How do you carry film through airports today?

[Aryel]

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1 hour ago, thisisyourlife said:

Do others, for a large batch of film after a long trip, consider using multiple labs to avoid this exact problem?

Not me at least, I always mail it to the same lab in Spain. I know what chemicals they use for b&w and have been happy with the results.  I even mail them films from Singapore sometime (when I get lazy 🙈). 

[hansvons]

8 hours ago, thisisyourlife said:

17 hours ago, hansvons said:

 

Certainly, I will not rule out the lab especially since I have no knowledge if all 10 rolls were developed in the same bath or not.

To be clear, I don't want to bad-mouth the lab. But since this thread is about scanners and their impact, we should not leave out labs as they contribute as much as the photographer to the technical success. 

Speaking of the photographer, it seems logic that exposure has a strong influence on how scanners might affect the negative. Thin negatives will show more fog than fat ones. Because modern colour film stocks’ box speeds tend to be on the upper side, choosing half a stop to a full stop lower IE makes lots of sense, even more so when the spectre of fogging through scanners is looming. 

I might be wrong but I understand fogging through scanning before the actual exposure to be similar to flashing/pre-exposure of the negative. You will gain shadow detail but lose contrast because mid-tones and highlights will be unaffected. If the exposure was too long the flashing will appear as fog. Also the motif’s contrast as such plays a significant role. 

When you give the exposure a stop more light a similar effect will appear in the shadows, even surpassing the flashing/fogging threshold but midtones and highlights will also be pushed to a brighter level, thus roughly maintaining the contrast. Only that the highlights won't be affected as much as they will be compressed in the white’s shoulder.

I’m pretty sure that exposing the negative on the fat side will mitigate the fogging introduced by airport scanners. Perhaps that's the reason why we hear different experiences. 

However, flashing after exposure only introduces fog. So, sending the negs to a lab before flying makes sense. 

8 hours ago, thisisyourlife said:

Do others, for a large batch of film after a long trip, consider using multiple labs to avoid this exact problem?

That is a good question, and I would put it in a more general discourse. Yes, I absolutely think that labs can make a difference. Trying out a few before settling to one and later do that again makes a lot of sense. 

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[Eclectic Man]

I contacted Heathrow through their web site asking about obtaining a hand search for photographic film.  This is their reply:

"Thank you for contacting us regarding carrying photographic film through security. 

We have CT scanners in operation in all our terminals. If you are randomly selected to use a CT lane, your film will be exempt from screening and additional hand checks will be undertaken on the film. 

If you go through a regular x-ray lane, the packaging on the film will be inspected and if the ISO is greater than 800 (based on the packaging) the film will be exempt from x-ray screening and additional hand checks will be completed. If the ISO is less than 800, it will need to go through the x-ray. 

Please alert our security team as soon as you reach the screening area if your film requires a hand search, and bring the film packaging and any other relevant documentation with you to ensure checks go as smoothly as possible. 

I trust this helps and wish you a smooth journey. "

BTW, the only way I could find to actually send a question via the Heathrow web site was to go to the Help pages and and ask about their web site, every link through 'security' or 'baggage' ended up at an FAQ page.  The email address is passenger.mail.support@heathrow.com 

[Eclectic Man]

One further thought.  It might be a good idea, if you know which airports you will travel through, to get a similar set of instructions from them, and print it out.  I assume that in the response from Heathrow "any other relevant documentation" refers to things like receipts.

If you do travel with film, do keep us all updated, please.

[grahamc]

10 hours ago, Eclectic Man said:

One further thought.  It might be a good idea, if you know which airports you will travel through, to get a similar set of instructions from them, and print it out.  I assume that in the response from Heathrow "any other relevant documentation" refers to things like receipts.

If you do travel with film, do keep us all updated, please.

Thanks for this. The advice you have posted from Heathrow is consistent with my experience there 2 weeks ago. You might also find the “airport security whitelist” and “airport security blacklist” posts useful in the film section of the forum. People are posting their experiences there.  
 

I emailed ahead to many of the airports I used on a recent trip and all said hand check would be granted (and they were). I’ve mentioned most of them in the threads mentioned above