Discard Negatives ??!!!

I suppose that for some, they are not interested in the materials that were produced to create the end product. It would be akin to requesting all the sawdust and wood scraps after having a custom piece of furniture built.

I think that many also miss the point that the negative is the original image and anything that comes after it is a copy.

For me, I keep my negatives, in an orderly manner, and have sine 1973. I recently finished scanning them all and the digital copies are organized in a custom database I wrote, each roll tagged with descriptions that allow easy searching. The database runs on my internal web server and I can pull up a searched roll, view a virtual contact sheet, and enlarge individual images. I think this is the type of thing people use Lightroom for but I’m a DIY type of person.

Dang, I've bought other people's negatives before (antique store). I was hoping for historical significance, but identifying any of the subjects is nigh on impossible. Some of the old films had/have amazing clarity and detail though. They're fun to throw on the light table.

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...

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This perplexes me no end......... "she said it's common; once the kids have the scans and prints they don't want the negs"

I am not a "film-snob" in the least. I have seen LOTS of great photos taken by digital cameras.

But it begs the question........... you are not developing the film, you do not have a darkroom, and you do not want the negs...............Why shoot film.?

This is a slightly different issue, but as a 35mm user, I shoot at least 35 rubbish frames for every one that I consider worth printing, let alone keeping. I do keep all those negatives, and I often wonder why. I never find any hidden gems among them, and when I'm gone no-one will want to store them. So why not chuck out all the strips with nothing worthwhile on them? HCB even went so far as to cut away adjacent frames.

Unfortunately, it's a disposable world now, things are different.

CMoore said:

But it begs the question........... you are not developing the film, you do not have a darkroom, and you do not want the negs...............Why shoot film.?

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For all the reasons trotted out in the blogs, most of which are a bunch of hooey.

I would take it as a sign of the times, and not a sign to find a new lab.

mrosenlof said:

I would take it as a sign of the times, and not a sign to find a new lab.

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+1

I can't bring myself to toss my negatives even though I'm quite sure I won't use them again. I guess I'll leave it up to my kids.

I've kept all my negatives since ever, a habit I learned from my dad. Unfortunately, when he passed we just didn't have the resources to keep his negatives - there were 70 years' worth of everything from slides and 35mm film to boxes of 4x5 and 8x10... I still feel sad about that, but it was right in the height of the Covid lockdowns and things were more than a little disrupted.

I suppose some day I'll discard my old stuff, hopefully I can have time to go through all of it and pick out the top 1 or 2 percent that I'd really want my kids to keep.

I don't care. I process all my own stuff.

Do these people spend 30-40 dollars on a roll of Ektachrome and processing only to get digital files?

This renaissance of film will last as long as it's a fad.

madsox said:

I suppose some day I'll discard my old stuff, hopefully I can have time to go through all of it and pick out the top 1 or 2 percent that I'd really want my kids to keep.

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You make a good point. I went through some of my catalogs from college and before. Most of it isn’t worth printing and the only one who would want to make prints from them would be me. So when I’m dead what would be the point of passing them on?

Do not discard negatives ever. If you do you will regret it. Maybe not tomorrow or in a week. But the day will come when you will throw up your hands to the sky, crying, "Why did it do it! Why did I ever throw my negatives and slides away!

I tell ALL my photo students to keep the negatives! I chucked a bunch of my negatives before leaving Japan. Biggest mistake EVER! I mean, if you only want the scanned negative file, and chuck the negative, why even bother shooting film??

MattKing said:

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.

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you can purchase frozen food on the walmart website, and it will come fedec or ups... but they have options it can be ordered, and sent to the store..

ironically that frozen juice will come from the same distribution facility with the regularly scheduled frozen food shipment of the day.

but the store wont be able to get it ordred as a regular over teh counter sales item

Sirius Glass said:

Do not discard negatives ever. If you do you will regret it. Maybe not tomorrow or in a week. But the day will come when you will throw up your hands to the sky, crying, "Why did it do it! Why did I ever throw my negatives and slides away!

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I had to burn all my slides because they had developed mould in the damp storage conditions that were all I had (rural England, 1980s-90s). How I wish I had been able to scan them first.

Sirius Glass said:

Do not discard negatives ever. If you do you will regret it. Maybe not tomorrow or in a week. But the day will come when you will throw up your hands to the sky, crying, "Why did it do it! Why did I ever throw my negatives and slides away!

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Can I ask, Sirius, were you at Casablanca airport watching the midnight plane to Lisbon taking off when this emotion came over you?

Form the start of any beautiful friendships as a consolation?

pentaxuser

pentaxuser said:

Can I ask, Sirius, were you at Casablanca airport watching the midnight plane to Lisbon taking off when this emotion came over you?

Form the start of any beautiful friendships as a consolation?

pentaxuser

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I do not destroy good slides or negatives, but I have seen what happens to those that did, even in Casablaca.

Times have changed, though I'd wager that most people who took casual photographs never did understand the value of negatives. But in the past, most shops/labs would explain that they could only make high quality reprints from the original negatives and not from prints. But still, the majority of the population (the casual snappers) often didn't understand or look after their negs well. Enthusiastic amateur photographers were always the minority, but did much better at preserving things. I still have the envelopes that prints and negs came in during the 70s and 80s...and they usually had printed info on them to this effect.

