I have rarely shot slide/positive film in my photography practice. So coming across a roll of 120-size Fuji Astia that expired in 2008 in my refrigerator film drawer was unexpected. I was unsure how to shoot something so old: advice on the web is to either shoot ancient slide film at box speed OR to throw caution to the wind and treat it like ancient negative film by overexposing it.
I decided to overexpose it with my enormous Mamiya RB67 at Presidio National Park. This surprised me with positive (haha) results, but meant my photos of white buildings are difficult to salvage digitally. (In a darkroom, I could theoretically burn the details in, but I have no history of printing in color…)
“Slide film” is notoriously fussy about exposure, so my odds of failure were high even before you consider the age of the film… But it’s far more pleasing than expected. And in Lightroom, most of the details are findable through decreasing the Shadow and Highlights scores.
I’ve been choosing to return to the same favorite sites to test my expired film, so I can see the differences in the color of the bricks, landscape, the Golden Gate Bridge, and so on. I know I am repeating myself, but it is for science AND I always find something else lit differently to expose.
It is late for me to decide that Fuji Astia is a lovely film: it was discontinued in 2012. Current Fuji positive film is hard to come by here in the U.S. at the moment, though suppliers suggest it is merely out of stock in the short term. I enjoyed the results of this film enough to consider adding slide film to my habits. I’m glad I had a chance to try it!