What Causes Lip Fog?
Lip fog forms when film is exposed through the lips of the 35 mm magazine, where the leader protrudes. Exposure can take place when you load a magazine into a camera or leave unprotected magazines in direct sunlight. Infrared film may be fogged even when loaded into a camera in very dim light. The following conditions contribute to lip fog: • loading film in overused reloadable magazines with wider-than-normal lips • bright light angled toward the lips of the magazine • for infrared films, radiation high in the infrared region of the spectrum or loading in darkrooms with safelights Also, if film is incompletely rewound into a magazine after exposure, light can leak into the magazine and fog the film. How Do You Prevent Lip Fog? Although lip-fog streaks are developable and form a permanent part of the image, you can take a number of steps to avoid them: • Replace reloadable magazines regularly with new ones. • Examine magazines frequently. (Comparing them to a factory-loaded magazine is
