Fade To Black

Yesterday morning I decided to go ahead and try out my Fade To Black film. (Love the packaging for this film! Actually, all the Impossible Project packaging is pretty awesome.)

Fade To Black is essentially "defective" film that "drifts through different colour schemes before it finally turns to blackness after 24 hours". You can stop the process by peeling it apart. Or you can let it fade to black and then put it outside in the sun for a few weeks and it will bring back a solarized sort of image.

I went into my first two shots without really thinking about what I would do. Well, I guess I was actually leaning toward letting the shots fade to black so I could watch all the changes. I took two shots outside and then came inside and started scanning.

After about 5 minutes:



After about 15 minutes:



And while I was doing all this, I was also browsing through the Fade To Black group on Flickr, reading some of the info about dry/wet peeling and what people have to say about it. (There is some really amazing work in that group, you should check it out if you have a chance.)

So then I decided to try peeling the shot. I got razor tool and cut the back open, smudging up the image in the process. Then I just propped it open so the two sides would not touch and let it dry overnight. I did the peel after about 25 minutes of development. This morning I taped the two sides back together.



I think when I do another one, I'll peel it a lot sooner. Apparently the sooner you peel, the better the colors.

The second shot I left alone, scanning every little while to document the changes. I'll post that another time.

All in all, it's really cool stuff. Fun to use and then watch all day!