I look back on a lot of old photos from this time and between the years of lets say 1977-1982, photos had this very red tone (sepia) to them. I don't know if this was just where we got ours developed or if it had to do with the film, or both. Do you all have a similar look to your early '80s photos?

Yes ours have them too. Question is have they always had them? I can't remember? And do they get worse as time goes by? If so I'm in desperate need of scanning the lot of them!

Technology?

I've noticed that too. 'Fraid I don't have an answer 4-U.

I think it possibly has to do with a breakdown of the chemicals used in the process over time. I'd be willing to bet they didn't have a sepia tone to them when you first had them developed. Some photo places used ink and stuff that would break down over time. I have seen this in some photos from the '80s but not others. This was the only explanation I could think of.

I think it possibly has to do with a breakdown of the chemicals used in the process over time. I'd be willing to bet they didn't have a sepia tone to them when you first had them developed. Some photo places used ink and stuff that would break down over time. I have seen this in some photos from the '80s but not others. This was the only explanation I could think of.



I would say that it is. It is the same reason why many things fade over the years. I think light accelerates the process.




Cat

I would say that it is. It is the same reason why many things fade over the years. I think light accelerates the process.




Cat


It may be poor film qaulity. My mother had developed some photos from Hawaii in 1976 and she said the day she got them developed, they were red. None of them came out in their normal color.

It may be poor film qaulity. My mother had developed some photos from Hawaii in 1976 and she said the day she got them developed, they were red. None of them came out in their normal color.



It could have been poor film quality, poor paper quality, or poor chemicals used to develop the pics. Or it could be that the people who developed them didn't know what they doing.




Cat

It could have been poor film quality, poor paper quality, or poor chemicals used to develop the pics. Or it could be that the people who developed them didn't know what they doing.




Cat


Yeah, any of those could be the case. I guess this may be something to ask a photo developer, as well. One who's been around  ;D

It may be poor film qaulity. My mother had developed some photos from Hawaii in 1976 and she said the day she got them developed, they were red. None of them came out in their normal color.


Sometimes a fault like that occurs because the automatic processing got confused perhaps because one colour was dominant in a lot of the pictures.

I look back on a lot of old photos from this time and between the years of lets say 1977-1982, photos had this very red tone (sepia) to them. I don't know if this was just where we got ours developed or if it had to do with the film, or both. Do you all have a similar look to your early '80s photos?


I believe it's due to the color cast of Kodachrome or Ektachrome, popular photographic films of the era.

This thread and this thread have some information.

Disclaimer: When it comes to photography, I skipped the film era.  I'm familiar with the effect described, but don't know enough about film photography to fully explain it.  Anyone here who knows the history and merits of Kodak vs Fuji vs. whoever else made film back then, and the relative ability of competing films to accurately reproduce colors?  (and/or to retain those colors, after having been printed and stuck in a photo album for 30 years?)