Test Your Photos: Fade Resistance
Fade resistance testing usually happens on expensive machines able to carefully control humidity, light, and temperature. But there are ways to test fade resistance at home.
- Print out two photos.
- Cover half of one photo with the other
- Leave them both out in the bright sun
| Light Source | Brightness (Lux) |
|---|---|
| Candle Light at 20 cm | 10-15 |
| Street Light | 10-20 |
| Normal Living Room Lighting | 100 |
| Office Flourescent Light | 300-500 |
| Halogen Lamp | 750 |
| Sunlight, One Hour Before Sunset | 1000 |
| Daylight, Cloudy Sky | 5000 |
| Daylight, Clear Sky | 10 000 |
| Bright Sunlight | > 20 000 |
It's difficult to quantify fade resistance when you're testing at home. Luminance and UV intensity vary based on your location. Sunlight near the equator is different than Augusta, Maine. As a general rule of thumb, though, you can assume that a day of direct spring sunlight roughly equals 150 days indoors. If your picture is sitting in a frame on the living room table, you can guesstimate fade resistance by doubling that number to 300 days.
This is an example of weathering taken to an extreme. These two photos were subjected to about 30 years of light exposure, which simulates what your framed family pictures would look like after that period of time in the living room.
Look at the fade in the bottom picture. This is a case of poor quality ink and/or photo paper. The top picture was printed with official inks and official paper. This shouldn't be considered an endorsement of official inks, though. If you do this test on your own, you can and will find other inks and papers that get close to official quality.
Realistically, most of us don't care if our prints survive beyond 10 years. If the picture loses quality, simply print it out again (so long as you've managed to keep your digital data safe for that long). But if you're a shutterbug concerned with print preservation, these tests should provide a few easy ways to make sure that you're getting as close as possible to an optimal print at a fraction of the cost of tier-one-branded supplies.
