OPK bafflement

[foxglove37]

I've been doing cheapie OPKs for a couple of months now and seem to keep missing the positives. I'm confident I'm ovulating as have fertile CM and v regular periods but maybe just not doing OPKs right, as I never seem to get a positive.

Today I got a negative first thing, then the top one in the photo at about 2, the bottom one about 3.30. I thought the top might be positive but it's only really dark on one side and the rest is paler (this happened last month as well). Then the second one is definitely negative.

Has anyone had this? Shall I just give up and fork out for the CB ones?

Surges can be really short so I'm not all that surprised it went back down quickly.

The colour nuance looks normal to me too and perhaps has been enhanced due to it having dried out now?

Mine recommended that you don't pee for at least four hours before you use them. If the second one was only 1 and a half hours after the first the line might be lighter because the pee is more dilute. I usually test twice a day around ov- once with fmu and once in afternoon after not having peed for a while. I usually get a first positive in an afternoon then second following morning before in disappears again and I think that's a comparatively short surge

Oh thanks all, seems I probably have been doing them wrong. I think I got a definite positive this morning, I will try to test again this afternoon and see if it's any darker.

That looks nice and dark. I should say as well that I started off with the digital smiley ones, doing the cheapy sticks alongside them as wasn't very confident interpreting the lines at first. But once you are used to them I think they are better because you get more of a heads up when the peak is coming without having to spend 10x more money on the fancy flashing/static smiley tests.
Good luck!

That second pic looks positive to me. Normal opks (not clear blue) you're suppposed to do with second morning wee and then when close to oh I usually do one about 2/4pm
Surges can be super short so you can miss it but if you take your temp (bbt) you can confirm ovulation :)