Outstanding Professional 35mm Slide Scanning Service & Value!
Faded 35mm Slides and Photos
Your slides and photos will fade for a variety of reasons. Dyes will fade because they are in the dark ( termed "Dark Fading") and dyes will fade because they are exposed to light (termed "Light Fading). Dark Fading occurs when your slides are not exposed to light. It is caused by a temperature and relative humidity reaction. Dark Fading will occur even if your slides are stored in the light. All dyes have a limited lifetime because they break down because of temperature, light and chemical reactions to materials within the dyes themselves. Prior to the mid-1980s, the Cyan dye was particularly unstable. Reacting to this, the film companies improved the rate of cyan fade. Light fading is caused by exposure to high intensity light such as when a slide is shown in a slide projector.
| Before Restoration | After Restoration |
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| Click on the Images to view larger size. | |
Got any 35mm slides that look
like the one on the above left? If you are doing the
scanning work on your pictures and 35mm slides
yourself, how do you plan on restoring the color
to these faded photos?
Old-Photo's prices are so reasonable that you should
really leave this kind of color work to the
experts. Color restoration and adjustment is a standard feature
included in our scanning and Slide Show creation
service. We will do our utmost to make each of
your photos look the very best possible.
Standard Color
Restoration for faded photos.
Not all faded photos will
respond the same way.
Every effort will be made to produce pleasing
color, when possible.
No extra charge.
| Before Color Restoration | After Color Restoration |
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| Click on the Images to view larger size. | |
| Before Color Restoration | After Color Restoration |
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| Click on the Images to view larger size. | |
| Before Color Restoration | After Color Restoration |
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| Click on the Images to view larger size. | |
Color film is made up of three layers of dyes, which produce the yellow, cyan, and magenta portions of the color spectrum. The least stable film in the dark is the yellow layer, which is why faded color films frequently have a pinkish hue to them. Once color has faded, it is difficult to restore it, aside from some digital reconstruction processes. The best way to preserve your slides from fading is to keep them in cold storage. The colder the temperature, the longer the slides will last.
Slide Deterioration
Have you gone through your old
slides lately? You may be in for a very rude
awakening: they may have deteriorated
remarkably. You may find that they have faded,
been scratched, or has the beginnings of fungus
growing on the surface.
The two biggest factors affecting the life of a
slide are improper storage and handling.
Excess light, heat and moisture will affect the
dye color layers in the slides. Sorry to say,
they do not affect the layers equally, so you
will find that most slides will have a faded
color shift toward either a red or blue hue. The
process may be slow at first but once it starts,
you had better do something quickly because it
is all down hill from here.
Touching the film with your fingers encourages fungus growth. Use of different types of
cleaners to remove fingerprints will also cause
the slides to deteriorate faster.
If you used Kodachrome film, you are probably
lucky because it used a more stable dye process.
Kodachrome was developed in 1935. We have had
the 35mm Kodachrome slide since 1936. The
Ektachrome films and the E process were
developed later. It evolved, down through the
years to the E-6 process that we have today.
Most faded slides will be from the early E
process films. The stability of the technology
was not as advanced as it is today.
As far as general slide damage, Kodachrome is more stable in dark storage and more subject to discoloration under extended projection use. Ektachrome is just the opposite: More stable than Kodachrome for projection but less stable in dark storage. Slides will often begin to show signs of fading after about two hours of cumulative projection time when subjected to a projection bulb of average strength. The stronger the bulb, the faster the slides will begin to fade, so it is often wise to avoid stronger projection bulbs when less strong bulbs will suffice.
Photo Paper Pictures
Photo Paper Pictures will also deteriorate over time. Each day heat, humidity, chemicals in Album papers and cardboard boxes, or exhaust fumes in your garage are silently destroying your priceless photos. Colors in pictures fade, faces turn orange or green or the paper turns yellow. Preserve your photos and 35mm slides SOON by transferring to Digital format. The longer you wait, the more pictures you will lose forever. Your slideshows from your smallest pictures and slides will view as large as your TV screen when you play them on your DVD player.
Before and After Color Restoration
