Tossing Negatives After They've Been Scanned

[MattKing]

Not keeping out of focus or wonky negatives is "throwaway society"??

Of course not.
Although the negatives that you think are "wonky" now may very well reveal hidden value if you work with them later.
It depends on how "wonky" your "wonky" is.
See this thread for an idea of what time and inventiveness can reveal when one is working with a negative that, in this case, might be argued to be slightly over-developed: https://www.photrio.com/forum/threads/lets-all-print-or-maybe-scan-one-negative-2025.215648/

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

I have a large collection of "wonky" negatives, where I have found compositions hidden inside. We can learn so much from our wonky negatives.

 

[MattKing]

"Wonky" Negatives - a great idea for a new Photrio print exchange!

 

[foc]

We can learn so much from our wonky negatives.

Forget the negative, I'm just a wonky photographer!!!

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

Forget the negative, I'm just a wonky photographer!!!

Ditto!

 

[wiltw]

Not keeping out of focus or wonky negatives is "throwaway society"??

No, that is good housekeeping!
What I submit is that knowing our digital data is not reasonably accessible for 50-100 years (and digital storage IS less permanent that that) and assuming it does have that longevity is an attitude of 'throw away' value of things, (or being an ostrich on the topic). So destroying our negs because we have digitzed them is a pollyanna view if the permanene of the digital data access.
And while we as hobbyists photographers might have little chance of value of our images after we have passed, other photographers -- like those whose profession is is record/document human events and our surroundings -- suffer from the same problems of digital data permanence...Years of professionally recorded music that were 'archived' to digital have ALREADY been lost!

 

[GregY]

I don't really care if my negatives get thrown away when i am gone, but i am thankful that my parents negatives did not get thrown out. I was able to print some 620 negatives from my parents wedding that had been taken by a guest and had never been printed...from a time before i was born.
I am glad Vivian Maier's negatives had not been thrown out.... after all they were just hobby snapshots by someone's spinster nanny....

 

[Guy S]

Well it seems the answer is going to be the usual boring “middle of the road” cautious approach. Assess your likely need of the materials in future, consider the ability to reproduce them given changes in computing, how much anyone would bother, how important or valuable the images are to you or future generations etc…

Negatives have similar vulnerabilities to changes in the availability of tech.
If all photographic paper went away you could still make teeny tiny alt prints from 135 and 120 but thats about it right?

And if you take pictures with an end goal in mind is it truly irresponsible to dispose of the intermediate material?

 

[GregY]

Well it seems the answer is going to be the usual boring “middle of the road” cautious approach. Assess your likely need of the materials in future, consider the ability to reproduce them given changes in computing, how much anyone would bother, how important or valuable the images are to you or future generations etc…

Negatives have similar vulnerabilities to changes in the availability of tech.
If all photographic paper went away you could still make teeny tiny alt prints from 135 and 120 but thats about it right?

And if you take pictures with an end goal in mind is it truly irresponsible to dispose of the intermediate material?

If commercial enlarging paper went away.... you could still coat your own. Or hunt for old silver chloride paper. I've made contact prints on Azo paper from 1949.

 

[gbroadbridge]

If commercial enlarging paper went away.... you could still coat your own. Or hunt for old silver chloride paper. I've made contact prints on Azo paper from 1949.

When commercial photographic paper goes away, there are alt processes and spray paint.

 

[chuckroast]

I have a large collection of "wonky" negatives, where I have found compositions hidden inside. We can learn so much from our wonky negatives.

Exactly. You don't know if the negative is wonky until you try to print or scan it. I keep detailed notes both of negative exposures, development, etc. as well as how it was printed, dodged, burned, bleached ... That exposure information alone can later serve as a guidepost when refining technique.

I had one last month that looked pretty grim on a light table. The negative looked terribly thin but with appropriate printing magic in the form of split VC, I found a rather nifty image therein. I had, in fact, exposed it just right, you just couldn't tell from the negative. It was taken looking into a darkened barn:

[Oct. 2025] Leica M2, 50mm f/2 V3 Summicron, FP4+, Pyrocat-HDC, scan of silver print

 

[chuckroast]

I don't really care if my negatives get thrown away when i am gone, but i am thankful that my parents negatives did not get thrown out. I was able to print some 620 negatives from my parents wedding that had been taken by a guest and had never been printed...from a time before i was born.
I am glad Vivian Maier's negatives had not been thrown out.... after all they were just hobby snapshots by someone's spinster nanny....

A close friend and photographer of mine has been mining through the photographs and negatives of his father taken when the man was in service as a US Marine in WWII. These old negatives have opened up a door of his family history previously unknown to him. They have served for him to better know a man now dead for many years. He was able to do this, in part, because he could scan/print negatives shot in the 1940s.

One rather doubts a found hard drive or DVD in a shoe box approaching 90 years of age would have been as useful.

I keep meticulous notes of my exposures, either at the individual level, but certainly at the whole roll level, and how I approached printing the ones that made it to silver paper. There is no particular ego in this. These notes have saved my own bacon when I go back to reprint or refine a technique. It would be nice if someone in the future could use this information to keep the craft alive, but I rather doubt it

 

[GregY]

When commercial photographic paper goes away, there are alt processes and spray paint.

Spray paint ??

 

[gbroadbridge]

Spray paint ??

Inkjet

 

[mshchem]

It's the things in the background, everyday things that will fascinate. And my goofy clothes

 

[gbroadbridge]

It's the things in the background, everyday things that will fascinate. And my goofy clothes

Cars with wheels and clothes - any clothes...