What will expired film look like

Few places stock it, and what you can find is becoming more and more expensive. For those of us who have stuck with analogue photography, sourcing film can be a nightmare.

Not only is it cheaper, but shooting with expired film can also yield some fantastic results. Much like food, film has an expiry date. But it does have a limited shelf life. A roll of film usually has an expiration date of two years after the date of manufacture. Film is made up of thin strips of plastic coated with a chemical emulsion.

This emulsion contains silver halides that react when exposed to light, which creates the final photo. For colour film, the silver particles are mixed with coloured dyes. Over time the chemicals on the film lose their potency and start to deteriorate. As a result, colours will lose their vibrancy, and contrasts will fade and grain increases. Eventually, expired film becomes foggy and unusable. Sunlight, heat radiation and humidity can all affect the life span of your film.

But, the effects caused by the degradation of film are actually an exciting prospect for film photographers. Using expired film adds an extra element of excitement. Many photographers specifically seek out these effects.

Some will give you strong purple hues, while others may produce greener tones. You could achieve a similar look to your film by cross-processing C negative film into E-6 slide film. The faster the film speed, fast the degradation. Slide film will deteriorate much quicker than standard negative film. Many photographers will tell you to stay clear of expired colour slide film. Black and white film has a longer shelf life than standard colour canisters.

As it uses a simpler emulsion with fewer silver halides, the rate of deterioration is much slower. You might experience more grain, but black and white film tends to be more grainy anyway.

Good quality black and white film will work well for years and years. You can start your search at home. Maybe your parents have some old rolls from years ago that they never used. You can also ask any photography friends you have. The shop where you usually buy film is another place to ask. We find the best place to look for expired film is online. There are sellers on eBay that sell bundles of expired rolls for discount prices.

Sellers can also be found on many online photography forums. Another tip is to buy in bulk. I photographed using a film expired over 10 years ago using the iso indicated by the manufacturer.

Is it possible to fix in the development process? Yes, you can try to to push it one or two stops! That why i…eeh, sorry just kidding! Thanks for sharing the knowledge. It helps a lot, because i heard the 1-stop per decade stuff twiece i guess.

Once in my lab and from a friend who gave me two 30something years old s Agafa Pan Lately i bought a lovely minolta wheathermatic pocket for my kayak tours and the fresh films are not that much and so i started stocking old er.

And i thought it would be wise to learn a bit more about these 1stop per decade b-shit. Great article! I rarely shoot film nowadays but bought an old Ihagee Exa 35mm last week and had to try it out. I went out and used it today regardless and its now in the post for processing — will know in a week or two what gives.

Exposed them with box speed ASA and had them developed immediately from a professional lab in The results had been great. Now about the storage: I still lived and worked in south Spain back in Last year — 11 years after expiration — I exposed another film from that batch with the same result. So I sold that Velvia batch. I will have to run a test roll to see how it responds to different levels of exposure. Probably will shoot 2 or 3 frames in various lighting conditions at box speed, 1-stop over, 2-stops over, and maybe 1 stop under.

I love the look of the images this film can create though. Hoping for decent results. I used to guess how a type of film was stored by the type of film and who buys that film. For example, someone who bought a roll of Technical Pan 50 would probably treat their film differently than someone who had a roll of Kodak Gold. I must admit that I discovered the 1 stop per 10 years off YouTube video and used it with my first excursion with some Fuji outdated film, all around 20 years old and I assumed not fridge stored.

In my case it worked as all the results were acceptable. Biggest bug was the blue dominance on the slide films, very lomo. However I found your article interesting and will probably be a bit more experimental next time. What I have found weird are the silly prices people seem to be willing to pay for out dated film. My batch was buyer collect on eBay only and happened to be a nearby school.

Very nicely done article, EM. I like the examples! Some suggestions based on personal experience:. It has been frozen all these years. I let it thaw a day or two before removing from the foil wrapper. No fog or issues at all. Even rolls that supposedly were cold-stored have color shifts or mottling. Never buy expired film from eBay where the seller the idiot took the film out of its foil package.

The foil is airtight unless damaged and low humidity. Interesting read. Bit grainy and slight fogging but turned out fine. As you say there are so many variables unless you know all of its history.

I usually scan my negatives into my computer allowing me to make exposure adjustments there, making expired film even more viable. This should increase the signal-to-noise ratio, thereby negating the fogging. No idea, other than my Santa is in the Phillipines not an overly temperate climate. Thank you for the great article EM! I have loads of expired films in my freezers, and I have always just started with box speed and bracketed my shots. Thank you for taking the time to put together so much valuable info in one place!

And I agree, buying expired does end up helping the film community as they most likely will go buy fresh film. Whatever you do it really only needs to please one person, yourself and the hell with what others think. EM, first: thanks for the article! Trial and error can help, though. If you can get multiple rolls of the same expired film, same source, similar age, likely to have been stored together in the same conditions you can experiment with one roll and refine.

Bracketing your shots on the first roll may give you a better chance of getting pleasing results on subsequent rolls. For expired film, bracket around the speed you plan to rate the film, or use normal, one stop over, and two stops over instead of one over and one under.

When in doubt, overexpose. Negative films can handle quite a lot, and slide film generally tolerates overexposure better than underexposure.

You sure can! Instead of overexposing the film, you can push it in development, and especially with extremely old film, you may want to use a combination of overexposure and push processing.

Extremely old film is likely slow to begin with—ASA 50, 25, or even lower—so rating it down more than a couple stops might be difficult depending on your meter or camera. Note that pushing can exacerbate grain and the effects of heavy fogging.

Using developers with strong restrainers, such as HC or Microphen, can help reduce the effects of fogging. Microphen may also be able to compensate for a half-stop or more of lost sensitivity. Some photographers swear by Diafine for very old films. Diafine is a two-part, self-arresting developer that will protect highlights while continuing to act on shadow detail.

The effect is similar to that of stand developing in very dilute developer, but faster. Both techniques may increase grain and decrease contrast.

Presoaking your film a minute or three may also help developer penetrate the emulsion more quickly and evenly. You may also want to do a clip test on a thin strip cut from the end of the film. All of the above applies to black-and-white film or to developing color as black-and-white. For C or E-6 films, you can ask a lab to push process, though most labs will only push by one or two stops. Lastly, cross-processing developing color slide film as color negative and vice versa may be an option.

Color shifts are guaranteed even with fresh film , but cross-processing can add contrast, particularly to expired slide film. There are two main reasons for using expired film: economy and enigma. For many photographers , using film of unknown provenance offers an unpredictability full of fun surprises.

You may even get a variety of different effects on a single roll. Some classic emulsions, though, may fare better or offer more unique results than others. In general, the higher the silver content, the better— long-established brands like Kodak, Ilford, and Agfa are likely to degrade the most gracefully.

Finding them expired is the only way to experience the unique qualities of these emulsions today. Some films have been substantially the same for decades, and using old versions can give the same quality as fresh for a fraction of the price.

Consumer films, such as Fuji Superia and Kodak Gold, may fare worse than professional films as they age. Grain, especially, can be very pronounced, and you may find you need to compensate by even more than the 1-stop-per-decade standard. Now go dig through those closets and get out there! This article was originally published in For more, check out Daniel J.

You can also keep up with Expired Film Day on Twitter. The gamified, mobile-first approach is reminiscent of the popular language-learning app, Duolingo, but for photographers. Kodak Instant film has been extinct for 35 years. Pulled from the shelves for infringing on Polaroid's patents, it's been all but forgotten, until now.

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