Understanding Film Fade In Restoration: Preserving Our Cinematic Past

Adam Hawkes
4 days ago
4 min read

Updated: 3 days ago

Film is one of the most powerful storytelling mediums ever created. But even the most iconic images are vulnerable to an invisible, creeping threat: film fade.

Whether it’s a silent classic or a mid-century masterpiece, fading film stock affects archives, broadcasters, and collectors alike. To protect our visual history, we must first understand what causes film to fade, why it matters more than ever and why digital restoration might be the answer.

What is Film Fade in restoration?

Over time, film stock can undergo a degradation process known as film fade, losing colour density and tonal accuracy. This results in a gradual decline in the image's vibrancy, clarity, and intended colour balance. The fading effect is often uneven, causing the film to develop an unnatural red, blue, or green tint that distorts the filmmaker's original vision.

What Causes Film Fade?

A combination of chemical instability and environmental exposure causes film fade. Here are the most common culprits:

1. Dye Layer Degradation

Colour film typically uses three dye layers—cyan, magenta, and yellow—to reproduce the full colour spectrum. The diagram below shows a cross-section of these emulsions on an unexposed modern Kodak Vision 3 motion picture film stock (Fig. 1). The blue recording emulsion (yellow) is the closest to the front/top of the film element.

Diagram of film layers shows blue, green, and red emulsion layers, UV protection, and anti-halation. Direction of light exposure indicated. — Fig. 1

These layers break down at different rates: In colour film, cyan dye is generally the most stable, while magenta and predominantly yellow dyes are more prone to fading. This differential fading is why older films often appear reddish or pink.

Different film stocks: It’s essential to note that alternative film stocks, like colour reversal film, have different dye layer arrangements and will result in distinct colour shifts over time. Still, the principle of film fade remains the same.

Three horizontal film emulsion layers showing dye layer arrangements Text: Blue, Green, Red sensitive layers. — Fig. 2

The image above (Fig. 2) is a simplified cross-section where the right side illustrates faded yellow and magenta dye layers. In this dye arrangement, cyan subtracts red, magenta subtracts green, and yellow subtracts blue. Consequently, because magenta and yellow are the first to fade, this film stock will exhibit a shift towards reddish tones.

2. Temperature & Humidity

High temperatures and moisture accelerate chemical reactions in film emulsions. This speeds up fading and can lead to mould, vinegar syndrome, or warping, compounding the damage.

3. Light Exposure

Even moderate exposure to light, especially UV, can cause photochemical decay. Projection, scanning, or improper storage without light protection can all worsen fading.

4. Poor Storage Conditions

Films stored in non-climate-controlled environments are especially at risk. The ideal storage for colour film is cold (below 50°F / 10°C) and dry (around 20–30% RH).

5. Film Stock Chemistry

Not all film stocks are created equal. Some, like Kodak’s Eastman Colour from the 1950s–70s, are notoriously prone to fading. Others, like Kodachrome, are more stable but were expensive and less widely used for motion pictures.

An example frame from the 1968 film The Sand Pebbles illustrates the before and after of film dye restoration with a distinct green tint. — *Ascent Media utilised PFClean to address significant film damage, including tears and colour shifts, in the 1968 film* *The Sand Pebbles. This demonstrates PFClean's capability to correct substantial film degradation, specifically green shifts, automatically.*

Example frame from Tobe Hooper's 1969 film Eggshells showing a side by side example of film dye layer degradation with a distinct red tint. — *Mark Rance of* *Watchmaker Films* *undertook a fascinating restoration project using PFClean to fully restore legendary director Tobe Hooper's 1969 film* *Eggshells, notably removing a pinkish tint from a 16/35mm blowup. You can watch this project and many others that Mark has restored using PFClean on Mubi.*

Film Opticals

The optical shot from Hammer's The Devil Rides Out below displays a distinct green shift. This colour issue is not solely due to film fade. It also arises from multiple optical passes, chemical processes, and colour timing problems during the creation of the optical effect. Nevertheless, these issues, like film fade, can be corrected using suitable digital tools. You may see similar problems with other optical elements, such as colour shifts that can happen during dissolves and overlaid optical titlework.

Why Film Fade Matters

When a film fades, it's not just the colour that disappears—it’s the emotional tone, atmosphere, and historical accuracy. This degradation affects:

Archival integrity of national and cultural heritage.
Broadcast and streaming viability for remastered content.
Commercial value of restored media for studios and distributors.

At first glance, a badly faded film might seem beyond saving—something destined for the discard pile. But this is actually the moment when a film is most at risk of being lost forever. The good news? It doesn’t have to be. With today’s digital restoration techniques, we have a real shot at bringing these damaged reels back to life.

The Role of Digital Restoration

While physical film fade cannot be reversed chemically, digital restoration offers a powerful way to recover lost colour, tone, and detail—often beyond what’s initially thought possible.

This is where PFClean shines. Even heavily shifted footage can often be rebalanced early, laying a solid foundation for dust removal, stabilisation, scratch repair, and further colour correction work. This early intervention helps improve the visibility of artefacts, reduce manual downstream workload, and streamline the restoration workflow.

Rather than restoring colour correction as an afterthought, PFClean enables colour recovery to be the first confident step—unlocking the full potential of the source material and making the rest of the project smoother, faster, and more consistent.

While AI tools can be helpful in some contexts, relying on them to artificially hallucinate colours instead of restoring them can compromise the authenticity of the material. A skilled operator with the right tools can restore a faded clip in minutes.

Preserving the Past for the Future

Every frame of film is a fragment of history. As physical media continues to degrade, understanding and addressing film fade is essential for preserving stories that still matter today. Whether managing an archive or restoring a beloved classic, the time to act is now.

Learn more about PFClean at www.thepixelfarm.co.uk/pfclean