Developing Old Film: Why It Comes Back Foggy, Leaky or Blank

Found an old roll of film? It's worth developing, but go in with your eyes open. Old, badly stored film often comes back foggy, full of light leaks, or completely blank. Here's what causes each one, and how to give an old roll its best chance.

Old rolls turn up at the lab more often than you'd think. From the back of a drawer, inside a camera from a car boot sale, or in a box from someone's loft. Sometimes they come back with lovely surprises on them. Sometimes they come back foggy, streaky or empty.

When it goes wrong, the question is always the same. Was it a dodgy camera, old film, or bad storage? Often it's a bit of all three. Here's how to tell them apart.

Old Film: Fog, Mud and Strange Colours

Film slowly changes from the day it's made. Over the years it loses sensitivity and picks up an overall haze called fog, even sitting in the dark. Heat speeds that up massively. A few summers in a loft or a car can do more damage than a decade in a cool cupboard.

On colour film, age usually looks like:

• Flat, muddy pictures with no real blacks
• Strong colour casts, often green, magenta or orange
• Heavy grain
• Dense, dark negatives that are hard to scan

Each colour layer in the film ages at its own rate, which is why old colour film shifts colour in such odd ways.

Light Leaks: Bright Streaks and Flares

Light leaks are the bright streaks and blobs of red, orange and yellow that creep in from the edge of the frame. They mean light reached the film when it shouldn't have.

Where they show up tells you why:

• In the same place frame after frame: it's the camera. Usually the foam light seals around the back door have perished, which happens to most old cameras eventually.
• At the start or end of the roll: the film was loaded or unloaded in bright light, or the canister's light trap is worn.
• Across the whole roll: the back was opened before the film was rewound, or the canister cracked and let light in.

Storage: Spots, Stains and Sticky Rolls

Damp is the other big enemy. It brings spots, blotches, tide marks and sometimes mould. If anything gets spilled on a roll, it can stick the layers together.

Rolls like that can't go through our normal processing machine, because whatever's on them could contaminate the chemistry everyone else's film goes through. If yours is sticky, smelly or visibly damaged, tell us before we start. We'll work out the safest way to handle it, which sometimes means sending it to a specialist.

What Does a Blank Roll Mean?

There are two kinds of blank, and they mean different things.

• Completely dark, with nothing to see: light got to the whole roll. A cracked canister, a camera opened mid-roll, or a roll pulled out in daylight.
• Completely clear, but with the film's name and frame numbers along the edge: the developing worked, but no light ever reached the film. Usually the film never wound on, the shutter didn't fire, or the roll was never shot.

If you can see those edge markings, the developing did its job. It's the most useful thing to know when a roll comes back empty.

And if a roll on a develop and scan order comes back with genuinely nothing on it, we'll give you £5 for that roll as a goodwill gesture. The details are in our FAQ.

Why Old Film Can Be Harder to Scan

Very old rolls often come out dense and dark. Now and then they're so dark that our automatic scanner can't find where one frame ends and the next begins, so we scan them by hand instead. That's slower and fiddlier, so there's a small extra charge, but we'll always message you and get your go-ahead first.

Found an Old Roll? How to Give It the Best Chance

• Don't open it to check. If it's still in a camera, rewind it fully before you open the back.
• Get it developed sooner rather than later. An exposed picture slowly fades the longer it sits, especially somewhere warm.
• Keep it cool and dry until it goes in the post.
• Tell us what you know: roughly how old it is, where it's been kept, and whether it looks damaged. It all helps us handle it properly.
• If something's leaked on it, put it in a sealed bag on its own and mention it in the Notes for us box when you order.
• Keep your expectations low and your hopes up. A couple of good frames from a long lost roll can mean a lot.

How to Stop It Happening to Your Film

• Keep unused film in the fridge, in its box or a sealed bag. Let it warm up for an hour or so before you load it, so it doesn't get condensation on it.
• Never leave film, or a loaded camera, in a hot car, loft or conservatory.
• Get your rolls developed within a few months of shooting them.
• If an old camera starts giving you streaks, get the light seals replaced. It's usually a cheap job.
• Carry film in your hand luggage when you fly, and ask for a hand check if you can.

Shooting Expired Film on Purpose?

Plenty of people do, for the look. A common rule of thumb is to overexpose by about one stop for every decade past the date on the box, and a bit more if you've no idea how it's been stored. Expect surprises either way. That's half the fun.

Old Film Is Worth a Go

Old film is always a gamble, but it's often one worth taking. You never know what's sitting on a roll that's been in a drawer for twenty years.

If you've got old rolls lurking somewhere, send them in and we'll give them the best chance we can.