30 Seconds with 25 Year Old Film

Waikiki 19  [ZeroImage Pinhole Camera]
Honolulu, Hawai'i  April 16, 2008
(click in the image for a larger version)

Last year I traded some expired film with photographer Brett Harrington. Although most of my images are created with a digital SLR, I still use medium format film in a variety of pinhole cameras, as well as plastic "toy cameras" such as the Diana and the Holga.

So, I sent Brett three rolls of medium format black and white infrared film that had expired in the early 1990s and he sent me three rolls of medium format Kodacolor II that had expired in early 1983, making them 25 years out of date!

I hung onto these three rolls for over a year. Most of the time they stayed in my film cabinet, but they also accompanied me on trips to Hawaii, Maine (twice), New Mexico, San Francisco, and other locations in California. It was not until a second trip to Hawaii a month ago, however, that I finally used the film. I chose to expose it in my ZeroImage pinhole camera since that wonderfully low-tech, low-fidelity method of image making seemed a good fit for film that was a quarter century past its sell by date. When film is long expired, it tends to "slow" down quite a bit, meaning it loses some of its sensitivity to light. Plus, I had no idea how it had been stored during the passing years. To compensate for this expected loss in sensitivity, I rated the normally 100 ISO film at 25. This loss of film speed was another factor that made me shoot the rolls in Hawaii: lots of bright daylight. But even with plenty of light, my shortest exposure times in the bright sun were still 30 seconds. Under overcast skies, or for images of darker subjects, the exposure times stretched out to 45 seconds to over a minute.

There was a 1-hour photo lab a couple of blocks from the beach, so I was able to shoot one roll and then inspect the negatives to see how my exposure calculations were faring. I was pleased to see that they were right on and I was getting good density in the negs. This freed me up to use the remaining two rolls with confidence that my exposure times were good. Given the dominance of digital in the consumer photography market today, I was somewhat surprised to find that 1-hour lab, but I'm glad it was there!

Over the course of three days I shot the three rolls of 25 year old film on and around Waikiki Beach and I've been very pleased with the results. As you can see from the image above, the "ancient" film yielded very good photographs. The shots taken in the shade or under overcast skies had a distinct cyan/blue color cast, but the ones taken in full, bright sunlight required remarkably little in the way of Photoshop color correction. And there are some images where the slight color cast is actually an interesting part of the photo. I will be posting a few of the shots here in the next several days and the entire short series of about twenty images will appear in the Galleries section of my web site sometime time in the next few weeks.

Now, these images may raise the question of why I shoot with pinhole cameras, or why I would even waste my time on long expired film that many people would just toss out. Both fair questions, which I will address here in the near future. But the (very) short answer is...the Possibilities.

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Upcoming Workshops

My next major workshop takes place in mid-August along the New England coast at the world renown Maine Photographic Workshops. Real World Digital Photography I is the perfect class if you want to get a jump start on truly understanding the controls on your digital SLR, learning good exposure technique, shooting in raw, special exposure situations and making the most of your exposures back in the digital darkroom using Lightroom and Photoshop CS3. Click the class title to learn more about this class. A second level version of this class will be offered at the Maine Photographic Workshops Oct 5-11.

Also coming up this September in northern California:

Creative Camera Raw
Sept 20, 21 Berkeley, California

Secrets of the Mask: Selections & Masking in Photoshop CS3
Sept. 26, 27  Santa Cruz, California

Comments

[Magali]

Wow Sean, that's super.
I found some 20 year old 35mm film. It give a funny chemical smell when you smell it, & I would like to know what I should do in your opinion. Throw it out or try it? (It's Ilford FP4 film)

[Sean]

Magali...Well, since you only have one roll, and since FP4 is still available, using a new roll would give your more predictable results with better image quality. On the other hand, it's still unexposed film, and probably still OK. I used mine because I had 3 rolls, which was enough for a short series, and I was curious as to how it would turn out. FP4 is a black & white film, so you don't have to worry about color issues. In all likelihood, the primary effects will be lower contrast and lower sensitivity (i.e., the ISO 125 will not really be as sensitive as would new ISO 125 film). To get around the ISO issue, consider treating it like ISO 50 film (essentially overexposing it by one full stop) I don't think ISO issue will be as marked with B&W film as it will for color. To be safe, you could take two shots of each scene and overexpose by one and two stops. Good luck with that! -- Sean