#exposure

@grainydays Jason demonstrates how a popular but controversial “rule” helps him make good exposures on expired film.

“The Rule” dictates that you should over-expose your colour-negative film by 1 stop for every decade it’s been expired. Not everyone agrees with this prescription, but Jason showed that it worked (at least in his experience).

For example, an ISO 200 colour-negative film that expired in 1994 is 3 decades past its prime so it should be metered like ISO 25 (200 — 1stop = 100 — 1stop = 50 — 1stop = ISO 25).

Jason takes “The Rule” a little further by suggesting to add 1/2 stops for every stop the film stock is faster than ISO 400.

So, an ISO 800 colour-negative film that expired in 1994 should be metered like ISO 100 — (1 × 1/2stop) = ISO 66, which can be rounded to ISO 50.

For black-and-white film, Jason suggests over-exposing by 1 stop for every 20 years past its expiry date.

Finally, the expired slide film should be shot at box speed and prayed for, which seems to have worked out for Jason as well. However, he did show some bad results when he tried to cross-process Kodak Ektachrome 64T in C-41 chemicals.

youtube.com/watch?v=uFu3s8…

#exposure #editorial #video

I’ve added new spaces on Analog.Cafe, where I’ll be organizing some of my thoughts on film photography.

You’ll probably notice #editorial the most since it’s where I write about product launches and share announcements like this. Comments under this tag may end up in your RSS feed, Community Letters¹, or you may hear about them from me on Mastodon and Bluesky.

A #video tag lists all the comments with a YouTube link. I’ve added a whole bunch of these, including this epic trilogy of Kodak factory tours: analog.cafe/comments/tnq0.

#gas is a fun one about cameras — you can participate by tagging your comments with #gas or visiting analog.cafe/comments/tag/g….

#repair is for notes about fixing cameras. I return to this section whenever I open my set of micro screwdrivers.

#exposure is a space to chat about measuring light.

#filmscan hosts a few thoughts about digitizing, editing, and storing film in 1s and 0s.

#filmdev is chemistry.

¹ — sign up for community letters here: analog.cafe/account/subscr….

Harman Phoenix 200 #exposure :

Now that Harman Phoenix 200 has officially launched, I’d like to comment on its dynamic range: it’s extremely narrow!

It’s almost as narrow as that of the notorious Kodak Aerochorme — an extremely expensive and rare infrared film (analog.cafe/r/kodak-aeroch…).

Though I haven’t tried this film yet, I can tell from the characteristic curves in the datasheet by Harman (emulsive.org/wp-content/up…) that Phoenix has just 5 stops of dynamic range. The samples taken with this film confirm what I predicted about it yesterday (analog.cafe/comments/3nj8) — it is an extremely contrasty film.

This means that metering for shadows will not work with Phoenix 200. In fact, shooting it in full sun may not be the best idea — instead, places with soft light or a dynamic range of no more than 7-10 stops would work best. See my guide “How to Make Perfect Exposures on Film” for more: analog.cafe/r/how-to-make-…

Of course, reading graphs and watching others’ samples of the film is not the same as experiencing it first-hand. I’ll be doing that shortly and comparing it to other films, including Ilford Ilfocolor 400 — made by an entirely different company (analog.cafe/comments/3nj8)

#editorial