AboutJohn and Chris Expertise We are both professional photographers, with over 15 years experience. We can answer questions about photography, as well as questions about cameras from the 60s to 90s. (extensive 35mm, quite a bit of other formats.) Please, no darkroom questions.
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 There are too many variables involved to really answer your question. Type of negative, type of processing, quality of processing and skill of the person of did the work and how the negatives are stored. If everything is done right, a color negative will last for decades before the color noticeably shifts.
I've never heard of a negative becoming blank. I suppose if you left one in the sun for many years, it would eventually totally fade.
I don't know if a negative has ever been tested to complete failure, so I don't know what it would look like. But I imagine the frame would become transparent. That is what a frame that hasn't been exposed looks like when it has been processed.
