Discard Negatives ??!!!

takilmaboxer · Jan 15, 2023

So, I went to the local lab to pick up some 120 color negs and prints. This lab recently moved to a location close to the University and appears to be popular with the 20 somethings. There behind the counter was a stack of stuff ready for pickup, and written on the one on top of the stack was "D/P/Scan, Discard negatives." WHAT???!!! I asked the counter person what is was about and she said it's common; once the kids have the scans and prints they don't want the negs. I thought of the 100 years of family history that I have at home in the form of negatives, and said, "you know, 50 years from now someone's going to publish a book of photos printed from discarded negatives, and get famous for it." She giggled, but then her eyes twinkled, like maybe she had an idea...

Sirius Glass · Jan 15, 2023

takilmaboxer said:
So, I went to the local lab to pick up some 120 color negs and prints. This lab recently moved to a location close to the University and appears to be popular with the 20 somethings. There behind the counter was a stack of stuff ready for pickup, and written on the one on top of the stack was "D/P/Scan, Discard negatives." WHAT???!!! I asked the counter person what is was about and she said it's common; once the kids have the scans and prints they don't want the negs. I thought of the 100 years of family history that I have at home in the form of negatives, and said, "you know, 50 years from now someone's going to publish a book of photos printed from discarded negatives, and get famous for it." She giggled, but then her eyes twinkled, like maybe she had an idea...

Time to find an another lab.

markjwyatt · Jan 15, 2023

takilmaboxer said:
So, I went to the local lab to pick up some 120 color negs and prints. This lab recently moved to a location close to the University and appears to be popular with the 20 somethings. There behind the counter was a stack of stuff ready for pickup, and written on the one on top of the stack was "D/P/Scan, Discard negatives." WHAT???!!! I asked the counter person what is was about and she said it's common; once the kids have the scans and prints they don't want the negs. I thought of the 100 years of family history that I have at home in the form of negatives, and said, "you know, 50 years from now someone's going to publish a book of photos printed from discarded negatives, and get famous for it." She giggled, but then her eyes twinkled, like maybe she had an idea...

Walmart has been doing this for years. Crazy.

faberryman · Jan 15, 2023

If an image has a half-life of 15 seconds on Instagram do you really need to keep the negative?

markjwyatt · Jan 15, 2023

faberryman said:
If the image has a half-life of 15 seconds on Instagram do you really need to keep the negative?

If all you do is Instagram, maybe not. For me, I keep my negatives.

takilmaboxer · Jan 15, 2023

It's the only lab in town. The staff is friendly, and the girls wear short shorts. They don't treat me like an alien and I'm 67. I've had custom prints there and they did a great job, and not inkjet either.

Jim Jones · Jan 15, 2023

Keep your negatives. Catalog them so that when you have many thousands of them, you can find one when you need it. In the catalog, identify family pictures or other dignificant subjects so your descendants a hundred years hence can identify them.

armadsen · Jan 15, 2023

Sirius Glass said:
Time to find an another lab.

Seems a bit much. All the labs around here have discarding the negatives as an option. For those people who don’t want them back, they can ask the lab to discard them and not have to go back to the lab to pick anything up (assuming no prints). I would never ever have them discard mine, but it doesn’t mean the lab is bad because they’re willing.

rcphoto · Jan 15, 2023

Sirius Glass said:
Time to find an another lab.

Why do you think so?

MattKing · Jan 15, 2023

It's great to find a truly philosophical question in the Ethics and Philosophy sub-forum!
I have no problem with a lab offering this, as long as they at least share something about the value of retaining negatives.
And I am prepared to tell anyone who asks, that keeping negatives is a really good idea!

Sirius Glass · Jan 15, 2023

MattKing said:
It's great to find a truly philosophical question in the Ethics and Philosophy sub-forum!
I have no problem with a lab offering this, as long as they at least share something about the value of retaining negatives.
And I am prepared to tell anyone who asks, that keeping negatives is a really good idea!

