Expired Film Photos: 3 Tips for Using Expired Film

Film is a physical medium that photographers use in film cameras and always bears a “use by” date on its label—the date after which you can consider it expired (sometimes labeled as “EXP” next to a month and year). The film’s label also includes its ISO (International Organization for Standardization), which describes the film’s speed, an aspect in film photography that can determine how light or dark the resulting images will turn out.

Older film cameras used thirty-five millimeter film, fifty millimeter film, medium format, and even color slide film to record the amount of light coming through the lens. After you finish shooting, you process the roll of film (also called a roll of negatives), either yourself using specific chemicals or with the help of a photo developer. The images that result come from a chemical process called film emulsion, which involves the use of chemical compounds such as silver halides.

Once you process the film stock—which can be color negative film or black-and-white negative film—you can turn the negatives into prints. By contrast, digital cameras, which produce digital prints, do not require photographic film.

All film comes in a speed described as a number preceded by the letters ISO, which stand for International Organization for Standardization. Varying ISO speeds give you the ability to manipulate the shutter speed and use different aperture settings (which will vary your camera’s depth of field in terms of the view).

In film photography, the lower the ISO number, the darker your image will potentially be. For example, a film with an ISO 100 rating requires more light to process an image than a film with an ISO 400 rating. The higher the ISO speed, the more potential for noise (also called graininess) in the final image. In other words, you might produce a grainy image with an ISO 1600 film, but there should be little to no grain in an image taken properly with ISO 100 film.

To determine what ISO film you have, check the box speed or the roll itself and look for a label. If you find a roll of film that’s old, it could have something called an ASA rating—it follows the same scale as ISO film.

Photographers might choose to shoot on expired film for reasons of convenience, cost, and creativity. Consider the following advantages:

1. 1. It can save money. Film can be expensive to both buy and process. If it’s cheaper, even if you don’t know how it will turn out, it still could be worth a shot.
2. 2. It can be easy to source. Specific film types can be hard to find, especially in large quantities. Expired film can turn up in many different places, such as in-store sales on discontinued items, online retailers, a dollar store, or at other outlets.
3. 3. It can lead to creative results. Generally, old film produces images with more grain, increasing color shifts, more contrast, and less sensitivity. If you don’t know your expired film’s history—how it was handled or stored—you could be in for some surprises when you develop film. This unpredictability appeals to some photographers, who embrace the uncertainty as part of their artistic process.

Drawbacks to using expired film mainly center around the level of unpredictability in your results, since not all expired film is expired to the same degree or was maintained under the same conditions.

Film works best when you keep it away from heat and moisture, so some people store fresh film rolls at room temperature or even in a refrigerator. If the expired film you plan to use experienced optimal conditions, it might perform better than expired film that was exposed to heat or moisture. Storage conditions can impact your photographic results significantly, usually affecting color film more so than black-and-white film.

Expired film can result in fogging across the image, depending on how you process the film. Color negative film is more susceptible to fogging, while black-and-white negative film is much less so.

Shooting with expired film requires certain techniques. Here are a few tips you can use to obtain desirable results:

1. 1. Overexpose your image by one stop per decade past the expiration date. To minimize noise (graininess) in your image, the rule of thumb when shooting expired film is to compensate with overexposure. For example, if your roll is an ISO 200 speed film, and it expired 10 years prior, you should expose the image as if it was ISO 100.
2. 2. Use a technique called bracketing. This requires that you take your image three times: Once at the correct speed, once more at a half stop above the correct speed, and the last one at a half stop below the correct speed. This way when you shoot expired film, one of those three images should give you the correct result.
3. 3. Embrace unexpected results. Be open to unique outcomes when you shoot with expired film and keep in mind you can further manipulate the film in the development process. You can create something quite artistic if you mix expired film with cross processing—a method by which you use the incorrect chemicals to shift the color or play with the contrast. There are tutorials about this online that can help whether you’re shooting with slide film, slower films, or any rolls of film that you find.

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