Ektachrome fading

[StratLou]

Hello all,

You guys helped in choosing a dslr for my daughter's birthday , but I now need help in preserving family memories that I've taken. I had shot Kodachrome with my Canon AT-1 up until the end of days and then went to Ektachrome. Much to MY surprise, the transparencies from as little as 10 years ago have gone to blue tint and faded horrificly. What is the current recommendation, if any, on how to:

1) prevent further degradation of what I have and

2) possibly repairing the damage that's been done due to the passage of time, if possible

I've ever stored the slides in B&H cubes in a B&H cube box on the top shelf of a room temperature bedroom closet (dark).

Thanks for any thoughts or direction on this. I still have a few rolls of fridge -stored Ekta VS and G that I bought last year (expired 9-13 and 2-13 respectively) plus a few rolls of 1600 (expired 2004) that I need to shoot and see what happens.

 

[Ysarex]

Scan them fast.

Joe

 

[limr]

Scan them fast.

Joe

^^^ This.

Scan them. You can apply some color correction on the computer, but that gets harder the more faded they get.

 

[gsgary]

They must have been badly processed

 

[Designer]

They must have been badly processed

That is what I thought, too.

I have some old transparencies that still look just as blue (Ecktachrome) as when they were first processed over 40 years ago.

 

[Josh66]

Cold storage (freezer) is the best way to prolong the life of them. How have you been storing them?

Fading after only 10 years is not normal, but under bad storage conditions it can happen. The biggest enemy is heat, and of course UV light. Light shouldn't really be an issue under normal circumstances though. In a climate controlled environment (room temperature) they should last something like 50-100 years. As the temperature goes down, the years go up.

As far as reversing the damage, I don't think it's possible. Prevention is the key.

 

[StratLou]

They must have been badly processed

I have only ever had processing done by Kodak or, more recently, Dwayne's. Will attempt to post some samples of the color/fade problems I've been experiencing (I've recently noticed that the Dwayne's processed slides are showing more of a magenta tinge).

 

[wfooshee]

I've got some Ektachrome of my dad's from the late 50s!!!! Scanned and worked, worked some more, some came back, some no go.

We also have a bunch of "souvenir" slides purchased in Europe that are commercially duplicated, and they are hopeless. I did try to salvage some NASA slides they sold from Apollo 11....

When Dad passed away I took it upon myself to scan his slides and pass out the files to my siblings. There are 5 of us, so divvying up was not an option. Fortunately he spent most of his money on Kodachrome, which after 60 years looks as good as it did back in the day!

It's possible to restore them even from almost total magenta, but it's work. You have to WANT to fix them!

Samples.... The first pair is me and my cousin, apparently returning from Narnia. It was a fake fireplace at my grandma's house, where she sometimes kept a heater, sometimes just stored stuff.



One of the NASA slides.


These were just as badly faded... They are photos EVERYONE has seen, but we have them on faded Ektachrome!

 

[StoneNYC]

I've got some Ektachrome of my dad's from the late 50s!!!! Scanned and worked, worked some more, some came back, some no go.

We also have a bunch of "souvenir" slides purchased in Europe that are commercially duplicated, and they are hopeless. I did try to salvage some NASA slides they sold from Apollo 11....

When Dad passed away I took it upon myself to scan his slides and pass out the files to my siblings. There are 5 of us, so divvying up was not an option. Fortunately he spent most of his money on Kodachrome, which after 60 years looks as good as it did back in the day!

It's possible to restore them even from almost total magenta, but it's work. You have to WANT to fix them!

Samples.... The first pair is me and my cousin, apparently returning from Narnia. It was a fake fireplace at my grandma's house, where she sometimes kept a heater, sometimes just stored stuff.

View attachment 88874 View attachment 88875

One of the NASA slides.
View attachment 88876 View attachment 88877

These were just as badly faded... They are photos EVERYONE has seen, but we have them on faded Ektachrome!
View attachment 88878 View attachment 88879

Wow your dad was impressive!

As for the OP...

At this point there's obviously something wrong with the processing. It's possible that the "stabilizer" step was never done, this is a simple stabilizer chemical bath that makes sure the colors become stabilized and don't fade. If it's just feeding then this is probably the reason, if they were getting darker I would say it wasn't fixed fully and add that you should re-fix them as well. If you want to at least preserve them how they are now I suggest that you attempt to wet them and then throw them in a stabilizer bath for 5 minutes, at least to preserve what's left.