Photographer Nick LoPresti loves film. As his YouTube channel shows, his adoration for the medium often manifests in “silly” videos centered on wild, ambitious projects. LoPresti’s latest video demonstrates the intersection of his passion for analog photography and his willingness to embrace any challenge. LoPresti, perhaps against his better judgment, shot on 82-year-old film.

“This project was a follow-up to last year’s Halloween video where I shot some Kodak Super XX that expired in 1952,” LoPresti tells PetaPixel of his motivations to take on this project. “That video is the highest performing piece on my channel, so after my Instagram friend, Ivan Aguiar, sent me the eBay listing for this fluorographic film, I knew I had to try it and bottle some more lightning.”

“So yeah, it was also for the views. YouTube seems to love it when us content people do stupid pointless things like this,” LoPresti adds.

Shooting on expired film is not always too tricky, as photographers make a few adjustments to their exposure and maybe “overexpose” by a stop or two. However, LoPresti didn’t have film that expired in 2015 or even 2005. No, LoPresti’s film, Kodak Eastman Flurographic X-ray Film, expired in 1946, one year after the end of World War II. The film was made in 1943 for the Army and used in X-ray machines to screen soldiers for tuberculosis.

A yellow box labeled "Eastman Fluorographic Film" for 35mm safety film, 50 feet long, green-sensitive and for X-ray use, with a "Develop before May 1946" notice and signs of age and rust spots.

A brown, textured package labeled "EASTMAN FLUOROGRAPH SAFETY FILM, 1 ROLL, 35mm x 50 ft." The label includes instructions to keep cool and a "Develop Before" date of May 1940.

The fact it was X-ray film only added to the challenge, as it doesn’t come with any instructions for typical photographic applications like what LoPresti wanted to do. It also wasn’t spooled for a camera, so LoPresti had to overcome that as well, but compared to other issues he encountered, this was no problem for a seasoned film vet like LoPresti.

Grainy black and white photo of a stuffed toy with a round face, wearing a hat and bow tie, sitting outdoors with a blurry background and dark border edges.

“I like to find the limits of whatever I’m doing,” LoPresti says. “I become obsessive, to a fault. So much so that it’s to the detriment of all other facets in life. I can’t really focus on more than one thing at a time… bills, client proofs, answering texts, it all falls off until I reach some sort of break in the action.”

A person wearing a white mask and dark clothing sits in a chair, laughing and pointing to the side. The image has a grainy, vintage, black-and-white appearance.

A person dressed as a police officer stands surrounded by figures in white masks and dark clothing, reaching toward them with outstretched arms, creating a haunting, ghostly effect in a dimly lit, eerie setting.

A weathered animal skull with visible cracks and holes is displayed against a plain background, mounted on horizontal rods. The black and white image has a grainy, vintage texture.

The much bigger problem was just how darn old the film is. 82 years is an awful long time. In the years since LoPresti’s X-ray film expired, man walked on the Moon, the Berlin Wall was built and then dismantled, the internet was invented, and, well, we all know how much photography has changed since the 1940s.

“The testing itself was frustrating, and not just due to the early disappointments,” the photographer tells PetaPixel. “I hate doing the same thing twice, forcing myself to change one variable at a time to dial in the proper processing procedures was very tedious. I guess the hardest thing was trying to stay scientific about it. Last year, with the Super XX, I kind of just wasted a lot of film changing all the variables at once.”

A grainy, black-and-white photo shows a person standing outdoors with a dog on a leash. The background is blurry, with trees and open land visible. The image appears to be damaged or taken with old film.ISO 0.2 A cat lies stretched out on a bed, looking relaxed. There are pillows stacked in the background, and the image has a black and white, film-like quality with visible dust and scratches.ISO 0.2 A black and white photo of a dog lying down on a couch, resting its head on a cushion. The dog appears relaxed and is wearing a collar. The image has a vintage, film-like quality with visible grain and speckles.ISO 0.4 Grainy black-and-white image showing a snowy landscape with leafless tree branches in the foreground. The photo has a faded, damaged effect with darkened edges and a faint outline of a wire fence in the background.ISO 1.6 Black and white panoramic photo of a rural landscape with a fence, a gate, a tree, and a distant house. Hills are in the background. Film sprocket holes and edges are visible, giving a vintage effect.ISO 1.6
A black and white panoramic film photo shows a rural landscape with tall grass, a wire fence, a few scattered trees, and a house in the distance. The edges of the film strip and sprocket holes are visible.ISO 1.6

Given the age of the film, LoPresti had to extensively experiment to determine by how much he needed to overexpose his old film, which turned out to be around ISO 1, depending on his precise workflow. Different approaches worked better at different ISO speeds, ranging from ISO 0.2 to ISO 1.6.

With the appropriate ISO speed determined, LoPresti still had to figure out how to develop the film, which proved the highest hurdle of all in the project and required him to draw on every bit of his extensive expertise and experience.

However, as shown in the video at the top and with the images LoPresti shared with PetaPixel from the project, he did. He successfully shot and developed 82-year-old expired film. What an incredible achievement, but as LoPresti puts it, “I get a bit obsessive.”

A person draped in a white sheet stands in the center, appearing ghostlike, surrounded by figures wearing white skull masks, all reaching toward the center. The image is black and white with an eerie, surreal atmosphere.

A person wearing a creepy, white mask and dark, netted clothing stands outdoors at night with hands pressed together in a prayer gesture. The scene is dimly lit, creating a haunting and mysterious atmosphere.

A person draped in a white sheet resembling a ghost stands on a stone pathway at night, holding a pumpkin. The image has a double exposure effect and black specks, creating a ghostly, eerie atmosphere.

LoPresti says he’s going to turn his obsessive nature toward “some more podcasts to feed the insatiable social media machine,” but he’s especially looking forward to “following in the footsteps of Arthur ‘Weegee’ Felig and Kohei Yoshiyuki to make some incognito infrared flash images. Only problem is I think I need to abandon analog to get the results I’m after. [The] Rollei IR400 ain’t that IR sensitive.”

LoPresti is also keen to get his hands on even older film.


”If anyone reading this has some old film, and not enough time to do it themselves, send it my way and I’ll try to make another viral expired film YouTube video all about it.”

Image credits: Nick LoPresti (YouTube, LoPro, Instagram)