Longevity of Processed Film left in Sunlight

[Jeff Dyck]

I was at the local art supply shop earlier this week and was was looking at some interesting picture frames which, instead of having a backing board, sandwich your photo between two panes of glass. This got me to thinking that these could make a very interesting presentation of 8x10 transperency dupes hung within a south facing window. My concern is the longevity (i.e. color fastness) of the film media exposed to such conditions - does anyone have any experience with intentionally exposing finished films to sunlight? Can I expect a few months or a few years?

[Mark_3632]

really it depends on where you live, and the intensity of the UV you are subjected to. I would test it for the particular window you plan to use. The published literature is for a specific amount of UV for a specific amount of time and really has very little to do with where you live. Kind of like BW film speeds it all depends on your specific conditions.

[Mark Sampson]

Color transparencies left out as you describe will fade very quickly. The dyes are not permanent. Kodak makes a number of color display materials, Duraflex and Endura, meant for the kind of use you have in mind. They are made to work like color paper; that is, you start with a color negative, not a transparency.

[tim atherton]

"Color transparencies left out as you describe will fade very quickly. The dyes are not permanent. Kodak makes a number of color display materials, Duraflex and Endura, meant for the kind of use you have in mind. They are made to work like color paper; that is, you start with a color negative, not a transparency."

you can run both "papers" from a scan so it doens't matter if it's negative or transparency to start with. And you could do the scan to include the film edge/rebate so it looked like an 8x10 transparency. You would also then get lots of control over the colour/contrast/saturation etc.

[Peter Witkop]

Ilford also makes a color display material that goes through the same chemistry as regular ilfochrome, which can be printed directly form a transparency, if scanning/digital isn't the route you'd like to go.

Peter