Olympus Pen EE-S, Catching The Light

Half Frames: Film photography favorites, image making with an Olympus Pen EE-S, catching lights on a roll of expired film.

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How do you set up an expired film to catch the light? Plenty of theories here, nothing hard and fast, and a warning not to get taken in by all and what you read, everybody has their own opinion. It boils down to the fact that each individual roll of film will degrade differently from others even if they are from the same production batch.

A lot will depend on how these films have been stored. Film stored cold, especially frozen, tends to degrade much more slowly. Color films stored like this will keep their dyes from deteriorating, and are often just as good, or almost as good, as a fresh roll.

Olympus Pen EE-S

Heat, of course, is the film’s worst enemy. If you buy in bulk, you might want to sacrifice a roll for testing. If you buy loose or single items and cannot determine how the film was stored, you really won’t know until you put it in your camera and shoot it. Generally, you may just want to set the film ISO speed a stop or two slower than specified and bracket your shots with exposure compensation.

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