When colour is too old

I had an old roll of Colorplus 200, expired in 2002. I’ve used this sort of age film before, and always allow an extra stop for age. Many people suggest that 1 stop per decade is a good idea. My experience is that while 1 stop is good, going to 2 or more just adds density and makes colour casts and so on, worse if anything, and again, in my experience, more difficult to get rid of.

While I’ve been successful or maybe just lucky with the colour film I’ve been donated in the past, this roll was a dud. The whole film had a harsh green tint, and was very curved, but strangely across the width rather than the length, so whatever I did in the scanner I couldn’t get the film flat. So for the first time ever I got Newton Rings. Even with much work in photoshop the colour was still lousy. I thought about converting a few images to black and white, but thought better of it. It was my last roll of out-of-date colour that I’ve been given, rather than my stock of film that I brought fresh and bunged in the fridge that is now getting close to it’s date! From now on I’ll be using my fresh stash and when that runs out, probably doing colour in digital. That however, is a decision for the future!

Chatter: Canon EOS 30, 40mm STM and expired 2002 Kodak Colorplus, lab developed, home scanned and salvaged.