Can we talk about people who shoot expired film without adjusting their ISO?

I was in a group meetup downtown last Saturday and this guy kept complaining his photos from a roll of 2004 film were all blown out. He shot it at box speed like it was fresh stock from the store. Why do folks think expired film is the same as new film?

2 comments

2 Comments

tylerr291mo agoMost Upvoted

Shooting 2004 film at box speed is wild. That stuff is probably 15+ years past its prime, it's gonna be fogged and faded no matter what. If you don't overexpose it like one stop per decade, you're basically asking for muddy, blown highlights. Next time, try rating a roll from 2004 at ISO 100 or even 50, not ISO 400.

tylerr291mo agoMost Upvoted

I shot a roll of Fuji Superia from 2003 last summer and rated it at ISO 100. The shadows came out pretty decent but the highlights still had a weird color shift, kind of a sickly yellow. My advice is to shoot at box speed and just embrace the chaos, or push it one stop max and accept that expired film is gonna look janky either way.