I got a message from my office mate Ivan one day offering a few rolls of film which, as he said, have been resurrected from the burrows of their home while they were cleaning. I immediately felt excited of course, thinking my occasional posting of photos on Facebook must have tipped him off that I'm still using film. He handed me three rolls the next day, and I have probably got lightheaded from the excitement of receiving free stuff that I totally forgot to ask how the film were stored.
I have no problem using expired film; 90% of the photos on this space came from ones with 1 up to 3 years expiration. So one beautiful weekend, I ended up in Laguna for a nice, unwinding road trip. Also got a chance to circle U.P. Los Baños, and enjoyed getting lost on the way to the destination.
It was one of those trips that came out of nowhere, sort of unplanned, but ended up to be nothing short of great times. Imagine my disappointment when the film scans came back from the lab with almost all dark and grainy frames. It completely slipped off my mind that I was shooting with a very expired roll, and most probably one that was not properly stored. It took me some time to see and appreciate that there are still a few persistent colors which got picked up despite the darkness. Important moments stood still :)
I remember Katie posting some of her photos from a very expired roll too, which produced a more interesting rainbow tones because why else, she's Katie. And awesome. Enough said (Hi Katie!) :D You can check them out here.
Oooh, I like the last two photos! :)
ReplyDeleteNice new header, by the way!
Thank you Bea! :)
Deletei still love these photos you posted but totally understand what you mean...in doubt when using very expired film or film that were not in the refrigerator always over expose because film loses light sensitivity as time passes by!
ReplyDeleteBelieve it or not, these were already overexposed! I guess I really just got too excited to use it and forgot that these were not stored properly. Oh well, sometimes you win, sometimes you learn haha! Thank you Sara :)
Deletei rather loved the purple hues in these photos.
ReplyDeleteI'm really glad there's still something left to appreciate despite the darkness. Thank you, Praktisha :)
DeleteI think you're being highly unfair to your pictures calling them less interesting, April! I love the dark tones, it adds story to each photograph. ♥
ReplyDeleteAwww, thank you Katie! *blush* ♥♥♥
DeleteThis is why I don't really like shooting with expired film, as much as possible. Your shots turned out great nonetheless btw.
ReplyDeleteAlso, a friend told me that if you're shooting with an expired film, it is best to set it in a lower asa. If the ISO is 400, use it as 200. Yun. I tried it with my expired film and it turned out better.
I'm almost always using an expired film, but I guess in this case, I really forgot that the film might have not been properly stored. The regular expired films I use are stored in the fridge (even before I buy them), so I kind of know that they will still turn out okay.
DeleteWill just charge this on experience haha!
Same thing happened to me when a friend gave me a Kodak Max 400. Of course, it wasn't properly stored and the photos came out very grainy and dark. Haha. But that didn't stop me from buying two dozen rolls of expired film last year. :D
ReplyDeleteYay for film hoarding! Haha! I think instead of getting discouraged, having results like these cement my interest and challenge in using film even more :)
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