What does a roll of exposed film look like?

Question

This may be a ridiculous question, but I've had problems with film photography and blank rolls of film in the past and just shot a test roll on my Holga, not intending it to be processed, to see what the film looked like once you've taken photos with it. Does anything show up on the film itself before it's processed? How can I know if it's taking photos properly?
I'm an epic noob, I know. I just want to get the hang of it haha.

Answer 1

An exposed roll looks exactly like an unexposed roll until it is processed.



If you take it out to look at it then you have ruined it.

Answer 2

The exposed film looks no different from the unexposed film as it comes out of the camera. Only when processed (developed) can you see the negatives. If you pull the film out of the camera to look at its whole length (either before or after shooting pictures) you will ruin your pictures by 'fogging' the film to general light, so don't do that! Be warned that Holgas are notoriously unreliable and sometimes don't work out of the box. So try to find a friend who knows how to use a film-based camera and get him/her to watch you through the procedure to see if you are at fault, or the camera is not working properly. Maybe someone in a camera shop could help you.



Then you will probably have to get your money back on the Holga under guarantee, buy a good digital camera, and have fun making pics as wacky as you like in good software, which needn't be expensive..

Answer 3

Without processing it there's no way to tell if a roll of film is exposed or not.



Back in the day I've even had it happen once where I mistakenly turned in a roll of blank film for processing. Since then I've always folded the bit that was sticking out if it was an exposed roll.

Answer 4

You can't tell by looking at the film itself if it has been exposed correctly until you develop it.



The nice thing about Holga is that is uses 120 film. When you get to the end of the roll and remove it from the camera, the paper backing on the film roll will say, "EXPOSED." As long as you see that when you remove it, you will at least know you loaded it correctly.

Answer 5

This seems to be a curious question,but if you expose film through a camera weather it is correctly exposed or not, when you expose the film to light after unloading it all you will see is a piece of black film without any image on it. The reason for this is that the film will become totally exposed in the light# thus including any image that may have been previously exposed on the film. The rebate areas (sprocket holes) will also be black as they too are part of the total emulsion.

Answer 6

You won't be able to tell if the film is exposed by looking at it. The film will appear to be opaque with a hue of brown or gray, depending on the type of film. Most problems I've seen with no images coming out has to do with shooting in low light conditions. For film, you need a well lit image. This means if shooting indoors or evening, you need to use a flash or a long exposure with the camera on a tripod.



Try shooting in daylight, for best results.



I have a few how to videos for the holga and other lo-fi cameras on my youtube channel:

http://bit.ly/kPlaylists



For more info on lo-fi photography, check out my website:

http://dianacamera.com

Answer 7

you cannot pull a film from the camera because the light will immediately erase any images on it. You must lock yourself up in a dark room, put the film into light locked canisters, then give them a bath in three different timed chemical baths. then once you've washed the film, you can take it out and view the strip. I don't know if you have access to a dark room, but when i did my photography degree it was before DIGITAL had taken over. If you want to get a very interesting effect, shoot slide film on your Holga.

good luck :)

Answer 8

The "photos" on an exposed roll of film are latent images.



That means they have the potential to become photos, but require processing for this to occur.



In other words, they are not yet photographs, and exposing them to light will destroy them.



http://www.althephoto.com

Answer 9

I was wondering the same thing myself yesterday