In 1995, we were driving along a forestry trunk road in Kananaskis Country when we stumbled upon a Great Gray Owl in a poplar staring intently at the verge of the road. He seemed completely unconcerned when I got out of the car, set up my tripod and camera, and took a grand total of four pictures: one carefully composed and exposure- bracketed setup, preceded by a single longer-range shot (remember, film was not cheap for a just-graduated university student!).
At the time, I mainly used Fujichrome 100 slide film, and had nothing much in terms of a long lens (I think I was using a 70-200 zoom lens with a 1.4x extender). So the shots would not have been exactly the crispest (because of the light, I was probably shooting at 1/30 or 1/60s), but we were still both very excited when we dropped the roll of film off at the lab (I was using the lab at the University of Calgary bookstore). We were not birders at the time, but this encounter seemed special.
Imagine our complete disappointment, then, when we went back to the lab the following week expecting to pick up a nice package of slides and were instead given a bundle of prints! The lab technician had mistakenly processed the film as C-41 (the print process) instead of using the E-6 slide film process. The resulting colours on the negatives, and the prints, were horribly wrong. Here is a scan of one of the prints, with no manipulation or cropping whatsoever (I couldn't find the negatives):
At the time, I mainly used Fujichrome 100 slide film, and had nothing much in terms of a long lens (I think I was using a 70-200 zoom lens with a 1.4x extender). So the shots would not have been exactly the crispest (because of the light, I was probably shooting at 1/30 or 1/60s), but we were still both very excited when we dropped the roll of film off at the lab (I was using the lab at the University of Calgary bookstore). We were not birders at the time, but this encounter seemed special.
Imagine our complete disappointment, then, when we went back to the lab the following week expecting to pick up a nice package of slides and were instead given a bundle of prints! The lab technician had mistakenly processed the film as C-41 (the print process) instead of using the E-6 slide film process. The resulting colours on the negatives, and the prints, were horribly wrong. Here is a scan of one of the prints, with no manipulation or cropping whatsoever (I couldn't find the negatives):
The colour distortions, increased contrast, and altered levels resulting from such cross-processing are essentially unrecoverable (some artists used to use the process in their work, to great effect). It is not possible to fully recover the original photo. The next picture is my attempt to do so, however, by greatly reducing the blue and red channels, adjusting the levels, slightly increasing the yellow channel, and sharpening the photo:
The image is not perfect, by any means (the owl looks less like a Great Gray and more like a cross between a Great Gray and a Great Horned Owl), but it is more representative of the original image. This owl remains the only Great Gray we've ever seen, so we are at least happy to have this!
Incidentally, we didn't pay for the processing fee (of course), and the technician gave us two rolls of film - along with his profuse apologies!
Incidentally, we didn't pay for the processing fee (of course), and the technician gave us two rolls of film - along with his profuse apologies!