Old Negatives question

[wogster]

I have some colour negatives, that are dated summer 1977, not sure of what film they are, the rebate on one says Fuji. The colour fading is very bad and has shifted quite a bit, any way to rejuvenate these, enough to get them usable in some way?

 

[nickandre]

No. you can't undo fading. Try printing them. If they're really bad you might have to resort to :-0 d**ital restoration of some sort.

 

[Konical]

Good Evening, Paul,

You best bet may be to try for good B & W prints. Unfortunately Panalure could be hard to find, but maybe someone besides Kodak makes a similar paper.

Konical

 

[railwayman3]

Sorry if it's obvious, but have you actually tried printing them?
Negs from 30 years ago can look quite different to present-day films, and it can be difficult to judge the extent of any fading or color change by just visual inspection?

 

[hectorpaljr]

I made some prints recently from old scotch/3m negatives (C22 process) The rebate is very orange compared to C41 film of course,. The method I used was via photoshop - I know not in the spirit BUT I did get most acceptable prints in terms of colour. As I took the originals I felt justified in such treachery on this occasion.

 

[chriscrawfordphoto]

Scanning the film and color correcting on the computer may be your only option, and I have done this successfully with a lot of old faded color negs. If you are able to make your own color prints in the darkroom, I would try that first, because like a previous poster said, older films had a different base color than modern film so it might not REALLY be faded. You might just think it is. You'll have to use a much different filter pack than you use for new films, of course, so it will be some trial and error. If you just can't get a good print, then I would suggest scanning the film, or getting someone to do it. You can do some amazing things in Photoshop when it comes to restoring old photos that just cannot be done by traditional methods. I wouldn't feel bad about using technology for that, even if you do film and darkroom only for your own work. Restoration is a specialized thing and requires a different set of tools.

 

[wogster]

Sorry if it's obvious, but have you actually tried printing them?
Negs from 30 years ago can look quite different to present-day films, and it can be difficult to judge the extent of any fading or color change by just visual inspection?

I actually tried scanning them, and the blue channel is almost completely gone, the green is limited but useful and the red looks just about complete, which gives them a severe colour cast, kinda like this one:

Note the lovely yellow sky...

 

[chriscrawfordphoto]

Does your scanner have Digital ROC (part of the ICE package, some Nikon scanners have it and I think some Minoltas too). I have used that function on my Nikon 8000 a few times and it has done wonders for films like yours.

 

[wogster]

Does your scanner have Digital ROC (part of the ICE package, some Nikon scanners have it and I think some Minoltas too). I have used that function on my Nikon 8000 a few times and it has done wonders for films like yours.

Unfortunately not, fortunately though, I like B&W images, and if I am careful with the channel mixer, I can get something acceptable.

Images like the one posted, I don't really care about, the photos I really hate to lose, are ones of my father, who passed on the same year..... Fortunately at the time, the majority of my work was B&W, and most of those are as good today, as when they first came out of the soup.....

 

[nworth]

I had a similar experience. A lot of the fims from the 70s had rather poor stability to start with, and some processors skimped on the stailizer step to boot. The result is uneven fading and shifted colors. I scanned mine, making corrections as best I could. It didn't always work, and it never worked perfectly, but at least some of the negatives have been saved from complete destruction.

 

[wogster]

I had a similar experience. A lot of the fims from the 70s had rather poor stability to start with, and some processors skimped on the stailizer step to boot. The result is uneven fading and shifted colors. I scanned mine, making corrections as best I could. It didn't always work, and it never worked perfectly, but at least some of the negatives have been saved from complete destruction.

Funny thing is slides from the same period look pretty good, just eyeballing them.....