Large collection of family negatives.. How to proceed?

jay moussy · Jul 2, 2019

Surprise.. spouse says "I have my mom's pictures in this here shoebox!", from the 1920's on.

Wide assortment of formats here:
2 1/4, 2 1/4 x 1 5/8, 2 1/4 x 4 1/4 and some odd ones yet to be identified.
90% B&W, few color, unit we get to the 35mm era on the timeline.

I feel like I should do a rough scan to see what we have first, then select a limited lot to fine scan, or enlarge.

Any other way to proceed?
Organization? Negatives are in envelopes neatly annotated.

(only scanner in the house is ancient)

Richard Man · Jul 2, 2019

Get a good flat bed like the Epson V600/V700 and you can make "contact sheets" with them. Then you can decide what to do with the keepers.

Theo Sulphate · Jul 2, 2019

Congratulations on receiving this treasure.

jay moussy · Jul 2, 2019

Theo Sulphate said:
Congratulations on receiving this treasure.

Indeed.
They were in the care of spouse, and I was not aware of their existence, and nobody ever thought of resurrecting them.
I looked at one randomly: beautiful mother and child, and a splendid 1930s car in the background!

Spouse has a large set of photo albums, but I suspect many B-shots may be more interesting.
Oddly, that came up because of, 1. my renewed interest in B$W photography, and 2. the passing of the last one of the generation covered by the photo sets.

It looks like an Epson v600 may be tan affordable ticket, and be an extra tool for my return to B&W.

MattKing · Jul 2, 2019

jay moussy said:
Indeed.
They were in the care of spouse, and I was not aware of their existence, and nobody ever thought of resurrecting them.
I looked at one randomly: beautiful mother and child, and a splendid 1930s car in the background!

Spouse has a large set of photo albums, but I suspect many B-shots may be more interesting.
Oddly, that came up because of, 1. my renewed interest in B$W photography, and 2. the passing of the last one of the generation covered by the photo sets.

It looks like an Epson v600 may be tan affordable ticket, and be an extra tool for my return to B&W.

An Epson 700 or 800 series scanner, although more expensive, can scan an entire sheet of negatives at one go (if you are seeking a "contact sheet").
The 600 will scan prints effectively, and will scan individual negatives/slides or small strips reasonably well, but the process isn't quick.

faberryman · Jul 2, 2019

The good news is it is only one shoebox.

GRHazelton · Jul 2, 2019

faberryman said:
The good news is it is only one shoebox.

The TRULY good news is that the envelopes with negatives are annotated!

MattKing · Jul 2, 2019

One further point about a V600 - it won't permit scanning anything wider than 120 film.

BrianShaw · Jul 2, 2019

Shoebox... my wife inherited three or four cartons of photos, negs, Christmas cards, letters, and misc paper objects.

First chore was to sort the pictures from everything else.

Second: separating “everything else” into two piles -keep and throw out. Criteria - anything related to family history stayed; all the rest went to the dump.

Third: separating photos and negs into two piles. Criteria for keep - and photo or meg of someone or someplace we could identify; all the rest went to the dump.

All the stuff we kept went back in marked boxes for storage... so our kids can throw them out upon our demise.

That reduced the bulk considerably. Several treasures were found in the process, but most was someone else’s treasures and memories that mean nothing to us. It’s sad, but can’t keep all of our stuff plus that of our parents too.

removed account4 · Jul 2, 2019

you might look for a epson 4870 it has the capability of scanning bigger than 120 format film, it can scan up to about 6x8"
i was in the same boat as you IDK 10 years ago? but they weren't negatives in a shoe box it was armloads of prints in a while samsonite suitcase.
scanner worked like a champ.
have fun !

Sirius Glass · Jul 3, 2019

Get Genealogy J https://sourceforge.net/projects/genj/ and build the genealogy and include the photographs. Then send the genealogy files and where to download the free software to the relatives.

winger · Jul 3, 2019

Another vote for the 4870, but they're so old they may not be easy to find.

