Warning: I shot a whole roll at f/16 by mistake and half the frames came out better

Julia Anderson · 2026-09-30T03:25:04.494449+00:00

I loaded a roll of HP5 into my Pentax K1000 two Saturdays ago for a walk around the old mill district here in Lawrence, and somewhere between the car and the river I bumped the aperture ring from f/8 to f/16 without noticing. I shoot in full sun a lot, so I just trusted my sunny 16 instinct and kept metering off the back of my hand like always. When I got the negatives back from the lab on Thursday, I almost tossed the whole strip because the shadows looked thin and muddy at first glance. But then I held them up to the window and realized the highlights on the water and the brick walls were actually holding detail instead of blowing out white. Six of the thirty six frames, mostly the ones with strong side light, had this deep shadow look that I have been trying to get for months with filters and metering tricks. I learned that my fear of underexposing was making me shoot flat, boring negatives for a whole season. Next time I am going to bracket a few frames at f/16 on purpose instead of treating it like a mistake. Anyone here ever ruin a roll and end up liking the accident more than the plan?

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Warning: I shot a whole roll at f/16 by mistake and half the frames came out better | Analog Photo Share - Topic Shares