A Thousand Words
Ramblings and musings of an incurable photo geek.

Tuesday, February 21, 2017

Shooting With Expired B&W Film

We've definitely seen a resurgence lately in the number of people interested in film photography and the idea of creating images by hand instead of using a lot of digital manipulations. Film cameras and lenses sell today for a fraction of their previous value, so shooting film can be a much less expensive prospect than the investment into digital cameras, storage media, computers, and software. Still, having to spend $$ to purchase film and processing each time we go out to shoot makes us feel the bite in our wallets a bit more keenly, while digital capture feels like it's free- once you forget about the initial cost of the camera...

I like saving money as much as the next guy, so when I'm given some expired film or I find some squirreled away in a camera bag I gladly accept it- I just try to make sure I'm not shooting anything important on that old film unless I can test a roll first to see what my results will be. Sometimes I'll load up a test roll to go out on a photo walk, and if my results are good and I have more of that batch of film I'll know what to expect next time.

This past weekend while digging through the film fridge I came up with a roll of Ilford HP5 with a 2002 expiration date- and this gave me an idea... I had a fresh roll of HP5 that needed processing, so I could soup them together in the same tank for a comparison. I've shot lots of expired film, so I had a pretty good idea what results to expect and how best to increase my odds of getting usable images from the old stuff. I loaded the expired film in my Nikon FM2 and set the camera's ISO to 200- old film tends to lose some box speed so I decided to overexpose it by one stop and occasionally bracket shots as well. My wife and I took our son for a walk around downtown and shot the entire roll, concentrating on this month's Raleigh Photo Group project theme- "An Atypical Shot of a Local Landmark."

When I got back to the darkroom I processed the two rolls together in one tank using Ilford Perceptol, 1:1 for 15 minutes at 20ยบ C. The results are pretty much what I expected. The expired film has a very dense base and when I bracketed (1 stop over, normal ISO200, and 1 stop under) the normal frame was the best exposure. Here on the light table we see the top neg is the fresh HP5 while the bottom neg is the expired:


This density in the base will make it harder to achieve a good solid black, but it's still do-able. I scanned the negs as contact sheets, base-plus-fog and we can see that the expired film here has quite usable images, but to achieve a rich black and a bright white I am going to need to increase the contrast in either scanning or printing.

Expired Ilford HP5 400, rated at ISO200

The fresh film will give me the tonal range I expect from HP5, since it lacks that added density in the base. If greater contrast is what we want we can increase it in Photoshop or in the darkroom, but we can't create tonal range where it doesn't exist.

Fresh Ilford HP5 400, rated at box speed
Here is a scan from the fresh film. Very little work has been done, just a levels adjustment and dust retouch:


And here is a scan from the expired film after adjusting levels and curves to achieve a good black point:


So we can get good images out of either the fresh or expired, however the old film takes a bit more work: testing the stock, overexposing to compensate for loss of speed, more careful scanning and adjusting in post or in the darkroom, etc. The fresh film is quite frankly easier. Shoot it at box speed and do a standard scan and the results are pretty good. 

Unfortunately it's often the beginning film photographer who chooses to shoot expired film in an effort to save money, and they really do themselves a disservice. Shooting an unpredictable film stock makes it very difficult to learn from your mistakes. Shooting old expired film is part science, part educated guessing, and part blind luck. 

So my recommendation is to go buy some fresh in-date film. Not only will you be more pleased with the results, but if we all buy film there's a better chance they'll keep making & selling the stuff!

Saturday, April 16, 2016

Fun with a fan

Did a quick portfolio shoot with Kristen last Thursday. These are from the digital... Film coming soon!




Tuesday, June 16, 2015

Tweed Ride Photo Booth #3




Pentax 67 w/105mm f2.4
Kodak PlusX in HC110 dil.B

Every year I photograph people at the Triangle Tweed Ride in downtown Raleigh. It's the part of the week-long Oaks and Spokes Festival where dapper gents and sassy lasses get together for a Sunday afternoon bike ride & picnic at the park, all while dressed in their finest vintage clothing. I take my portable studio set-up and do portraits, and there's always lots of great faces. While the vast majority of the shots I take are captured digitally, I just can't help but bring along a film camera to shoot for fun. The last 2 years I shot 4x5 Polaroids, but this year it was my latest acquisition, a 120 roll film Pentax 67 with the amazing 105mm lens. The whole gallery is here.

Monday, June 15, 2015

Tweed Ride Photo Booth #2




Pentax 67 w/105mm f2.4
Kodak PlusX in HC110 dil.B

Every year I photograph people at the Triangle Tweed Ride in downtown Raleigh. It's the part of the week-long Oaks and Spokes Festival where dapper gents and sassy lasses get together for a Sunday afternoon bike ride & picnic at the park, all while dressed in their finest vintage clothing. I take my portable studio set-up and do portraits, and there's always lots of great faces. While the vast majority of the shots I take are captured digitally, I just can't help but bring along a film camera to shoot for fun. The last 2 years I shot 4x5 Polaroids, but this year it was my latest acquisition, a 120 roll film Pentax 67 with the amazing 105mm lens. The whole gallery is here.

Friday, June 12, 2015

Tweed Ride Photo Booth #1



Pentax 67 w/105mm f2.4
Kodak PlusX in HC110 dil.B

Every year I photograph people at the Triangle Tweed Ride in downtown Raleigh. It's the part of the week-long Oaks and Spokes Festival where dapper gents and sassy lasses get together for a Sunday afternoon bike ride & picnic at the park, all while dressed in their finest vintage clothing. I take my portable studio set-up and do portraits, and there's always lots of great faces. While the vast majority of the shots I take are captured digitally, I just can't help but bring along a film camera to shoot for fun. The last 2 years I shot 4x5 Polaroids, but this year it was my latest acquisition, a 120 roll film Pentax 67 with the amazing 105mm lens. The whole gallery is here.

Tuesday, April 7, 2015

Portraits From Bentonville #8


Pentax 67 w/105mm f2.4
PlusX in HC110 dilB
Scanned from the negative


Wednesday, April 1, 2015

Portraits From Bentonville #7


Pentax 67 w/105mm f2.4
PlusX in HC110 dilB
Scanned from the negative