Redscale Film

A roll of colour film is made up of 3 layers of colour: Blue, Green and Red. When the film is exposed to light, these layers react and the image is captured. Usually, the blue layer is exposed first, and the light penetrates through the rest of the film until it reaches the base red layer.  It is possible, however, to expose the 'wrong' side of the film first (the red side). By doing this, a massive colour shift takes place and the photographs are noticeably red in colour, as this layer of film has had the highest exposure of light.

I created my own redscale film by winding a film into an empty film canister upside down. This has to be done in a completely light proof room so not to expose the film (therefore I have no record of the process). Once this was done, I loaded the film as normal - however the wrong side of the film faced the inside of my camera.

As the red layer of the film is less sensitive to light, I had to compensate for this buy using much longer exposure times.  The longer the exposure time, the more light can penetrate through the red layer to the green and blue layers beneath. Therefore, shorter exposure times give a vibrant red image, whereas longer exposures produce more life-like colours with subtle red/sepia tones due to the activation of the blue and green layers.