What causes a sharp black horizontal line on the same area of several colour negatives?
Asked 6/8/2021
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I received a roll of colour negatives back and the last 10 or so frames all show a sharp black horizontal line in the bottom-left area of the image. The mark appears consistently in the same place across multiple exposures. What is the most likely cause, and should I check the camera rather than the lab or scanning?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
5y ago
2 Answers
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A hair. Looks sharp enough that it could be on the film side of the shutter in which case getting it out should be easy. If it is on the other side of the shutter and your camera has an interchangeable lens, you should be able to get at it with removing the lens and putting up the mirror. If you don't have an interchangeable lens, it might require convincing the camera to open shutter while the back is open. Don't prod the shutter itself: it's easy to bend the blades and that is bad news.
If you already reloaded the camera, you can either pray or rewind the film. It's not likely to be a problem of development: if this happened while scanning the negative, the hair would show as white.
Originally by user98068. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user98068
5y ago
0
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The most likely cause is a hair or similar small obstruction inside the camera, probably near the shutter/film gate. Because the line is sharp and appears in the same place on multiple frames, it points to something physically blocking light in the camera rather than a development issue. On a negative, that kind of blockage shows up dark/black; if it were introduced during scanning, it would typically appear white instead.
Check the camera carefully for debris. If it’s an interchangeable-lens camera, remove the lens and inspect the area around the shutter and film path. Be very careful not to touch or bend the shutter blades. If the camera is already reloaded, you can either finish the roll and hope it’s moved, or rewind and inspect before shooting more.
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