04/09/2026
Sometimes looking at your negz feels like doing math homework with your dad and you’ve already said the wrong answer… twice.
…
Sorry for the long pause, memories I thought were long forgotten came rushing in. Sheesh….
Anyway! If there’s one good thing about analog photography, it’s that at least there’s neither numbers nor stupid letters to worry about when trying to figure out what went wrong with your last roll.
Here’s a quick visual guide (part one!) to help you troubleshoot the most common “uhm… what the hell happened here” moments:
👉 Fully transparent, with visible edge markings? Just means it’s unexposed, silly! Your film was probably not loaded correctly, or your shutter doesn’t fire anymore. Let’s hope it’s the first one, for your camera’s sake (and your wallet’s too…)
👉 Your negatives are very thin, you can barely see anything, AND your scans turned out very dark? That’s underexposure. Your negatives look very dark, but your scans turned out very light? Guessed it, overexposure. Your light meter may be having issues, or your shutter speeds are all messed up. Could also be human error but we’ll try to forget about that.
See? There’s no need to cry over your negative archive like you did over your 5th grade math notebook 📓
