Do you cut negs or keep them whole?

tkamiya · Jan 19, 2010

I'm curious.... how do you keep your 135 and 120 negatives? Do you cut and sleeve or do you keep them uncut? If latter, how do you store them??

Peter de Groot · Jan 19, 2010

I cut them to pieces and store them in paper sleeves.

DWThomas · Jan 19, 2010

I cut them into strips to fit the archival binder pages. Of course many 35mm color shots from the past were already chopped from the original processor -- usually strips of 5 frames. My 120 I do four strips of 3 for 6x6 or 2 for 6x9. Occasionally for a few milliseconds I feel organized!

Jeff Kubach · Jan 19, 2010

I cut mine into smaller strips.

Jeff

Andrew Horodysky · Jan 19, 2010

I cut them into strips of six frames each (6 strips total for 36 frames), and keep them in Print File pages. I used to keep them in glassine sleeves, that were part of a paper folder/box kit from Light Impressions, but ended up misplacing and/or losing strips.

David A. Goldfarb · Jan 19, 2010

I cut them so that I can make contact sheets and handle them more easily, and so they store flat. I store them in glassine sleeves, but I'm thinking of changing to something like this--

http://www.conservationresources.com/Main/section_5/section5_14.htm

MikeSeb · Jan 19, 2010

I use a system similar to the one David Goldfarb linked. 6x6 negs are cut in strips of 3 frames; 6x7, into strips of two frames. This is dictated both by past habit (when I used Print-File pages, I had to cut to accomodate their sizes) and by what my scanners can handle.

How would I store an uncut roll of 120/220, even if I wanted to? Just curious.

Vaughn · Jan 19, 2010

120 -- into strips of 3 negs, then into clear sleeves (4 rows of 3 negs). I use Print File or like brand -- not too fussy, really. 120 is sort of my "play" format -- what I use to get away from the formality (which I like) of the 8x10. I am going to have to get my 120 negative storage organized -- I have "lost" a whole set of negatives from three summers ago. Might as well reorganize my LF negatives while I am at it -- the number of negatives and types of images have outgrown my original simple filing system.

Large format go into paper 4-fold envelopes. These: http://www.conservationresources.com/Main/section_5/section5_05.htm

Proper storage is very important -- but so is organization. Spending an hour looking through negatives trying to find the one I want to print is a bit rediculous, but occasionally I rediscover an image or two that way. No matter how good a negative it is, if you can't find it, you can't print it. I have a set of two 4x5 negatives that I want to print, but it has been about 20 years since I last saw them...drat. I have the negs I took at the same time, I have the contact prints of the two missing negatives -- but not the negatives.

Vaughn

Tim Gray · Jan 19, 2010

David A. Goldfarb said:
I cut them so that I can make contact sheets and handle them more easily, and so they store flat. I store them in glassine sleeves, but I'm thinking of changing to something like this--

http://www.conservationresources.com/Main/section_5/section5_14.htm

I do this. These are great systems. I use the Archival methods ones, which you can get from them or from B&H. The mylar sleeves are especially nice. It is very easy to get negs in and out of the sleeves without getting crud on them or scratching them by sliding.

nworth · Jan 19, 2010

I cut them and put them is sleeves. For the past 10 years or so, the sleeves have been polypropylene. Keeping negatives in long rolls invites scratches when handling them. It also makes it harder to find what you want.

railwayman3 · Jan 19, 2010

In file pages, 120's in 3's. 35mm in 4's or 6's (dictated by the way the lab cuts them if not home-processed). That suits me for easy handing for either scanning or darkroom printing.

I try to index/label things in date order sufficient to find what I need, but I'm not obsessive in labelling every neg with lots of info unless it's of some real use to record for future reference.

Mike Wilde · Jan 19, 2010

I always sleeve them in clearfile, or printfile and then contact them while in the pages (well, for 4x5 I do 1:1 'enlargements'). I put the contact pages in front of the neg filer page in a 3 ring binder, one or two 1" or 1.5" er year binders.

I just ordered 200 pages of 35mm and 300 120 3 vertical rows of 4 for 6x6, to drive home to me that I have so much film in the freezer. Plus I am dreaming about early retirement, so I am trying to bone up on long lasting supplies while I still have income for the hobby without my wife asking too carefully where the money is going.

phenix · Jan 20, 2010

135 and 120, I cut them into 10'' strips to make 8x10'' contact proofs. Than, I store all the strips from the same roll in a single sleeve, I make from the paperback I recuperate from the 120 rolls (must be the safest paper for archival intend). And I shoot enough 120 to have paper to make sleeves for all my 135 strips too. Finally, all goes in a safe-cardboard box, to avoid dust.

Do you cut negs or keep them whole?

Andrew Horodysky

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