Film Negatives - Flat or Curl

Flat Negatives Are Your Friends

Photographic film negative curling is an issue if you develop film yourself. During the digitizing or printing workflow your negatives will need to be scanned, photographed or used in a darkroom enlarger. Having film negatives "flat" is important. Even the slightest curling / cupping of the negative can make the film difficult to put into a scanner holder, keep flat on the scanner glass or keeping the entire photo in focus. You WANT your negatives to be as flat as possible for good results.

Different film stocks "curl" / "cup" to various amounts or remain flat while drying. How you dry your negatives (i.e., hanging with a weighted clip on the bottom) or your drying conditions (i.e., humidity level) will also impact how much a negative does or does not dry flat.

Here are a couple examples of flat and slightly curled negatives. Your results may be similar or much more cupping / curling.

Fomapan 400 dries flat

Fujicolor Superia X-TRA 400 has a moderate curl. This negative has been back-rolled

There are DIY ways to flatten curled negatives. You can cut your negatives, sleeve them and put them under a weight (like a book). You can back-roll the negative before cutting and keep it back-rolled for a few hours until flat, etc.

Again, what ever process you use, the simplest is to use film (WHEN POSSIBLE) that dries flat.

To help you decide, here is a list of films I've (or others) have used and how they "typically" end up when dried.  Please note, this list covers just 35mm film. 120 film curls more or less the same but if it curls it tends to curl more than 35mm. AGAIN AS A CAVEAT, your experience may vary.

• ADOX HR50 - flat
• Agfa APX 100 - flat
• Agfa APX 400 - slight curl
• Arista EDU 100 / 200 / 400 - flat
• Arista EDU 100 DX - flat
• Arista EDU 400 DX - flat
• Berger Pancro 400 - slight curl
• Camera Film Photo (CFP) 500T The Film - flat
• CFP Kiki Pan 320 - flat
• CineStill BWXX - slight curl
• Dubblefilm Jelly - flat
• Eastman Double-X (5222) - flat
• EFKE 100 - curls
• Fomapan 100 - flat
• Fomapan 200 - flat
• Fomapan 400 - flat
• FPP Mummy - flat
• FPP RetroChrome 320 - curls
• Fujicolor Pro400H - light curl
• Fujifilm Provia 100 - curls
• Fujifilm 200 - slight curl
• Fujifilm Fujicolor Superia X-TRA 400 - curls
• Fujifilm Fujicolor Superia 800 - flat
• Holga 400 - flat
• Ilford Delta 100 - flat
• Ilford Delta 400 - flat
• Ilford FP4 - flat
• Ilford HP5 - flat
• Ilford Ortho 80 - flat
• Ilford PAN 400 - flat
• Ilford SPX 200 - flat
• Ilford XP2 400 - flat
• JCH Streetpan 400 - flat
• Kentmere 400 - flat
• Kodak Ektar 100 - flat
• Kodak Ektachrome 100 - flat
• Kodak EliteChrome 100 - curls
• Kodak EliteChrome 200 - curls
• Kodak Gold 200 120 - curls
• Kodak Kodalith 6556 - flat
• Kodak MAX 400 - curls
• Kodak Plus X 125 - slight curl
• Kodak Portra 160/400 - flat
• Kodak Portra 800 - flat
• Kodak T-Max - flat / slight curl
• Kodak T-Max 3200 - flat / slight curl
• Kodak Tri-X - curls
• Kodak Ultramax 400 - flat
• Kodak Vision3 250D - flat
• Kodak Vision3 500T - flat
• Kodak X-Pan 125 - slight curl / flat
• Kono Moonstruck - flat
• Kosmo Foto Agent Shadow - slight curl
• LuckyPan 400 - flat
• ORWO UN54 - flat
• Rollei Retro 80s - flat
• Rollei Retro 400s - flat 
• Rollei RPX25 - flat
• SHD100 Pro - flat
• Shanghai GP3 - curls
• Street Candy 400 - slight curl
• Silberra Ultima - flat
• Ultrafine 100 - flat
• Ultrafine Finesse 400 - flat
• Ultrafine Finesse 100 - flat

I'll update this list as I get feedback from others or have personal experience with other films.

Olympus Infinity Stylus - Southern Tier Bike Trek

I recently completed a bucket list item! I rode a bicycle across the entire USA following the Adventure Cycle Association Southern Tier route from St. Augustine, FL to San Diego, CA. OF COURSE, I took a couple of cameras. One digital, a Panasonic Lumix G7 and a film point & shoot, Olympus Infinity Stylus.

