How to Store Your Film and Keep it From Aging

Planning on keeping unexposed regular or professional grade film around for more than a few months or even years? By properly storing away your film you can significantly slow down the quality from decreasing during the aging process.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Film you plan on storing
• A refrigirator
• A freezer

1. For regular consumer film that you want to store away for a few months, simply leave the unexposed film in its plastic container and place it into your refrigerator.
2. If you are planning on saving this film for a much longer period of time such as a year or more, the film in its container must be placed inside a freezer to prevent aging from decreasing the film' s quality.
3. For professional quality film it is generally recommended to keep this film in cold storage (refrigerated or frozen) immediately after purchase. They are not prone to age faster, but the manufacturer tries to time the release of a batch of film when it is at its premium quality. Cold storage will keep the film in this high quality state.
4. When ready for use, always let your film warm up using normal room temperature, and let any moisture dry out.

Tips & Warnings

• It is very important to make sure your film is kept inside its light tight canister, a spill inside the fridge is common and could cost you your film.