How to Make Film Soup

One of my intentions for 2024 is to get out of my creative comfort zone. To do this, I committed to 12 months of experimenting. Each month this year, I’ll pick a new technique to have fun with no attachment to the result. The goal is to stay curious, learn a few new tricks, and create things outside of my paid work. For the first month of the year, I decided to give FILM SOUP a try.

What is Film Soup?

Film soup is an experimental technique that involves taking a roll of film and using heat, liquid, and other chemicals and ingredients to alter the images. It’s a loose process and involves a lot of trial and error. Several factors can change up the look of the images even if you’re using the same stock of film and ingredients including; the acidity of liquids and how they interact with one another, film expiry date, how long you leave the film submerged, etc. The mystery is all a part of then fun!

Wanna learn the process and see how my photos turned out? Keep reading.

Film Soup Directions

Shoot a roll of film. Some people soup their film first and then shoot, but if the film is completely dry the chemicals can ruin your camera. I say better safe than sorry - shoot first, soup after.
Boil a kettleof water and pour it into a bowl or jar (I used a big mason jar.)
Let the water cool a bit and add your selected ingredients.
- My recipe: lemon juice, white wine vinegar, 2 bags of lavender chamomile tea. I chose mellow chemicals / ingredients because I didn’t want my images to turn out too wonky. Here are some additional recipe ideas from other photographers whose images came out super groovy.
  - 7 AWESOME FILM SOUP RECIPES TO TRY ON YOUR NEXT ROLL OF FILM - Shoot It With Film
  - Film Soup Recipes: From Mild To Wild - lomography
  - 7 FILM SOUP TIPS TO GET BETTER RESULTS! BY AMY ELIZABETH
Let the film soak for 1-24 hours while stirring occasionally. I let my film soak for 2.5 hours.
Remove the film from the bowl/jar and run under cold water for 1-2 minutes to stop the chemical process.
Let the film soak in cold water for 10-15 minutes.
Remove the film and let it dry completely. I left mine out for 1 week.
Develop yourself of send to a film lab
- Very Important: Make sure you call or email the lab to make sure they develop souped film (many won’t as it messes with their chemicals)

Film Soup Results

As mentioned earlier, I didn’t go too wild with my ingredients because I was a nervous nelly and didn’t want the effects to be too outrageous. However, now that I’ve tried it, I would definitely be a bit more adventurous with what I added to the mix. You can see the different blotches of colours and streaks in some of the images, and overall the images feel slightly warmer than normal. But some of the images didn’t change that much.

Would I try it again? Definitely. It’s a bit expensive when you factor in the film and developing it in a lab, but it’s a really fun and experimental process that gives photos a different look and feel.

Have you tried film soup before? Have any questions about it before you experiment? Leave a comment!

And come back next month for February’s experiment…