Had to pick between two different film stocks for a friends wedding last month

I was shooting my friend's wedding as a favor and had to choose between Portra 400 and some expired Fuji Superia I found in my fridge. I went with the Fuji because I thought the colors would look cool and artsy, you know. Well, half the roll came out with this weird greenish tint and some frames are completely blank because the film was too old and the emulsion was flaking off. The bride was not happy when I showed her the proofs, she wanted those nice warm tones. Now I gotta figure out how to fix these in Lightroom or just tell her the truth. Has anyone else had a roll of film just fall apart on them at the worst possible time?

2 comments

2 Comments

stella2791mo ago

Oh I have definitely been there with expired film biting you when you least expect it. That part about the greenish tint and flaking emulsion sounds exactly like what happened with a roll of old Kodak Gold I found in my camera bag once. The thing is when film gets that old the layers literally start to separate and you get those blank spots and weird color shifts. Honestly I think you are better off telling the bride the truth right now rather than trying to fix it all in Lightroom because no amount of color correction will bring back images that are physically missing from the emulsion. She might be disappointed but most people understand that photography gear can just fail sometimes especially with older materials.

diana_park1mo ago

Ugh that expired Kodak Gold SPOKE to me on a spiritual level haha. I had a roll of Superia 400 that sat in a hot car for like two years and it came out looking like swamp water with weird magenta splotches on every face. Total nightmare. You're spot on about telling the bride sooner rather than later too, trying to fake missing emulsion in Photoshop will just make you pull your hair out and still end up with a mess.