A problem is that some labs just destroy the negatives without asking first.

rcphoto · Jan 15, 2023

Sirius Glass said:
A problem is that some labs just destroy the negatives without asking first.

I've never heard of that. Can you tell us which labs so those of us who keep our negs can avoid them?

Sirius Glass · Jan 15, 2023

rcphoto said:
I've never heard of that. Can you tell us which labs so those of us who keep our negs can avoid them?

I recall that Walmart was doing that a few years ago.

rcphoto · Jan 15, 2023

Sirius Glass said:
I recall that Walmart was doing that a few years ago.

I know they gave the option to discard the negs, as the OP indicated at his lab, but unless you checked the box you got them back.

You indicated multiple processors were doing this without asking, any idea who they were? It would obviously be helpful for everyone to know.

Sirius Glass · Jan 15, 2023

rcphoto said:
I know they gave the option to discard the negs, as the OP indicated at his lab, but unless you checked the box you got them back.

You indicated multiple processors were doing this without asking, any idea who they were? It would obviously be helpful for everyone to know.

At first it was not an option. There was blow back. Search the threads here and you can see the discussion about it.

MattKing · Jan 15, 2023

Discarding the negatives at the lab can save a bunch of shipping costs for a store like Walmart, so it doesn't surprise me that at the individual store level they would recommend that.

rcphoto · Jan 15, 2023

I used to have people ask to dispose of their negs after they had them scanned. One guy insisted they be destroyed in front of him. I wouldn't say many, but some are just not concerned with if someone will be able to reproduce one of their images in the future.

Pieter12 · Jan 15, 2023

rcphoto said:
I used to have people ask to dispose of their negs after they had them scanned. One guy insisted they be destroyed in front of him. I wouldn't say many, but some are just not concerned with if someone will be able to reproduce one of their images in the future.

They don't seem to care, so I don't think there is any reason to be concerned.

Sirius Glass · Jan 15, 2023

Pieter12 said:
They don't seem to care, so I don't think there is any reason to be concerned.

Ignorance can be bliss, at least for a while. My ex-mother-in-law would throw away the negatives before looking at the prints for decades. After my ex-father-in-law died she came to me crying that the photograph of him in her wallet was badly worn and wanted me to fix it. That was way before digital cameras became available on the market. Files may not last forever, a subject of many long threads here.

Pieter12 · Jan 15, 2023

Sirius Glass said:
Files may not last forever, a subject of many long threads here.

Negatives need to be store with some care to endure. So many things can go wrong--my uncle was an avid amateur photographer, but not the best darkroom technician. Many of his negatives as well as his prints have not aged very well.

takilmaboxer · Jan 15, 2023

In my case, the girl behind the counter and her male tech both agreed with me, both seemed aware of the transience of digital files and paper prints. Discussion revealed that both use real film cameras, the guy about fainted when I pulled out my K1000. They even knew that many of the films they sold (a great inventory) were rebranded Foma or movie films. Just when ya think that the youngsters are clueless, they prove they aren't.

foc · Jan 15, 2023

I owned a minilab a few years ago, and we offered mailorder and instore film developing. We also offered the choice of return negs or not.
75% chose not to have the negatives returned/collected.

ic-racer · Jan 15, 2023

Wait, if one had a digital camera, couldn't one upload the images directly the internet without first having to buy, process and scan the film? Or am I missing something. Or are digital cameras not a "thing" any more?

Pieter12 · Jan 15, 2023

ic-racer said:
Wait, if one had a digital camera, couldn't one upload the images directly the internet without first having to buy, process and scan the film? Or am I missing something. Or are digital cameras not a "thing" any more?

No “it” factor.

Kilgallb · Jan 17, 2023

I even keep my failed 4x5 negatives, double exposures, processing errors and just failures due to carelessness and write notes to myself so I do not repeat.

Discard Negatives ??!!!

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