{"id":5067,"date":"2018-11-12T15:12:06","date_gmt":"2018-11-12T14:12:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tazmpictures.com\/site\/?p=5067"},"modified":"2025-10-16T14:13:18","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T13:13:18","slug":"my-experience-with-kodak-aerochrome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tazmpictures.com\/site\/?p=5067","title":{"rendered":"My Experience with Kodak AEROCHROME"},"content":{"rendered":"

A few months ago, I’d never heard of “Aerochrome” film.\u00a0 What is aerochrome?\u00a0 According to Kodak, “KODAK AEROCHROME III Infrared Film 1443 is an infrared-sensitive, false-color reversal film intended for various aerial photographic applications where infrared discriminations may yield practical results.”\u00a0 It was discontinued in 2010 and the last bit of it expired in 2011.<\/p>\n

I heard about it from an article on Emulsive.com.\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0He (“Em”) was so enthusiastic about this film, and it was such a curious story – apparently a fellow named Dean Bennici took it upon himself to rescue and re-roll and\/or recut all the remaining Aerochrome in existence – that I decided to do a bit more digging to see whether I could find some of this odd film.<\/p>\n

I found my answer on eBay<\/a>, where this Bennici fellow apparently sells the film himself.\u00a0 I was a bit wary; $38 for a roll of 120 film (plus shipping from Europe) was pretty steep, and I started poking around on the internet to see what other people had to say about the stuff.\u00a0 It turns out there are all sorts of warnings and pitfalls out there – some people insist that the film has to be stored at sub-freezing temperatures (apparently the tech specs state this) or it will be instantly ruined.\u00a0 Others warn that all the containers it could possibly be stored in are somehow porous to infrared light, and thus the film will become hopelessly fogged unless you keep it in the equivalent of a lead-lined underground bunker.<\/p>\n

Given that I planned to order the stuff from Madagascar, meaning it would be shipped international post from Europe to the United States, and then halfway around the world again to me, I figured my odds of receiving any usable film were pretty slim.\u00a0 So I sent a note to Dean Bennici on eBay, who assured me that he had been shipping this film all over the world for some time, and I had little to worry about.\u00a0 So I ordered two rolls.<\/p>\n

So what’s so special about this film?\u00a0 Well, it’s a bit experimental and fun.\u00a0 Apparently anything living and green reflects infrared light from the sunlight hitting it, causing the greenery to appear bright red (or pink) on the film.\u00a0 What’s the point of that, you ask?\u00a0 Not really much point, I guess – it’s just for fun.\u00a0 You can get pictures that are otherwise not achievable using photoshop or other techniques.\u00a0 Otherworldly stuff.\u00a0 Like this:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

(borrowed, for illustration purposes, from thephoblographer.com.<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n

Admittedly, not everyone’s cup of tea.\u00a0 But then again, neither is film photography, in general.<\/p>\n

It seems that in addition, to make the effect work properly, you need a yellow or orange filter.\u00a0 Which I did not have.\u00a0 Fortunately, I managed to find a yellow filter for my Rolleiflex 2.8c on eBay for around 20 bucks.\u00a0 So I ordered that too.\u00a0 Once the film arrived two weeks later, I did some more reading and discovered that unlike most color film available these days, it has a relatively narrow exposure range – meaning it’s easily under- or overexposed, ruining the overall effect.\u00a0 As a result, people suggest bracketing to ensure at least one good photo, but at 12 exposures per (expensive) roll, I decided to rely on my iPhone light meter and hope for the best, shooting 12 different shots rather than four bracketed shots.<\/p>\n

One of the good things about Madagascar is that there’s lots and lots of vegetation.\u00a0 So plenty of places to use this film.\u00a0 I decided to bring it along with me as we travelled with our daughter throughout Madagascar.\u00a0 We went to Ile Ste-Marie, an island off the northeast coast, which meant the film would be exposed to x-rays yet again since a flight was involved, and also warm temperatures, because, well, that’s why people go to Ile Ste-Marie.\u00a0 So my odds of getting usable photos was continuing to decline.\u00a0 We also took it on a road trip to south-central Madagascar, past Ranomafana National Park and onward to Andringitra.<\/p>\n

I ended up shooting both rolls while I was up there, and considered whether to try and develop the film myself – maybe one roll in C41 (essentially cross-processed) at home, and send the other roll off to be processed E6.\u00a0 In the end, I decided to entrust both rolls to the professionals at Blue Moon Camera<\/a> in Oregon (USA), meaning my film faced yet another three weeks of travel, and additional x-ray machines.<\/p>\n

By this point, I wasn’t holding out much hope for usable images, but I found out via their Facebook group<\/a>\u00a0that my film had arrived safely in Oregon, been developed and shipped back out, and that the staff there clearly remembered seeing usable images on the film!\u00a0 Just two more weeks, and the negatives finally arrived in Madagascar again.<\/p>\n

Here are my favorite shots.\u00a0 It’s hard to narrow things down, given that they’re all so different from your “typical” Madagascar tourist photo.\u00a0 In fact, unlike most trips I’ve taken, I can say with a fair amount of certainty that no one has ever taken photos like these at these locations.<\/p>\n

\"Rice<\/a>