You want to do WHAT with E6?

Every now and then I shoot a few rolls of 120 E6 film on an old Seagull TLR. These are

taken just for fun as the camera isn't in terrific shape and I'm set up for 35mm or DSLR

anyway.

The other day I was looking at some film by holding it up to a window. I had the zany idea

of

cutting the film up and making a window hanging of sorts out of it. It would be kind of like

stained

glass, with arranged patterns of things I'd shot. It's not exactly the most orthodox usage

of film ever, but I think it might look pretty cool. However, I'm wondering how long the

colors would last in a sunny window. Anybody feel like taking a stab at the archival color

quality of E6 hanging in an average, sunny window?

Done it. I took some 6X7 slides and sandwiched them between glass lantern slide mounts to give as gifts three years ago. They have faded quite a bit already when I saw them last year, but still readable. I give it another two before they're not fun to look at anymore.

Jay Maisel did this a number of years ago in a room in his studio: covered the

windows with slides chosen for their color and then photographed on and of fover a

period of time in different light. the one I recall seeing was an image of a young

oriental woman examining one of the slides. the effect was pretty striking

There was an interesting comment posted here. I have slides mounted and stored 3 ways. They are all Ektachromes from different eras, but they are fading in similar fashion. Here it is.

 

1. Glass mounted fading the worst.

 

2. Boxed in original boxes, next worse.

 

3. In carousel trays, no fade detected.

 

Interesing result. It is almost as if the lack of oxygen or air was accelerating the fading process.

 

Well, whatever, I don't expect window mounted E6 slides to last long. Kodachromes, yes.

 

Good luck.

 

Ron Mowrey

A couple years ago, somebody posted here on photo.net the results of an experiment they'd done. They photographed a scene with Velvia and Kodachrome and then left both slides in front of a sunny window for several months, or a year, or something like that.

 

It turned out that the Kodachrome slide had faded more dramatically than the Velvia slide.

 

I also seem to remember a number of reports about Kodachrome being the longevity leader -- when kept in dark storage -- but that E6 films last longer when it comes to frequent projection.

If what you're interested in the most is the stained glass-like effect, you can scan and print

them on transparencies. Is cheap and you can replace them whenever they fade.

 

If you're married to the idea of absolutely using 120 slides (which is far more interesting),

then perhaps you can use a UV protective foil between the window and the slides... I see

this from time to time in the windows of some stores, I have no idea how effective is it or

where you can get it. It's quite ugly from outside but seems to me it doesn't have any

noticeable effect when seen from the inside.

 

It will certainly allow your slides to live a little longer, though I suspect the main harm isn't

coming from UV but from heat, either accumulated from outside or generated by a heating

equipment in the winder, which is often found under windows.

All other variables not considered, I bet they survive a little longer with the emulsion side

inwards. The base, as any celluloid, must have some slight UV filtering capabilities.

 

The "printing on transparencies" idea would work but it removes a lot of fun. Doing that

with actual 120s is much more interesting so if you want to preserve the quality of your

originals you definitely don't need a super quality for the window hangings, so what about

slide duplication? I know it can be done with 35, no idea about 120. Check out that path.

Rowland, at least according to Wilhelm, Kodachrome has the worst light fading characteristics. How have you come to your conclusion that Kodachrome would outlast E6 in light? Have you published your results?

Ilkka is right -- Kodachrome fades much more quickly when exposed to light than E6 emulsions do. It's archival qualities are strictly for dark storage.