Film Processing

[mrteacherdude]

Yea... I know this is a Digital Photography Forum, but I know a lot of you have tons of experience shooting film, and still shoot film. Here's the situation:

A coworker today told me that she had about 30 (exposed) rolls of film that are at least 10 years old. She is suddenly interested in recovering those memories and tried to have a roll developed at Wal-mart ... ultimately a bad experience. She asked me if I had any advice, and sadly I did not. We have no photo labs in our area anymore other than the chain stores and Costco. I mostly trust Costco here to handle the film properly and deliver decent prints for the sake of "memories," but told her that I would put the question out to you guys to see if you have advice, ideas, etc. I don't imagine she wants to spend a lot of money, but would just like a competent service that can develop the photos if they are still developable (is that even a word?).

Thanks in advance!

[inkista]

Best place for advice might be a Flickr expired film group.

And Ctein's got a book on photo restoration.

That's all I can think of.

[mosgood]

How have the rolls been stored? Cold storage might prolong the life of film, but it won't work indefinitely. Film goes bad after a while, especially if it's 10 years old. I've developed some rolls that had some odd fading & weird colors due to age. I doubt she's going to get great pictures from the old negs. Throwing more money at the exposed rolls for a better lab won't necessarily help. Maybe some post processing in Photoshop might help once the film is developed.

Best of luck!

[graciousness]

This thread reminded me of rolls of films I needed to develop - have re-printed from our wedding in 2000.

Oh dear.

[mrteacherdude]

@mosgood - no particular great care was taken to store the rolls of film other than in their original black canisters inside a ziplock bag and placed in a dark cupboard. I've done the same thing you have; discovered rolls of film that should have been developed years later after I shot pics with them, and got strange colors. I don't know if she cares that much about having to PP after developing at this point, just getting them developed.

@inkista - thanks for the links, I'll check them out. As I'm thinking about this, I believe there is a lab down your way that does a lot of print to digital work as well as photo restoration and manipulation (removing ex-spouses and such), and may also have a print from film lab; don't remember now. Do you know anything about them? If memory serves me right I think I saw the reference on Rockwell's site. I'll look through my bookmarks and see if I can find it, but if you know anything about them, recommendations, etc., I'd appreciate it.

[OsmosisStudios]

Here's the deal: Film is fine if you take a long time before shooting it, then have it developed shortly thereafter. The colours will shift, but otherwise it's not bad.

However: if you shoot the roll then leave it for a long time before processing it, you're likely to lose the whole thing. It degrades.

[NathanFranke]

My mom found a 50 year old undeveloped roll of b/w film, she took it to the drug store and got it developed without any problems. This was 10 years ago, though, so film was still in wide use.

As for the current predicament, I'd recommend taking the film to a dedicated photo shop, not a Target/CVS/Costco place. The photo processing people in a photography store will have more experience dealing with weird film issues than your min wage clock puncher elsewhere.

Like anything else in photography, do you want the person who just got a brand new dslr and doesn't know how to use it but gets lucky sometimes, or the person who eats, sleeps, and breathes photography and knows how to handle sub optimal conditions?

[mosgood]

Originally Posted by NathanFranke

My mom found a 50 year old undeveloped roll of b/w film, she took it to the drug store and got it developed without any problems. This was 10 years ago, though, so film was still in wide use.

As for the current predicament, I'd recommend taking the film to a dedicated photo shop, not a Target/CVS/Costco place. The people in the photo processing people in a photography store will have more experience dealing with weird film issues than your min wage clock puncher elsewhere.

Like anything else in photography, do you want the person who just got a brand new dslr and doesn't know how to use it but gets lucky sometimes, or the person who eats, sleeps, and breathes photography and knows how to handle sub optimal conditions?

Black & white film holds up better & longer than color film.

[mrteacherdude]

Originally Posted by NathanFranke

As for the current predicament, I'd recommend taking the film to a dedicated photo shop, not a Target/CVS/Costco place. The people in the photo processing people in a photography store will have more experience dealing with weird film issues than your min wage clock puncher elsewhere.

That's what I figured too. Thanks

[SwissJon]

Lol.. I found an old film in my basement and sent it off to be developed just to see what was on it.. It never came back, so I assume nothing..