The question I always wanted to ask - Storing negatives in folders

[hoffy]

OK, I have now amassed a few folders worth of negatives. The question is simple. Should I be storing them flat or standing up?

I have them flat, as I figured that if they hang down on the binder rings the bottom ones might get curled.

Thoughts?

 

[Sirius Glass]

Mine are in binders that lie flat. That way there are no slumping problems.

 

[otto.f]

might get curled.

I store my negatives, all formats, in pergamon HAMA sheets since 1983 in ring binders standing vertical on a shelf and never saw any curling

 

[juan]

I store my negatives in plastic sleeves inside file folders stored in a file cabinet vertically. Some are more than 50-years old and don’t show any problem that I can see.

 

[brian steinberger]

Vertical for me.

 

[RalphLambrecht]

OK, I have now amassed a few folders worth of negatives. The question is simple. Should I be storing them flat or standing up?

I have them flat, as I figured that if they hang down on the binder rings the bottom ones might get curled.

Thoughts?

I have them standing up for 20 years without the plastic sheets failing.

 

[beemermark]

I store my negatives in plastic sleeves inside file folders stored in a file cabinet vertically. Some are more than 50-years old and don’t show any problem that I can see.

I've done the same. Some of the Ektar chromes have faded but the Kodachromes are still fine.

 

[MattKing]

Vertical binders here, except my binder with oversized glassine pages with negatives (primarily) from the 1970s and early 1980s. That binder won't fit vertically on my shelves.
Both approaches seem to be working fine.

 

[Truzi]

Great - I got some printfile sheets & binders a while ago and haven't moved my negatives to them yet, and now I'm second-guessing, lol. I'm pretty sure I'll be fine, though.

 

[brian steinberger]

Not to hijack the thread but do you guys also file the contact sheets in the negative binders? I do, right behind each sheet of negatives.

 

[Sirius Glass]

Not to hijack the thread but do you guys also file the contact sheets in the negative binders? I do, right behind each sheet of negatives.

Sometimes

 

[Doremus Scudder]

My negatives are in poly file pages in binders stored standing vertically on bookshelves. I store the contact sheet and all my exposure records together in the binders with the appropriate negatives. 35+ years now and not a problem.

Doremus

 

[RalphLambrecht]

Not to hijack the thread but do you guys also file the contact sheets in the negative binders? I do, right behind each sheet of negatives.

+1

 

[hoffy]

So the consensus is... It really doesn't matter?

 

[otto.f]

Sometimes

+1, but recently almost every time

 

[snusmumriken]

I store my negs in plastic sheets (Secol) filed in ring-binder boxes (i.e. enclosed). I stand the boxes on end, like books - that is, when they are not being used as weights to help flatten prints!

In my experience (mainly with Ilford films) negs stay very flat when stored like this.

 

[W_Taylor76]

I store my negatives (medium and large format) in plastic archival sleeves in 3-ring binders standing vertically like they were made to. No problems with curling or anything else in the last 20+ years.