What is film soup?

At its core, film soup is submerging your 35mm film cartridge in some sort of liquid to mess with the emulsion. This could mean submerging your film in ocean water, boiled water, or whatever you want and even adding things in to vary the results. I most often boil water and add some other elements to my own soups, such as lemon juice, vinegar, dish soap, baking soda, salt, food coloring, and the like.

1. Soak your 35mm cartridge for a few hours or even days.

2. Rinse the film in running water for 5-10 minutes (sometimes more if it is still soapy),

3. Allow it to dry*, and then send it off to the lab!

*Dry film for at least two weeks in a sunny spot or in rice. Alternately, you can dry it in the dryer for at least 5 cycles on high to speed up the process. Film that isn’t fully dry might not load onto the reel.

**You can soup 120 film, but it has to be done in the developing tank. Film Lab 135 accepts 120 for develop only, but does not soup it for you nor scan it.