Topic: Feelin' blue

[EarlJam]

I came across an exposed roll of Kodak Max 400 that had been sitting in a desk drawer for what turns out to be 18 years. Took it to the lab and got back somewhat unexpected results. A quick bit of Internet sleuthing seems to point to extreme underexposure, but even accounting for a couple of stops of speed loss and base fog over time, the color degradation seems odd. Has anyone encountered anything like this with other forgotten, then processed, C41 film?

[Indofunk]

I've seen results like that with bad/spent developer, which is one reason why I develop my film at home. If I have to blame someone for my photos coming out poorly, I want that person to be me!

[Francois]

I've had one film come out like that before. The guy at the lab said that my film wasn't stored properly and at the time I believed him. Still regret chucking the rest of the pack, but these were the pre-internet days.
I now know that unless the storage was really bad, color film turns brown. And when I say really bad, I mean left on the stove for years bad.

[John Robison]

Looks the same as some Lomography “art” film. The type they charge double prices for to get crummy results.

[EarlJam]

I've seen results like that with bad/spent developer, which is one reason why I develop my film at home. If I have to blame someone for my photos coming out poorly, I want that person to be me!

Thanks. Hadn't considered that. Would be the first time for an error like that, from this lab. I have a roll of B+W to pick up this week, so I'll inquire.

Looks the same as some Lomography “art” film. The type they charge double prices for to get crummy results.

The first time a colleague showed me his Lomo pictures, my reaction was something like, "wait, so you paid to get pictures that look like you shot tungsten-balanced film in daylight?" (Of course, that then led to a discussion of what I meant by "tungsten-balanced"; there's always a slippery slope . . .)

[Francois]

B&W probably will be fine since it's not the same chemistry set.

I sometimes have a feeling that many labs just push the chemistry beyond what is reasonable and use the customer's films as tests instead of buying those expensive pre-exposed test strips that tell them that the chemistry is not good long before it completely dies.

[Bryan]

I sometimes have a feeling that many labs just push the chemistry beyond what is reasonable and use the customer's films as tests instead of buying those expensive pre-exposed test strips that tell them that the chemistry is not good long before it completely dies.

That reminds me of the early test strips called "China Girls" or "Leader Ladies".  That may have just been movie film though. 

https://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2005/07/a-bevy-of-unknown-beauties/

https://www.chicagofilmsociety.org/projects/leaderladies/