AboutMikael Barnard Expertise I have much experience in photographing events and my most specialist area
of knowledge is alternative photographic processes. I may well answer
questions on broader topics of photography but only if my sphere of
knowledge extends to the question in hand. Please feel free to ask away
though!
Experience I have both a GCSE and an A-level in photography and much experience with event photography, I now persue photography as a hobby.
Education/Credentials GCSE photography- B. A.S. Level- C. A-Level- D- nothing wrong with my work, seems the exam board are pretty narrow minded when it comes to alternative photographic processes :-(
Expert: Mikael Barnard Date: 11/28/2003 Subject: expired film
Question I bought a couple rolls of 35 mm film (800 and 400 speed; Kodak Max brand) that has passed the expiration date on the box. Will this affect my photos?
Thanks
Answer Hello. I imagine you mean Kodak T-Max brand. T-Max range are all black and white. This being the case the fact that it is past the use by date depends on exactly how far past as to whether it will effect your pictures. The thing that tends to happen when B/W film is past its use by date is that the tonal values are messed up, blacks come out greys etc. The general contrast of the film is also lowered so to get ANYTHING out of it the film would have to be developed for longer than normal.
Using out of date film can produce some nice artisic effects but this is usually an intention of the photographer- there are a handful of places that sell out of date film for precisely this purpose. This tends to be he case more often with colour film as not only to the tonal values change but the colours distort, I have seen some wonderful photos that take advantage of this!
So, in summation, what I would do is first is to see how far out of date the film is. Then the way I would approach it is that if it is a long way out of date use it to try and create these artistic effects if you want to but be warned it is a VERY random process. If the film is not out of date by more than a year or so I would only shoot images that I would be happy either coming out normally OR distorted, i.e. I would be happy with both effects. Of course the only way to be very sure of good results is to use in date film! But have a go, experiment with this, just don't rely on it for anything serious. Hope this helps in some way. Best wishes.