I inherited pretty much everything photo-related from my grandmother's house after she passed. Unfortunately, my mom went through most of the prints and tossed those which were not identified. I likely could have found out what was in the shots if given the chance, but I didn't find out until it was too late. But she did give me all the negatives and glass plates that were found. My great-grandfather had been a photographer as a hobby and some of the negs he'd shot on his honeymoon. I've scanned most of mine on my 4870. My only issue is that it's got dust and scratches because it's 15 years old. But it works.

jay moussy · Jul 6, 2019

One question: I would be scanning primarily B&W negatives and may not need all the bells and whistles related to color.
How would that affect my choice of scanners, assuming B&W as being less demanding?

MattKing · Jul 6, 2019

jay moussy said:
One question: I would be scanning primarily B&W negatives and may not need all the bells and whistles related to color.
How would that affect my choice of scanners, assuming B&W as being less demanding?

Black and White can sometimes be harder to scan, because you can't use any of the infra-red based dust and scratch removal hardware/software tools with it.
That does mean, however, you could consider one of the considerably older scanners that were built before those tools were commonly included with most scanners.
But be careful with that approach - there are often hardware and software challenges when you try to use old scanners with modern computers.

dutchsteammachine · Jul 6, 2019

When scanning glass negatives on my V750 I use two pieces of cardboard to get it aprox 3mm above the glass. This greatly improves sharpness. Its just blurry when laid right on the glass.

I think most flatbeds without autofocus are like this. Try different heights and see what works best.

StepheKoontz · Jul 6, 2019

jay moussy said:
Indeed.
It looks like an Epson v600 may be tan affordable ticket, and be an extra tool for my return to B&W.

Spend the money to get silverfast for it. It exponentially speeds up the scanning process and IMHO the quality.

BainDarret · Jul 6, 2019

I had the same dilemma with about 500 of my dad's old box camera negatives from the 20s through the 50s. I sorted them into six piles between vertical and horizontal and thin, normal and dense negatives. I then laid them out flat, 8 at a time on my Epson V700 scanner and scanned them at 800 dpi. A little unsharp mask to defog them and this (scaled down) is a sample of the result:

Theo Sulphate · Jul 6, 2019

So you all are not using the negative carrier on the V700, V750?

The V800 series has a negative carrier which has adjustable height (5 steps). The bad aspect is that they added a layer of glass to the carrier. Frankly, I find the carriers slow to use and limiting (3 strips of 35mm).

I'll have to investigate the infrared dust removal and Silverfast. I'm a total newbie to scanning.

Like the OP, I've got hundreds of negatives that need to be scanned - if only as a proof sheet.

Les Sarile · Jul 6, 2019

I've scanned film using an Epson V700 just by placing them on the glass and they turned out quite well.
This one a b&w 4X5 taken during WWII by a colleague whose dad was a combat photog.

Full res 2400dpi -> http://www.fototime.com/5DCEE0B3D75F78C/orig.jpg

These two are strips of 35mm that I wanted to see contact scans of. The Fuji Astia slides were in a plastic holder - hence the even spacing. The second I tried to squeeze the Kodak Portra negatives as close as I could to see if I could get all 36 frames on one scan. Done at 600dpi, the scan goes quickly and images are not unreasonable for a contact sheet preview.

Full res -> http://www.fototime.com/EEEB5C4CBC442CB/orig.jpg

Full res -> http://www.fototime.com/B3997C3A230D873/orig.jpg

Ko.Fe. · Jul 7, 2019

I have some luck to scan old bw. But enlarging was just superior.
Try to compact print and then scan. I did old small prints scans and reprinted.
Fine results even with some enlargement.

mshchem · Jul 7, 2019

I would contact print. in a darkroom. Pick out the winners and scan and enhance etc. I've got a dedicated 8x10 contact printer. If you have the negatives in print files you can expose a 8x10 proof sheet every minute.

I hate scanning a lot of photos. If you have black and white negatives, contact printing goes fast.

Large collection of family negatives.. How to proceed?

jay moussy

Richard Man

Theo Sulphate

jay moussy

MattKing

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faberryman

GRHazelton

MattKing

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BrianShaw

removed account4

Sirius Glass

winger

jay moussy

MattKing

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dutchsteammachine

StepheKoontz

BainDarret

Theo Sulphate

Les Sarile

Ko.Fe.

mshchem

Large collection of family negatives.. How to proceed?

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