How to Develop Found Film

I'm frequently searching thrift stores and camera shops for old equipment, and occasionally I'll find a camera with an exposed roll still inside. The packaging reveals the type of film and usually the development process needed (in the case of color films). But long-expired films are often fogged or the development process is obsolete. I'd like to share how I process found film at home and get consistent results.

My development process is very simple, and uses HC-110 developer:

• 1+90 dilution HC-110
• 18 minutes development
• Agitate for the first 30s, then for 10 seconds every 3 minutes thereafter

This development will work for old color films, but naturally will result in low-contrast B&W images. Many color development processes have been replaced with modern processes (for example E-6 has replaced E-3 and E-4), so white attempts with modern color chemistry could be employed, the method described above is a cheap and quick way to get results.

Once developed, scanning the negatives can be tricky, especially if they are severely fogged. I scan using an Epson V500, and following a preview scan will adjust the brightness and contrast until I can obtain a decent image. Below are come comparison images to show the condition of the negatives, and the best result I was able to get while scanning:

You can see that the negative here is in somewhat bad shape, but for film that was developed after 60 years, the result is actually quite nice!

This example is likely from the 80s, so while the film had fogged somewhat, the latent image was still in good shape and the film base hadn't been exposed to fungus or moisture.

Here you can see what good scanning is capable of. On the left above you see a cellphone photo of the negative, with an incredibly faint image. On the right, my final scan after manipulating settings in the scanning software. The film was in bad shape, but the result is still decent!

A particularly bad example, from
the same roll as the last photo.
The subject can still
be identified though!