What Happens To Your Film After A Family Portrait Session
I’m often asked this question by families, especially the kids I photograph!
I love describing the journey their film goes on after our portrait session and the process each roll needs to go through in order to become a collection of legacy photographs for their family archives.
Children understand very well the concept of a digital photograph. It’s all they know! You point the camera/phone press the shutter/button and there’s your image on the screen looking back at you.
Photographic film is an alien concept to most people under the age of 25! And so they have no idea what I’m doing with this big ugly camera and these foil wrapped cylinders of “film”.
Firstly I explain that it’s MAGIC. That automatically peaks a child’s interest! Yes I know it’s chemistry, but anyone who’s done it will agree the process of developing film is a magical experience. There’s no question that seeing an image you captured appear on a blank page in front of you is a wondrous thing.
Next I explain how photographic film must be treated with extreme care.
Film really likes to have things just so!
It doesn't like to be too hot or too cold! It doesn't like to be exposed to the tiniest flicker of light outside of the camera. It doesn't like airport scanners. It doesn't like high humidity. And importantly, it can't stand getting wet!
The photograph above gives an idea of what water damage could look like in a roll of film. This is a 120 roll of Kodak Portra 400 film shot at RHS Bridgewater on the most beautiful summer's day... such a shame.
Moisture damage on film can cause emulsion separation, mould growth and potential physical damage like warping or bubbling. The results can manifest in several ways such as general cloudiness, a "grey soup" appearance, discolouration, spotting or fading.
I got this roll back last year and it's the first time I'd ever received scans of damaged film in over a decade. It definitely served as a reminder that photographic film really does need to be handled with care from the moment you buy it until it’s safely developed and dried.
My film is all stored in a cool windowless room in the middle of my house to keep conditions stable. Historically it was common for analogue photographers keep a fridge dedicated to film storage to keep it fresh. In fact many retailers and photographers still do, because YES film has an expiry date!
So when I arrive to take your photograph I’ll have a collection of carefully stored film at the ready to capture your family portraits. If it’s a bright day, I’ll be sure to keep each roll tight and out of direct sunlight as I load and unload them into the camera. A loose grip and a glimmer of light could be enough to expose the sensitive film and spoil a photograph.
As the photography session draws to a close, I’ll obsessively count every roll to make sure they’re all accounted for.
Next comes the great adventure to my Film Lab in sunny California!
Your film will be carefully wrapped in a sealed plastic bag and packaged up carefully ready to start its journey across the pond to my trusted professional Film Lab over in the United States.
This is me having just delivered a whole batch of medium format film to Richard Photo Lab by hand at the end of a Californian road trip way back in 2014!
Since 1970, RPL has been dedicated to the analogue art of film. They live and breathe the stuff and they are passionate about what they do, supporting film photographers with dependable quality processing to suit their tone and colour preference.
It may seem crazy to send your film 5000 miles away to be developed and scanned, but these processes are crucial to the quality of the final image. I’ve been sending my film to them for well over a decade and I’ve never been disappointed.
Frankly I just want the best of the best for my clients’ photographs!
The team at RPL will use all their expertise to professionally develop and scan each roll of film on the renowned Fuji Frontier scanner, before sending them back to me in a digital download.
Honestly this never gets old! When I see this email in my inbox I am as excited as a 5yo on Christmas morning!
That big orange button gets pressed immediately and I’ll start to look through your images. I do very little editing at this stage as the images I get back from RPL are always beautiful.
This is when you can expect to receive an email from me to schedule in your Reveal Appointment… one of my favourite parts of the family photography experience!
And what happened to your film?! It is stored safe and sound in California until the following January, when RPL ships all my negatives back to me from the previous year.
I have boxes and boxes of negatives, which I’m slowly but surely working my way through and organising. After I gather each client’s collection of film I gift wrap them and send them by post with a handwritten note saying:
”Store me in the attic for your children to stumble upon one day!”
Our children won’t know the joy of finding a dusty shoe box stuffed full of film negatives or slides in their parents’ loft; each strip depicting forgotten family memories. I’m doing my best to put that right.
To learn more about the benefits of booking an analogue portrait session, check out my list of 10 reasons why you want to be photographed on film.
If you’d like to create a collection of family memories captured on beautiful medium format film, then I’m your girl! Reach out to me for more details, I’d love to hear from you.
