Jim's Photo Page - Archival Slide Film

The picture below is of my family in 1953. It was taken in my grandfather's front yard in Haxtun, Colorado. Trips to grandpa's house for a family gathering with all of the aunt and uncles and cousins were always an enjoyable adventure. My father is holding my younger brother and I am standing in front of my mother

The color in this slide is still as good as the day it was taken, nearly a half century ago. That is because the picture was taken on Kodak Kodachrome slide film, one of the most archival color slide films made.

Unfortunately, the dyes in color film fade with time. Some fade much faster than others. Black and white film is most resistant to changes over time. That is why some Civil War (United States) photos taken 135-140 years ago are still in good shape, and some color prints from 30 years ago are fading away to nothing.

Look at the photograph below. Even though it was taken several years after the photo above, some of the dyes have faded a lot. This was not taken on Kodachrome slide film.

The good news is that most films have better fade resistance than several decades ago. The bad news is that some films and prints are still worse than others.

Among slide films, Kodachrome is still the MOST archival IF STORED IN THE DARK. It is the least archival if subjected to light over long periods of time, and fades the faster than any other slide film in a slide projector.

If you have valuable Kodachrome slides that you use in a slide show, duplicate them, project the duplicates in your show and put your originals away in the dark. They could easily last well over 100 years without significant fading if properly stored.

What if you have slides that are seriously faded? You can do what I did with the faded slide just above. You can correct, restore and save them digitally as illustrated on another page. Another option is to dupe them immediately on a more archival slide film before they fade further. You can do some filtration in the slide duplication process to restore the slide to a more natural color. If the color is too far gone, a third option is to copy slides on to black and white film. You won't have color but you will save the picture. The sooner you exercise one of these options, the better!

One of the best reference books on film life, print life, and proper storage of film and photographs is by Henri Wilhelm. You can learn more about his book at the bottom of my second page of Nature Photography Book Recommendations.

Check back for more recommendations on saving your valuable photos.