Expired film can be fun. Properly stored, it can retain much of its contrast and usefulness. Poorly stored, it becomes a guessing game of strange effects. My next two rolls were from a hot attic and had been damaged beyond true usefulness.
I used one in a local park and was horrified to see how blue and ugly the photos were. Still, I wasn't surprised: the film had been cooking in summer heat for at least a decade.
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| Pretty much the only distinguishable photo from this roll. |
The rest of the photos are so murky that they aren't of much use to anyone. Still, I'm glad that I tried. The film was originally a store brand with an ISO of 400, but, given its storage, I metered it at 200 for eight exposures, 150 for the next eight, and 100 for the final eight. I don't want to imagine what it would've looked like if I had metered it at 400.
After that, I traveled to Princeton, NJ, and so I took one more of these expired rolls with me. I viewed it more as a chance to experiment with and to learn more about composition, and I was not disappointed. The bad film caused some Halloween-worthy photos.
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| Princeton University |
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| Dorms at Princeton University |
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| Trust me, these photos were all taken in the middle of the day, not at night. |
Overall, the effect was pretty neat, but I definitely wanted to get back into using fresh film.
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