blank" film varies according to the cause. Below are the scan results of Negative Sample #2 ~ #5
"I received FIERY images from my lab, what is the cause?"
Now if you often find yourself receiving photos like these from your lab...
and it happens in the middle of the film for some reason, your negative of those rolls probably look like this...
The cause is you've most probably opened the back of the camera while the film is loaded inside the camera at least once or more times. To prevent it is simple, make sure not to open the back of the camera in any scenario unless you have tool such as dark bag or dark box to ensure that the film doesn't come into contact with any form of light when you take out the film. If you don't have tool such as dark bag, make sure every process is done within the camera and that includes the process of winding the film back into the canister after you've done using every shot.
"My film is not blank but sometimes I've received dark photos like these"
There are definitely something in the photos, it's just that the scene is too dark to notice much, same thing will reflects on your negative
To prevent this from happening is simple, when taking photos with a film camera in low light situations, as much as possible try to use the flash function of your camera to make sure that the subject you're trying to capture is visible in the photo later on. However, if there's no flash or your camera's flash function is broken, then as much as possible try to avoid shooting in low light situation such as dark indoor places. To maximize the chances of getting good photos, it's recommended to take photos in outdoor places under bright sunlight
"I received this disastrous photo from my lab, what is the cause???"
This is the negative of a film that came into contact with moisture. The film was expired more than 40 years ago, moisture most likely built up inside throughout the years before it was sent to us for processing. Make sure the film doesn't come into contact with any form of liquid to prevent this from happening.
What to do if your film turned out to be "blank"
No doubt, it's definitely a sad thing to hear that your film turned out to be blank from your lab. However, as mentioned in the beginning of this article, this is not the end of the world, if you are new to film photography, this is actually the beginning! Blank or damaged film is something that many film enthusiast will experience at some point, it can even happen to experts who've been doing film photography for many years. Ultimately, the whole blank film issue is one of the many aspects of what makes film photography interesting and fun. If it happens to you, don't forget to take the opportunity to learn what's the cause so that you know how to prevent the same tragedy from happening again in the future. Good luck on your next roll!
