The folks over at Dyson media teamed up with photographer Alastair Bird to see what would happen when you shoot with expired film. As analog film photography is currently seeing a resurgence, it’s a question many people have on their mind. Alastair decided to load up some Leicas and an old Balda camera to show off what happens when working with the film.
As he explains in the video, it’s pretty easy to get good photos with expired film, depending on how it was cared for. You see, film is an organic substance and you have to think of it like food. When you have food, you find a way to preserve it by freezing it or putting it in the fridge. When you’re ready to shoot with it, you let it defrost and thaw out naturally with the environment. If you do this, you can shoot film that has been expired for probably over 10 years with good results. I’ve done it in my Fujifilm GW690 III review.
Similarly, when Alastair went to go shoot photos, he got some interesting and fun results. As he states, he doesn’t use film to do commercial work. But instead, he uses it just for fun. And that’s what it’s supposed to be. It’s a much different experience from shooting digital.
Oddly enough, digital photographers love these kinds of effects that he gets on the film. They’re cool looking and don’t typically happen in digital photography because it’s a totally different type of image taking process.
