Notes on the back of the photo

[hiroh]

I'm doing alt processes for about two years now, and I take every note that will potentially be useful for me in the future. I heard someone saying, notes can be important for the collectors if they acquire your photo someday, but I'm not worried about that for now, as I'm not selling my prints, nor I plan to anytime soon.

I take these notes digitally, in a txt file for each print, and I have template that I developed over time, so the notes are uniform for each photo.

However, I'm thinking about putting some notes on the back of the print itself, but I'm hesitating for the moment, as I'm trying to find the best way to do that. So far, I have 200+ prints and I'd like to find the way to note them, so I don't have to experiment too much and change in the future. For me, the back of the print is also important, the handwriting, the layout of the information. It can be sloppy, like as if you don't care, or it can be done in a nice way.

It's been two years since I'm doing alt processed, mainly platinum palladium, and I found the right template for the digital notes, which I didn't changed for the last year or more, and I think I'm ready to mark my prints too, but I'd like to see some examples from people who do this much longer than me, maybe get some ideas, or get inspired how to do it in a nice way. So please, if you have them, please post here.

Btw, I also never put my signature on a single print, because I don't actually have one. I used my ugly signature only for signing forms and I don't want it on any of my prints. I feel I need to come up with something better and stick with it, but as I already said, I don't plan to sell my prints, so I never had a chance to do this, even though I want and I will. I'm just not rushing, but I think the signature and few notes is a cool thing to have on a print. I put a lot of time, money and effort in these photographs and prints, and they will sure outlive me, so it will be good to do it while I'm still around

 

[BHuij]

For both silver gelatin, and alt processes (which I currently just do Kallitypes and New Cyanotypes), I keep voice notes in my voice memo app on my phone about prints, and then record them in spreadsheets later so I can easily reference what is and isn't working. Or once my process is dialed in, which is mostly is at this point, the notes will at least tell me how to achieve the same quality of print without having to repeat a bunch of experimentation.

The system works great for me, but I'm also very cognizant of my nature as a spreadsheet addict, and it's quite possibly overkill for most photographers.

 

[Dwayne Martin]

I've been writing notes on the back of my prints basically since I started. I sign and date right in the middle of the print on the back. Most of mine are lith prints so I sign and date, record paper used, developer and dilution used, and exposure. The notes are for me really. I do try to write gently so not to leave an impression. The prints I have forgotten to sign are frustrating because I have no idea haw I made them really. I do similar things with my gum prints....

 

[Rick A]

I write my notes on the back of my prints in pencil, I use them to designate the back of the paper before I even start, then add info as I progress. I'm 100% analog, in camera negatives, no manipulation.

 

[juan]

I have made notes on the back of my prints for many decades - particularly when trying out different ways of printing. When I get a successful print formula, I memorialize everything - negative formula, print formula, dodging and burning - in notes. For years it was on paper, now as pdf files.

 

[Steve Goldstein]

I put notes on the back of my fiber silver-gelatin prints using an 8B pencil from an art supply store.

 

[brian steinberger]

For years I’ve been wanting to get some sort of stamp that I would then fill in with pencil. Something like:

Title
Location
Date taken
Date printed
Edition

As far as technical notes those are all in a notebook. Not sure I’d want that stuff on the back of a print. I could easily look up whatever notes I needed from my notebook based on which edition print I have.

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

I write my notes on the back of my prints in pencil, I use them to designate the back of the paper before I even start, then add info as I progress. I'm 100% analog, in camera negatives, no manipulation.

What kind of pencil? Special art type? Soft lead? #2 etc?

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

I put notes on the back of my fiber silver-gelatin prints using an 8B pencil from an art supply store.

Thanks Steve. Should have read all the posts first.

 

[nmp]

I mark my prints with a number - paper/paper batch identifier/date/#. For example, today's salt test print is numbered COT-B-040823-1. Each print gets a page worth of notes, filed chronologically, describing whatever conditions used, negative used (numbered similarly) etc. If there were any data collected, that goes in there too.

Date is very important so you can go back and see what season the print was made, hot or cold, high humidity, low and most importantly how the star were lined up on that day... After having done all that, Murphy's law dictates that one thing you thought wasn't important to note down then turns out to be the most consequential later on.

So how much are these notes useful at a later date to recreate the exact same prints. Not sure. I think they are useful in the short term at the learning stage. But good luck if I try to go back and decipher my very bad handwriting 2 or 3 years later.

:Niranjan.

 

[FotoD]

I agree that a simple code on the paper before you start is a good thing. IME the paper will always be wet when you want to put something down. With a code you can write all info on a separate slip of paper and decide what to put on the print when you are done.

 

[snusmumriken]

Btw, I also never put my signature on a single print, because I don't actually have one. I used my ugly signature only for signing forms and I don't want it on any of my prints.

I am totally in tune with this. I hate my signature. I even dislike the arrangement of letters in my name. Very envious of those whose signatures are like a beautiful flourish that graces and completes whatever they are added to, even tax forms!