5 Tips When Using Expired Film
Old rolls of film are everywhere! You might find some old rolls of film in your attic, maybe given to you by a family member or perhaps you bought some online.
But with this old film its important to stick to a few golden rules!
1. Past Storage
Firstly you need to find out where the film has been stored. Ideally the film has been stored in a cool, dry, dark place away from sunlight. Film stored this way will give you the best results. If film has been stored somewhere humid or warm, theres a very high chance your roll will come out dark, grainy or with some unusual colours.
2. Date the film
Next you need to do is establish how old your film is. If its stored in the original box, its easy, just check the date on the box. It'll look like this one below
As we can see, this roll expired in January 2021
Unfortunately this is the only way to accurately identify the age of your film. If you have more then one roll of the same film however, you can shoot the first roll and then adjust accordingly.
3. Future Storage
The best place you can keep your film is in either the fridge or freezer. The cold dry air of the fridge slows down the film degradation so you can shoot it years after the expiration date, and the freezer stops the film degradation completely, meaning if a roll is freezer stored you can shoot it 20-30 years expired with excellent results. A quick tip is to only store unopened film in the freezer, don't do this with a roll you have already opened, if you've opened the film canister to have a look, the fridge is the best spot to keep it. And if the film is frozen, wait 24 hours until the film is completely thawed out to shoot
4. Adjusting for age
As film ages, you need to adjust the settings in your camera to compensate for the film degradation. For every decade the film is out of date its recommended you adjust your ISO 1 stop downwards. The table below will help with this.
| New | 10 Years Expired | 20 Years Expired | 30 Years Expired |
| 100 | 50 | 25 | 12 |
| 200 | 100 | 50 | 25 |
| 400 | 200 | 100 | 50 |
| 800 | 400 | 200 | 100 |
| 1600 | 800 | 400 | 200 |
| 3200 | 1600 | 800 | 400 |
For example, if Ive a roll of Kodak gold 200, that expired in 2002 (21 years expired), instead of setting my ISO to 200, Im going to put my ISO to 50 when I insert my roll into the camera.
Please note, this is not necessary with frozen, black and white or slide film.
5. Don't use it for important events
I love the uniqueness that expired film can give your photos, but you should never use them for photos that you cant afford to lose. The unpredictability of shooting expired film just makes this too risky. The only time Id shoot an expired roll of film for something important is if I i bought it new and froze the roll as soon as I could! You are better off, buying a new roll for €10-20 then risking losing these important photos. Check out our selection of film here