The Stylus was the perfect choice for the trip. Not only is it reliable and delivers fairly good quality, but it has the following:

• Very good flash that can be overridden
• Sliding film cover that turns the camera on and off
• Excellent battery life (easy to obtain, 123A size)
• 35mm f/3.5 lens
• Very compact and stealthy

I shot about 25 rolls over the 55 day trek. I took all my color film I had in inventory and purchased a couple of packs along the way. I shot Fujicolor 200 & 400, Kodak Portra 160, 400 & 800, Kodak 200 and several B&W rolls. I also brought one roll of Dubblefilm Jelly.

My plan was just to take snapshots. Just capture scenes along the route versus doing any specific genre like street photography, landscapes, etc. Essentially, I took photos of anything that caught my fancy when I was on a break or when finished riding for the day.

I'm just now starting to home develop the film so will be posting images over the next few posts. Here are some images from the 1st 3 developed rolls.

Bottomline, I'm really happy with my choice to bring the Stylus as my film camera option (and trust me I have lots of cameras to choose from).

Florida - Fujicolor 200

Florida - Fujicolor 200

Florida - Fujicolor 200

Florida - Kodak 200

Florida - Kodak 200

Florida - Kodak 200

Florida - Kodak 200

El Paso, TX - Dubblefilm Jelly

El Paso, TX - Dubblefilm Jelly

El Paso, TX - Dubblefilm Jelly

Dubblefilm Bubblegum - It's Green!

I'm testing out the different types of Dubblefilm pre-exposed 35mm film. I've previously tested Sunstroke & Jelly which I liked. Now I test Bubblegum. I purchased the film for $14.99 per 24 exposure roll from Roberts Camera in downtown Indianapolis. 

The film cartridge canister says "tinted with sugar packed analogue sweetness". The packaging is well done. Cool marketing. The website says "ISO 200 35mm film with added tone producing sweet colour to spark your visual taste buds". Nice. It's actually Kodak Gold 200 film that has been given their magic treatment. The cartridges are DX coded.

A Google image search shows images with color palettes of pinks, orange & blues. Based on the packaging and name I thought the colors were going to be pastels focusing on pink. I understand output will vary based on the lighting conditions.

I shot the roll in mixed lighting conditions on a day that moved from cloudy to sunny. I shot the roll in an Olympus Stylus. I developed the film at home using fresh Unicolor C-41 chemistry.

Wow, were my results not as expected.  All of my photos came out with a very "night vision goggle" greenish tint. All lighting conditions generated the same results. Not subtle at all. The green tint was in the shadows and the highlights. Some of the green shifted slightly to browns in the shadows. Like I said, nothing subtle. The color was uniform across the photo (unlike Sunstroke or Jelly).

The results were not unpleasant and can probably be used for artistic purposes, but this wasn't my favorite results compared to Sunstroke or Jelly. The green was just a bit too overpowering. I'm CERTAIN results will vary.

Here are results from the one roll:

Next up, Monsoon!!

Dubblefilm 35mm Pre-Exposed Funness

Film photography is fun. Digital photography is fun. Taking photos is fun. Film photography is becoming more fun with the recently introduction of several creative “pre-exposed” film stocks. These are color film stocks partially or fully pre-exposed with different colors or designs. My guess is they use some form of template over the film and then shock it with different colored lights, lasers, etc. But, hey, I’m just guessing.

There are several small companies with films available. KONO! & revolog are two. We now have another with Dubblefilm. I like to call these “party” or “artistic” style films. Very lomo. They introduce bright colors splashes or partial areas with various colors. KONO! & revolog also have pre-exposed effects like dots, lightning strikes, UFOs, scratches, etc. Like I said, just for fun.

I’ve shot several of these films previously but just purchased 2 rolls of Dubblefilm. I shot a roll of Dubblefilm Jelly & Dubblefilm Sunstroke. They also have stocks named Bubblegum, Monsoon & Moonstruck. The cool thing for me is my local photography store, Roberts Camera / USED Photo Pro has started to distribute the film. YES!

Each has a unique effect. All of the Dubblefilm films are Kodak alaris Kodacolor Gold 200 stock rerolled back into the Kodak canister. It’s not like that’s a big mystery, you can see the Kodak name through the label. All are DX coded 200 ASA with 24 exposures.  Because this is color negative film you can get it developed almost anyplace using C-41 chemistry. Or, you can develop it at home like I do.

I shot the 2 rolls with an Olympus Stylus point & shoot. I decided to use this camera because it’s trusty, light tight and I know the results when using color. I knew any effects would therefore come from the film not old camera light leaks.

The first 2 rolls came out groovy. Shot & developed easily. I got the desired effects in both shadows and bright light. Every photo had a slightly different effect with was cool. The effects were very pronounced. I enjoyed shooting the Dubblefilm and have already purchased a roll of Moonstruck to try next.

This is not everyday film (one reason is because it’s a bit pricey), but a film to play with now and again. I’m a fan. Here are some photos

Dubblefilm Jelly

Dubblefilm Sunstroke