So I've managed to lay my hands on a few rolls of expired film - nothing exciting really just some old Fuji superia 200 & Kodak colourgold.
I've read a few places that you need to shoot the film at a slower speed to compensate for the ageing of the film.
Any truth in this?
You know what… I think the beauty in shooting expired film is in the unexpected outcome. While to my personal experience compensation for aging seems silly, you could indeed instead of underexposing 1/3, expose on the dot and find scenes with a lot of mid tones. In the end though, I'd suggest you have fun with it.
Cheers dude
Assuming by "a few" you mean you have more than one of each stock, your best bet is to test one and see what you need to do to get better results out of the other rolls. In general, giving the film more exposure will always be good unless you have some insane highlight spots. Color negative should be able to handle almost 5 stops over exposure in the highlights before the negative becomes too thick for the scanner to light through.
I was just shooting some year-old-ish cheap walgreen's film and I was generally shooting it 1-1.5 stops high. They all came out fine. Could have probably gone higher.
Do you have expiry dates for them, or do you just know they're old?
I don't have loads and loads but I've got maybe 6 different rolls? Ranging from 2003 - 2007 I think. I'll bear in mind what you've said, thanks
I think it is hard to say but negative film I think you should be fine perhaps one stop. I had shot some rolls of Kodak Pro Gold 100 from 1997 (found them in a basement shop in Istanbul, Turkey). I had rated them at 25. The results were mixed although I shot one during the late evening and the other during the day (one was self-scan, the other was done by a lab). I would say for the most part they were quiet good as long as the lighting was fairly consistent (a quick color correction in post solved most problems). I had some Fuji 800NPZ from '07 (they had been in a fridge) and those come out fine I think I shot it at 400/800.
I also had some expired Ektachrome Plus 100 from '07 (same shop from Turkey) ..and I shot those at 100..again results varied from roll to roll but as long it was well lit it worked out well overall a bit flat and shadows were gone. Sometimes there were some funky colors but that could be from self developing E-6 so possible errors from there. I also did a self-scan with a flatbed so not sure what a pro lab could pull out of them. These were all 120 so not sure if 35mm would have had made a difference. I had some Ektachrome 100 VS from 2010 and those came out much better..although it's slide film.
Adding 1 stop extra exposure for every decade past the expiration date works for me. So, I shoot ISO 100 film expired 10 years ago at ISO 50. And so on.
It depends.
If the film was stored cold (or better, frozen) until you got it, you should be able to shoot it at its rated speed with little issue, as cold storage significantly slows the effects of time on the emulsion. If it was not stored cold, you will likely have to make at least some adjustments. Age of the film will also come into play with more adjustment more likely needed the older the film is.
Assuming you have more than one roll of each, you can shoot one test roll with each shot bracketed by a few stops to give you the compensation you will need with the other rolls. If not, try bracketing each shot if you want to end up with at least few exposures you know will be good.
Your final (and probably most fun) option is to just shoot it and see what happens. In addition to exposure differences that come with age, consistency in the emulsion across the film plane, color shifts, and a few other "defects" are possible, all of which can yield very interesting looks.