I would assume that most of us on this forum are old enough to have known times when digital storage wasn't a thing, and will have also used digital media that are no longer manufactured and which may be difficult to read today. I have a hard drive from my 1989 Atari ST which would require a special adaptor to read in a modern PC. Luckily I took all the important data off it in floppy discs in 1993 and those documents live on in physical backup drives that I make periodically. But how many people would have lost data from those days? My first photo scans were made on an Apple Mac in 1996 for a rock band I was photographing. I have kept those files through multiple format changes but frankly they're abysmal by today's standards. Luckily, I still have the negatives. Because they did come in handy in 2016 when the band last toured. And they're gearing up for a final fling later this year.

With photo negs and slides we have at least two factors to consider. The digital files may not be as fragile as they would have been 30 years ago but there's still no guarantee that one's HDD/SSD or "the cloud" won't fail. And it's likely, especially if one is under 30, that there will be future improvements in scanning hardware and software which will pull better/more pleasing/more detailed images from those original media in the coming decades. Why lump yourself with an inferior facsimile of the original image? A negative will have a shelf life of decades if not over a century if stored well and can even withstand large doses of radiation (see Chernobyl and surrounding areas).

My local lab says a few customers don't bother to pick up negatives. I think she keeps them around at least a year. She cannot wrap her head around it. Having asked, it doesn't seem fixed to any one demographic. But that's a small slice of the market.

I have sometimes been asked by friends and work colleagues to scan negatives, slides and even 8mm film. I *always* impress on them how important it is to keep the originals. Then it's their decision.

I've nothing against labs having an option not to return the negs. But it should never be the default. I'd consider that theft.

Agulliver said:

...I'd wager that most people who took casual photographs never did understand the value of negatives.

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To a large extent, this was me when I was younger. I didn't understand the point in keeping a negative if I already had a print. The concept of wanting to make another print, or even a larger one, just didn't register in my brain. That being said, though, I did hold on to my negatives, primarily because I tended to keep my photographs in the same envelope in in which they arrived from the lab, and there was a nice pocket in which the negatives were stored. With on exception. In '97 I had taken a trip throughout western Europe, and for what reason I really don't know, I threw out all of the negatives and was left with nothing more than 3x5 prints. Still hitting myself on the head for that one.

When I got into scanning some 15 years ago, it was then and only then did I truly begin to realize the value of negatives; I had a treasure trove of old photos I had taken to scan and in many cases was very much impressed with the images.

Luckily, both my mother and grandmother kept every negative they ever took. I've scanned most of my mother's negatives. Still going through and scanning my grandmother's negatives from the 50's. And while she didn't take too many photos, it's wonderful to capture and digitize photos of my mother and uncles when they were just babies. Even with what were (relatively) cheaper cameras back then, the medium format sized negatives of my grandmother's provide some rather good images. But then came the 110 cameras.... ugh... don't get me going on that.

Duceman said:

But then came the 110 cameras.... ugh... don't get me going on that.

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I recently put on a slide show for my Darkroom Group - some of my Dad's 110 Kodachrome slides, projected using one of his Pocket Carousel (110) slide projector.
He took his Instamatic 60 on a couple of the trips that he and my Mom went on.
They were/are pretty good, although the projectors need service.
Like nearly everything else - it depends

takilmaboxer said:

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.

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So you have a hooters lab and what negatives are you taking about ??? Can't see any

MattKing said:

I recently put on a slide show for my Darkroom Group - some of my Dad's 110 Kodachrome slides, projected using one of his Pocket Carousel (110) slide projector.
He took his Instamatic 60 on a couple of the trips that he and my Mom went on.
They were/are pretty good, although the projectors need service.
Like nearly everything else - it depends

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Really.?
I never realized 110 was made positive.
I suppose MOST people that owned a camera in the 60s and 70s did not shoot 35mm or larger.
Amazing what has come and gone ... in all products ... over the years.

CMoore said:

Really.?
I never realized 110 was made positive.
I suppose MOST people that owned a camera in the 60s and 70s did not shoot 35mm or larger.
Amazing what has come and gone ... in all products ... over the years.

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Both Kodachrome and Ektachrome were available in 110. Lomography currently sells a 110 E-6 film (X-Pro Peacock) though they market it for cross processing. I’m not sure what stock it is, but it comes out very blue when processed in E-6, so I assume it’s quite expired.

When I moved I had a million envelopes with 35mm negatives in them. The prints I received with them long ago were already in photo albums. Except for a few enlargements at the time, I never used the negatives in 50 years and threw them out when moving. Mainly family shots.

I also had many slides that I subsequently scanned and made into digital slide shows on DVDs and memory cards. I gave copies to my daughter. I;m never going to go back to the slides even though I know I could do a better job scanning today then I did originally. It;s just not worth it. No one cares, not even me. What I have is good enough. Maybe it;s age. You get to the point where some things just don't make sense trying to perfect them. Will it make a difference if I can now squeeze out an additional ten percent more resolution? Am I going to redo all the slide shows I did for such minor improvement no one can notice or really care about. The fact I did the scanning and gave my daughter the results is good enough rather than only saving the negatives in some box that she would never bother with and not making and providing her with the digital slide shows.