AboutSteve Meltzer Expertise I am a professional photographer and I've been shooting for newspapers, magazines, commercial clients and artists for over 30 years.
I have shot stock photography for dozens of years and in 1977 created West Stock (Seattle, WA) which was one of the first to produce stock photo CDs and later one of the first to establish an online stock photo slaes site.
I have a new book on digital photography "PHOTOGRAPHING ARTS, CRAFTS AND COLLECTIBLES (Lark Books, 2007)which is available at Amazon.com, eBay.com and in bookstores like Barnes & Noble and Borders. I have another book, CAPTURE THE LIGHT which will be puiblished in November, 2008.
I write 20-30 feature articles and columns for regional and national publications a year.
My education includes studying with photographers like Cornell Capa, Duane Michels and Oliver Gagliani (from the Ansel Adams Center.)
Question how long does it take for 35 milimiter negatives of 4x6 photos to fade?
when pix fade do they do so totally?
and become totally balnk?
will theylook like film that was not shot but developed anyways (despite that there was no picture on the film frame)?
how does a very faded negative look like?
is it blank?
how is it different than a picture that was not taken but submitted for processing anyways?
Answer yom
negatives vary. Black and white if properly processed don't fade at all even after 100 years. color negatives are good for nearly as long. when negatives fade they don't really disappear. black and white negs tend to discolor and lighter areas area blocked by the discoloration. color negative change color. usually turning magenta.
the pictures don't disappear they just change color and become hard to print.
prints fade by losing color saturation and becomin washed out looking but the images don't fade away totally.
I am unsure what your last question is. what is a picture that was not taken but submitted for procesing anyway. do you mean a blank frame an un-exposed frame? There is nothing on a negative when it isn't exposed. it is clear.
