The Pros and Cons of Shooting Expired Film
On a crisp December day I was visiting home in Philadelphia and decided to head out to one my favorite spots in the city. The Gray’s Ferry skatepark lies on a curve of the Schuylkill River tucked under a bridge in Southwest Philadelphia in an industrial area, surrounded by shipping facilities, oil refineries, recycling plants, and a modest residential neighborhood.
Small but jam-packed with features, I was excited to skate the transition-oriented and flowing sections of this concrete oasis on my board, but I was also excited to try out some new film on the Pentax ME Super camera I had picked up off my dad’s dusty shelf the year before. I had put a couple of the standard Fuji and Kodak stocks through the camera, but recently I had seen a listing on a Facebook film photography group for a batch of ten expired rolls for $40. What a steal! I loaded up an elderly roll of Fuji 100 film and went out to take some shots at the park as the afternoon on that wintery day quickly turned to night with the setting sun. I got a couple good shots of the trees and the bridge and I even snapped a shot of a prominent local skater landing a smooth nollie manual off the pyramid. My skate photography career was blossoming.
Much to my disappointment, when I got the shots back, they were dark. Really dark. Unusably dark. Every frame was tinged with a brown hue and a grain structure so coarse I would have had better results shooting on a burlap sack. I was disappointed and confused. What went wrong?
Here the excitement of reasonably priced expired film hits the brick wall of chemistry and physics. Why does film have an expiration in the first place? Film is not like a jug of milk where once it’s bad, it needs to go in the trash. Film gradually loses its sensitivity over time. A film stock will maintain that sensitivity for a few years, perhaps even past the expiration date depending on how it’s stored, but then it starts to slowly fall off in unpredictable ways. The expiration date gives you a sense of the time frame in which you can expect the film to perform consistently, crucial information for professionals, amateurs, and everyone in between.
So while the allure of cheaper film makes it an enticing option especially for the hobbyist who can’t keep springing 15, 18, 20 bucks for a roll, take the price with a healthy dose of salt. I don’t mean to say that you should never shoot expired film. It is a cheaper option and it’s great for experimentation. Sometimes you might find an old roll at a relative’s house or at a garage sale and get interested in shooting it.* However, it is important if you want to not waste money on the developing and scanning costs to do your research and know everything you possibly can about the film before shooting in order to get good exposures. Here are a few tips for making your expired shots come out great:
Check the process. Out-dated processes will make it difficult or impossible to find a lab that will develop the roll, as most only process C-41 color, recent black and white, and E6 slide film. Thecost of getting the roll to a far-off lab that can process your roll may outweigh the benefits of getting cheap film in the first place.
Check the expiration date. If the film has an expiration date, use that information and push your roll one stop for every decade past the expiration date. Pushing the roll during development will chemically bring out more data to counteract the decaying sensitivity of the film. If you don’t have the expiration date, look up the stock and find out when it went into production and when it was discontinued and split the difference. Most importantly, tell your lab if you are pushing the roll, they will have to adjust processing times to make sure the roll comes out correctly. You can also preempt that by shooting your roll at a lower ISO than the stock, again one stop per decade. This will let in more light on the front end and reduce your costs when you take it to a lab. However, be aware that this may limit your ability to shoot in the same spectrum of light conditions. For instance, I am currently pushing an old E6 100 ISO roll two stops and shooting it at 25 ISO which means I have very little ability to shoot in low light.
Ask questions when buying. There are plenty of people online trying to cash in on the exorbitant film prices by offering expired film to photographers looking for a deal. Ask about whether the film was cold stored, if they know the expiration date, and if the rolls show any signs of damage. Some expired stocks are clearly old and unfamiliar, but make sure to ask about expiration even with common stocks like Portra, Gold, and Superia. These stocks have been around for a long time, and you could unwittingly get a 2008 roll of Portra when you think you’re getting a fresh one. Information is key.
Calibrate your expectations. The less you know about the roll, the more uncertainty there is about how the shots will come out. Go into a roll knowing that there is a possibility you will get dark shots or no shots at all. Consider shooting it fast so that you don’t rely on the film to capture treasured memories across months. Put the expired roll in a separate camera or point and shoot so that you can shoot on a fresh roll when you really want the shot to come out well.
If you need the shot to come out, don’t shoot expired film.
Keep your expectations in check, do your due diligence, and have fun shooting expired film!
*You also might find an exposed roll in an old camera! While not expired at the time of shooting, the same expiration effects apply to film that has been sitting exposed but undeveloped. Gather all the information you can about when it was shot, the stock, the expiration date, the developing process, etc. and inform your lab when you drop it off. Like shooting expired film, this is key to getting a good result out of these rolls that are incredible little time capsules.
