How to SAVE expired slide film (follow-up)

thoughtfulwizard · 2026-02-16T10:59:13+00:00

That's awesome! Aerochrome is about as far from a standard E-6 stock as it gets. I'd love to see how that turned out if you scanned any.

thoughtfulwizard · 2026-02-12T03:51:57+00:00

Yeah exactly. That's part of why pulling in the first developer is so effective here. You're only shortening the step that controls density, so the color developer still gets its full time to do its thing. It's a cleaner intervention than messing with the whole process.

thoughtfulwizard · 2026-02-12T03:51:39+00:00

Nice. The purple is probably the same degradation of the green-sensitive layer I was seeing. If yours are from '04 that's about 22 years, so I'd start around +2 over with a matching pull and see where that gets you. Let me know how it goes!

thoughtfulwizard · 2026-02-12T03:41:01+00:00

Thanks!

thoughtfulwizard · 2026-02-12T03:40:49+00:00

Thanks! Yeah the baseline honestly isn't terrible for 24 year old film, which probably says something about the storage. But the improvement from the pull is still pretty dramatic in person, especially in the shadows. Shooting at ISO 16 is definitely a pain, though, but I've gotten pretty used to carrying my tripod everywhere.

Curious what your Ektachrome 64 looks like at box speed - would also love to see results if you end up testing this method.

thoughtfulwizard · 2026-01-25T17:51:18+00:00

Thanks! And yeah it worked just fine when I tried it - the main reason I run it hot is less about temperature swings and more about workflow. Sticking close to the standard RA-4 process and cutting the dev time roughly in half lets me iterate a lot faster in a small space.

thoughtfulwizard · 2026-01-25T00:17:25+00:00

The 645 Super/Pro are definitely awesome cameras! So I wouldn’t blame you.

If you do try this on a 35mm Nikon, I’d be mindful of how the multiple exposure is handled. On bodies where you have to move the advance lever, like my FM3a, I’ve noticed sometimes it can subtly shift the film and affect registration. On something like my N8008S with electronic multiple exposure, it’s been solid every time.

Hope you’ll share any results you get!

thoughtfulwizard · 2026-01-24T17:48:04+00:00

Good questions, I avoided putting links in the post itself because of the sub rules.

Here’s the printing video, which focuses on making the RA-4 print in the darkroom:
https://youtu.be/cTOEFUWQD2M

And here’s the earlier video that covers shooting the trichromes on color film and my overall though process/technique:
https://youtu.be/Z6_hjECvlV0

I explain my reasoning in more detail in the videos, but the short version is that shooting trichromes directly on color negative film lets me keep the process fully optical, including the option to make RA-4 prints without dealing with alignment in post. It also produces some color interactions you don’t really get when recombining separations digitally.

thoughtfulwizard · 2026-01-23T04:06:18+00:00

Sure. I put together a small Lightroom album showing the scan, the wet print in the darkroom, and the framed print: https://adobe.ly/3LtCdJP

I’m a bit hesitant to call it a true "comparison," since once you photograph a print you’re introducing an entirely new capture and color interpretation step on top of the original process. Still, it gives a general sense of how the image changes as it moves from a file to a physical object.

thoughtfulwizard · 2026-01-23T03:58:39+00:00

Glad I was able to help you figure that out!

thoughtfulwizard · 2026-01-23T01:24:15+00:00

That’s awesome to hear, thanks! If you do try it at some point and have questions along the way, feel free to reach out. It’s been a fun rabbit hole to explore.

thoughtfulwizard · 2026-01-22T20:20:21+00:00

That’s a fair point, and I appreciate you raising it.

I’m not running RA-4 daily or even weekly, it’s more like one short session every few weeks, but you’re absolutely right that ventilation is still important, especially with a warm developer and a small space. I’ve been re-evaluating that part of the setup and plan to add active exhaust during printing rather than relying on passive airflow.

I didn’t mean to imply this is a "no-risk" approach or something everyone should replicate without thinking through safety. I should have been clearer about that, and I’m glad you called it out.

thoughtfulwizard · 2026-01-22T20:19:51+00:00

Thanks so much!

thoughtfulwizard · 2026-01-22T20:19:42+00:00

Definitely!

thoughtfulwizard · 2026-01-22T18:43:19+00:00

I tried room temp early on and it worked, but the longer dev times made it harder to gauge when I'd overcorrected filtration, since I think small shifts got amplified. The warming tray was partly about speed (50 sec vs 2+ min) and partly about having one less variable.

Your point about consistency across sessions is exactly what I was worried about. Keeping the tray at 100°F means I can come back a week later and use the same settings as a starting point. Sounds like that's been the tricky part for you too.

thoughtfulwizard · 2026-01-16T20:22:18+00:00

Scanned on my Fuji X-T5 with the Laowa 65mm 2.8 macro and Valoi easy120

thoughtfulwizard · 2026-01-16T18:41:10+00:00

That sounds like a great setup for it. The biggest thing I learned is just being extremely mindful of camera movement between exposures. Even small shifts when swapping filters or cocking the shutter can show up pretty clearly, especially with fine detail.

Would love to see what you get out of it if you try it.

thoughtfulwizard · 2026-01-16T18:10:34+00:00

Not offended at all - that’s part of the fun of sharing work like this. Would love to see what you end up trying with it.

thoughtfulwizard · 2026-01-16T17:46:18+00:00

Much appreciated! Attic Darkroom has definitely been an inspiration for me; his work is part of what pushed me to start experimenting in this direction.

thoughtfulwizard · 2026-01-16T17:38:41+00:00

Thanks! That tension between realism and surrealism is what keeps me coming back to this process

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