Shooting Film on Overseas Assignments
Do Modern Security X-ray Machines Fog Film?
I have recently returned from a trip to China to attend my solo photography exhibition at the 5A1 ArtSpace Gallery, and I was also involved in a 5-day workshop, travelling to various locations in Southern China with David Lai and the workshop participants. This also allowed me to continue shooting for my Year of the Rabbit project, which was quite enjoyable. Since I began this project twenty years ago on film, I have continued shooting in Australia and China on 35mm film to maintain the same aesthetic that film offers. This process has been an enjoyable component of working on this project - I love shooting on film and appreciate the grain and look that film provides. However, I haven’t shot film in an overseas assignment for a considerable time, and the decision to shoot film overseas may have been a fatal one. Upon returning, I am pretty concerned about the condition of the nearly 60 exposed rolls of film I shot for this assignment, due to the excessive exposure to security X-ray machines.
What I didn’t anticipate in planning this assignment trip was the number of X-ray security machines that film is now exposed to during overseas trips. There are two factors adding to the risk of shooting film when on overseas assignments: i) the heightened security since the terror incidents some years ago means there are now more security X-ray machines to contend with and ii) since the dominance of digital photography, the security staff, and most likley the equipment manufacturers, are no longer sensitive to the possibility of fogging photographers film while passing through these security barriers. There was once some sympathy built into the security personnel training, especially for professional photographers working on assignments that allowed hand inspections of the film. However, this situation no longer exists and some younger security staff would not even know what film is. The number of times film goes through these scanners while overseas was something I had not considered at all. Previously, your exposed film might have been X-rayed once or twice when coming through the airports. However, on this trip, I also encountered security X-ray scanners at various sensitive locations, including tourist sightseeing areas, the railway station, the airport, and even the library. Everyone should be grateful for the extra security, which makes travel safer. The point of this blog is that if you are shooting film, be aware of the extra X-ray exposure on your film. At the airport on my way home, my bags were scanned at the airport entrance, and again when going through customs with my hand luggage. The checked-in baggage would have been scanned at least one more time during the security checks. When going through customs on the way home, my hand luggage, which is my camera bag, was scanned twice because they had concerns regarding my spare DSLR battery. I had to remove the battery, and they then scanned the battery separately and the camera bag again. I saw on the security officer’s screen, a roll of film which showed the actual spiral-shaped film sitting within the metal light-tight cassette and the plastic film container that holds the film roll. I’m sure she also bumped up the X-ray KV’s to see what was inside the canister. This was a horrifying sight for a photographer, and a sinking feeling about whether my film would survive this level of scrutiny and X-ray bombardment. As a rough estimate, my camera bag was scanned about twelve times during my two weeks of travel. This adds up to a lot of X-ray exposure that I did not anticipate. Will my 60 rolls be fogged by this level of exposure?
Glenn Porter - Water & Stone, Shenzhen, China, 2025 (Shot on iphone)
I won’t find out if this is a disaster or not until I process the film next week, but the anxious feeling I have is somewhat uncomfortable, to say the least. After conducting some quick research via my mobile phone and Google AI on whether modern X-ray security scanners are safe for film, the search suggested that film under ISO 800 should not be affected. However, there were some exceptions to this rule, indicating that the outcome depends on the power of the machines. One would also concede that the amount of X-ray radiation by being exposed several times could also have an influence. I would further suggest that exposed film may also be more vulnerable to fogging by the X-rays because exposed film has passed the inertia point, which is a certain amount of exposure that must occur before the film becomes sensitive. So I await in bated breath until next week’s processing gauntlet of 60 rolls of film.
I had intended to process the film while I was overseas before I came home. I had the opportunity to do this, but chose to keep my days free for shooting instead. This may not have been a good decision?? I will post the result next week, whether it's a celebration or a source of misery. What lesson have I learnt from shooting assignments with film overseas in this security-conscious environment? Seriously consider the risks now exposed (pun intended) to shooting film when travelling across borders and in sensitive areas. Obviously, shooting digitally reduces this risk and will be a significant consideration on my next trip. Anyway, fingers crossed for next week.
Glenn Porter
07 June 2025
