Using expired color negative film, encountered a problem

[rjans]

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Dear members, not so long ago I got some expired color negative film (09/2010) without knowing the history of the film. I tried one and had it developed at a drugstore because it is not expensive and I get prints and a low resolution CD included. It turned out that they only developed the film. When I look at the negatives they appear to be green instead of the normal orange. I have never seen that before. I tried to search online but have not yet found a cause. Could it be that the film is really useless? I could try another roll at the local dealer and have it only developed.

I have a few expired films from my own but they went into the freezer from the day of purchase (not expired).

Any help appreciated, thanks.

 

Best

[chris_livsey]

 

The most likely cause of the problem is fogging, given the unknown storage and 6 years OOD that becomes highly probable.

The colour dye layers are affected differently by ageing and fogging causing colour casts.

It may be possible to correct the cast in scanning and post but the veiling of the fog will remain.

How do the unexposed margins look? If they have the cast and look muddy you have it. 

Take them back if you paid for a scan and mention the cast so they can manually try and correct it but as I say even if the colour corrects the overall image will be degraded.

Edited December 4, 2016 by chris_livsey

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[rjans]

 

 

The most likely cause of the problem is fogging, given the unknown storage and 6 years OOD that becomes highly probable.

The colour dye layers are affected differently by ageing and fogging causing colour casts.

It may be possible to correct the cast in scanning and post but the veiling of the fog will remain.

How do the unexposed margins look? If they have the cast and look muddy you have it. 

Take them back if you paid for a scan and mention the cast so they can manually try and correct it but as I say even if the colour corrects the overall image will be degraded.

 

 

 

Thanks, it was a partial exposed film (only 16 exposures) for testing. The unexposed part is also green. I could have expected problems.

 

Roger

[Martin B]

I have used several expired color films (time frame 2008-2011), developed them myself with the C-41 method, and experienced only once a slight issue by seeing a more yellowish cast in the center of the negatives after I performed the digital post processing. Never observed a very different coloration of the background layer. Assuming that the expired film was stored well, I rather suspect something has gone wrong with the lab development of the film. Possible that the lab used a slide film developer instead of a C-41 developer for your film which can lead to a different coloration of the negative ground layer.