How to : Redscale film photography

All you’ve to do is load the film into a canister with the wrong side facing up. This means that the wrong side will get exposed instead. The result … weird and funky colored photos like this …

 Here are some simple steps which I learned from some guys online …

 What you need are two rolls of films. You are going to empty (waste) one of them, so it’s best if you have some expired or unwanted film to sacrifice. Let’s name the two rolls A and B. Roll A will be the roll which the film you are going to use, and roll B will be the ’empty’ one to load the film from roll A into. Confused yet?

To start, pull out all the film (!) from roll B and cutting it at the end, leaving about 1 to 1.5 inches of the film still attached to the canister. Remember … should you drink too much Red Bull and yank the entire film strip out … you’ll have to sacrifice another roll for this.


Next, take roll A and cut off the leader. Simple?

Now it’s time to bring them together … take up the ends of the film from the two rolls together. Remember : the two opposite sides of the film should be facing up.


Now for the final part … use a black bag or do it in a total dark room … roll the entire content of roll A into the ’empty’ roll B. You can use a scissors to do this.

Once you are at the end of the roll, remember to cut the film leaving about an inch on roll A. You will need the roll A as the empty roll B next time. Hmm … do I sound confusing? Sorry but I’ve already tried my best 😛 You can now load roll B into your camera. You can cut off some of the leading end to make a new leader so that loading is possible. Oh, don’t forget to overexpose by 1 stop (eg. using ISO 400 redscale film, set your camera to ISO 200)

… my secret weapon!

I found this unused plastic pinhole camera which I’ve never bothered to use. I cut off the film pickup on the right, and used this to wind/roll my redscale film. Easy ain’t it? No black bag … no dark rooms 😛

 

32 Comments

  1. ndroo, you’re inspirational man!

    love your holgas and all the funky, nifty little things you’re doing with photography!

    happy shooting and experimenting!

  2. Hi!

    I am in love with this technique and it came out well on one of my rolls of film. But for some reason, when I try to do it again now, my camera won’t take up the film. I think the film is too tight inside the spool. Is there anyway to fix that. I already ruined 3 rolls trying to get a new roll of red scale going! :'(

  3. Lotus, how did you do the winding of the roll into the empty canister? I’m not sure what you mean by ‘my camera won’t take up the film’ … do you mean after making that redscale roll, and load it in the camera to shoot … it jams up halfway?

  4. I wound it with scissors like you suggested.

    Yeah, when I put the film in and close the camera, it doesn’t take up the film. The camera tries, clicks, and then stops. It doesn’t even get half way.

  5. Lotus, that’s very strange. When you manually pull the film lead a little bit, maybe an inch … does it come out smoothly? If it does, then your camera should pick up the film fine. Also, you can try straighten the film leader (ie. the part that’s protruding outta the canister) and try again. Since we reload the roll into the new canister, you probably find the film leader a but curled upwards, when in normal situation (non redscale file), it is curled downwards. Good luck and don’t forget to update us on the results.

  6. I’ll give it another try soon and see.

    I cut out a new leader and curled it but that didn’t work for one of the rolls so I tried just attaching the sipped-off leader so it would have the right curl and that too didn’t work. :-/

    I’ll let you know if I can get it to load at some point. Thanks for the help!

  7. Ok, well, I got it to work. The film is still a little tight in the roll, though; it creases when I pull it out. I don’t know why it was acting up earlier…

    Thanks again for the help!

  8. hi, i’m pretty new at this. so just wondered for redscaling, it could be done with either slides or negatives right?

    just do as the above and process them normally?

  9. Hi Ken, I usually make redscale negatives but recently tried a roll of slides. Unfortunately it was super underexposed and I couldn’t figure out how it will turn out if it survived. Haha. Maybe u can try & let me know. 😛

  10. haha well i haven’t even had a hand at redscaling yet. maybe i’ll try a roll of negatives for the first try i guess. haha maybe after i get more comfortable, i’ll def try slides with it. thanks anyway!

  11. KT, that’s cool! I saw them in your photo blog. They turn out great! Oh, btw … have you got the sunscreen outta your eyes? 😀

  12. You don’t really have to sacrifice a roll of film to do redscale.
    You can ask for an empty film canister wherever you get your film developed, they ussually give them to you for free.
    You can also lock yourself in a darkroom/closet or use a dark bag pull out the film, cut it off, and then stick it back together the other way round and re-spool. (I hope I made myself clear)

  13. Lomollete, yeah … getting an empty canister is the best way to do it unless you have some damaged rolls in the drawer (like I do). Thanks for the info. I left that out. Hope nobody really wasted a roll on that. Haha.

  14. this is a very cool technique, i am greatly interested to try it.
    but do u think after winding the film like that my film slr can still advance the film by itself?
    of cuz i would love to try it on toy cameras but i do not have any… want to utilize whatever i have!

  15. @kanki : I don’t think you can load the film into a SLR and then reload it ‘upside down’. Another way maybe you can try is transferring the film from one caninster to another in a dark room or those black bag. Have fun!

  16. how does the technique work? what makes it work, i should say? it’s so cool looking!

    i just discovered your site today while on fourcornersdark.com. you rock! i shared your site with my friend and she thinks so too.

    thanks for sharing all the how to’s and for inspiring me to keep on shooting analogue!

  17. @Anonymous : Are you referring to the redscale technique? It is done by deliberately exposing the wrong side of the film. This way, the results will be pretty cool, usually containing red (thus the name), orange … a little yellowish sometimes. Depending on the film (and ISO) used, results varies … and that makes it even more fun. Thanks for dropping by.

  18. hey. thanks for the tips man. but, wanna ask something here, if we got the canister from the shop that we develop the film, how to get the one inch film that attach to the canister? 😉

  19. @fatah : You are most welcome. When you get those canisters from the shop, there will usually be a bit of film still sticking out from them. Should be long enough to tape the tip from the other roll to it.

  20. Wow!!! that’s perfect, I’m gonna do it, and everytime I develope a roll, I tell them to save my roll magazine, so I won’t need to waste a film roll =)

  21. Pingback: low cost franchise
  22. Pingback: fresh dumps

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *