Dynamic Range & Expired Film Q

mmf94

TPF Noob!
Joined
Apr 4, 2018
Messages
3
Reaction score
0
Can others edit my Photos
Photos OK to edit
Hey first post.

So I recently got into shooting film stills, my background is in digital cinema.
I was told that motion picture film had a latitude of about 14 stops, is this the same for Kodak Gold?

Expired film is what I primarily like to shoot on to capture the feel/age of an era I'm going for. I heard the rule is to over expose 1 stop for every decade expiration.
Is this because the latitude of the film shifts downwards? Or because it's losing stops in the shadows?

Thanks for any input.
 
I think it's due to the film being expired, and how long it's been expired, and how it was stored; if it's cold stored it could still be good for a long time after expiration. I think the emulsion dries over time so it might lose light sensitivity.

I don't know how it compares to cinema film. You could try Home - The Film Photography Project .
 
You can buy cine film with the backing taken off and rolled into 35mm and 120 rolls.

CineStill Film

BTW, Kodak Gold sucks
 
In general color print film can be pushed up to 4 stops, pulled down to 2, after that it will lose fine detail.
Expired color print film on the other hand who knows. I develop outdated film all the time at work and the results are terrible. A word of note the date on the box is when the film reaches peek curve and it's best to shot on that month for optimum results. Over the years C-41 film will be "base fogged" to almost black as it has a developer incorporated emulsion (called dye couplers).

I've shot many a roll of Kodak Gold and have had great results.

Here is a shot on 400 Gold.
ZApuy0G.jpg
 
Hey first post.

So I recently got into shooting film stills, my background is in digital cinema.
I was told that motion picture film had a latitude of about 14 stops, is this the same for Kodak Gold?

Expired film is what I primarily like to shoot on to capture the feel/age of an era I'm going for. I heard the rule is to over expose 1 stop for every decade expiration.
Is this because the latitude of the film shifts downwards? Or because it's losing stops in the shadows?

Thanks for any input.

This is the motion picture film you were told about: Loading site please wait...

A film like Kodak Gold should have a DR of little more than 1/2 Vision3 and expired film's DR will continue to drop as it ages.

Joe
 
A film like Kodak Gold should have a DR of little more than 1/2 Vision3 and expired film's DR will continue to drop as it ages.
So in theory, after expiration, I'm only working with maybe 5 stops of DR?

What is a still film stock with the most DR? Portra?
 
A film like Kodak Gold should have a DR of little more than 1/2 Vision3 and expired film's DR will continue to drop as it ages.
So in theory, after expiration, I'm only working with maybe 5 stops of DR?

What is a still film stock with the most DR? Portra?

The longer past expiration the less DR until you should reach darn near 0.

I'm not too up on current films as I'm not using them now but I'd say it's fair to assume an average 400 ISO color neg stock should give you in the range of 8 stops of DR. Big qualification to that is what kind of practical access do you have to that DR. Are you scanning the film? Do you have a film scanner that can deliver on that much DR?

Joe
 
I don't know but Portra does have lovely color. Expired color film/photographs can have shifts. (I have some photos from the '80s or maybe '90s that turned quite orangeish; those years it was due to the processing done at the time.) B&W could last indefinitely but can 'fog' (although I haven't used really old film) and B&W prints or even film sitting in a camera for decades can still be fine.

If you use a vintage camera like a midcentury bakelite/plastic viewfinder camera (like a multitude of Kodaks made then) I think you could get a more vintage look to photos (because the quality could be comparable to what was done with those cameras in that era). Using a vintage SLR would more likely give you something comparable to today if you're using a nice sharp lens.

You could try asking on FPP, Michael who does the site does some work with vintage films (or did). He or someone else on their Flickr page might know.

Or try looking up APUG - Analog Photography Users Group. They started a new site recently and I can't think of what it's called now (and don't see if I bookmarked it offhand) but if you search you might find it.
 
Or try looking up APUG - Analog Photography Users Group. They started a new site recently and I can't think of what it's called now (and don't see if I bookmarked it offhand) but if you search you might find it.
Now called Photrio - a very useful site.


Sent from my 8070 using Tapatalk
 
There is a great article on the topic here.

Expired film is what I primarily like to shoot on to capture the feel/age of an era I'm going for.

Can you post some links to the look you are going for? You may even want to start a new topic, many here will offer lots of advice on that front. I have shot fresh film in 75 year old cameras and gotten a great sharp modern image and I have shot expired film in newish cameras and gotten garbage.

Generally I avoid expired film as its dicy on the outcome and cant be accuratly controlled. You can get a vintage look in a variety of ways on many different film stocks/camera combinations depending on what you are looking for.
 

Most reactions

New Topics

Back
Top