What do you do with your negatives?

Ces1um · Apr 10, 2018

Just wondering, once you've printed from your negatives, or scanned them- what do you do with them afterwards? I have a giant box full of negatives, which I imagine I'll never use again. It feels wrong to throw them out but I also don't want to store them indefinitely. What do others do?

Mainecoonmaniac · Apr 10, 2018

My negatives are in a sad state. Every time I process film, I put them in pages and throw them in a pile. I'm way behind in cataloging and proofing them. I'd love to have more darkroom time, but finding time is hard. I'm only 4 years away from retirement and my plan is to catch up filing, printing and proofing my negatives. I still have negatives from our summer trip to the Baltics that have to be printed.

MattKing · Apr 10, 2018

For a very long time, I have been putting them into Printfile sheets, which then go into binders.
Each binder holds one or more years, depending on how busy I've been.
Slides tend to stay in the original boxes (for 35mm) or are in Printfile sheets in binders.
Here are most of my 35mm negatives from the 1970s:

The relatively recent (post 2000) black and white negatives are mostly accompanied by a contact proof sheet. Older ones, like those shown above, not so much.

faberryman · Apr 10, 2018

I keep my slides and negatives in PrintFile sleeves in three ring binders.

Oren Grad · Apr 10, 2018

Around here negatives are indeed for keeping indefinitely - even after I've printed them once, I may want to print them again at some point.

For roll film I use an individual polypropylene fold-lock sleeve for each negative strip. All the strips for a roll are kept together in a card-stock sleeve, and the sleeves are stored in boxes organized chronologically. Sheet film negatives also go into individual fold-lock sleeves, but since they don't group into rolls, those sleeves go directly into boxes suitably sized for the respective format.

Alan9940 · Apr 10, 2018

I keep everything up to 4x5 in PrintFile sleeves; 8x10 is slipped into a glassine fold-over thingy, then put in a archival paper envelope. In my younger years I was very good at keeping everything organized and easily found...not so much nowadays!

Billy Axeman · Apr 10, 2018

I keep my negatives in binders like MattKing. Each (glassine) sheet contains one 135 roll, cut into 6 strips with 6 frames each. My sheets (Hama No. 9520) have 7 rows so my top row has no film and it contains a strip of paper with basic info like date, film type, camera, lens, filter, developer type, developer use and subject. So, each sheet is completely self-supporting and the binder can be looked-up independently from other data and scans on the computer. All the sheets are stored on date.

This is a compact way of storing films, and I keep all my films indefinitely; my first film is from 1968.

p.s. Keeping your negatives is a good way to have a backup besides the scans and/or prints. The negatives are actually my originals; I would never dispose them.

p.p.s. Throwing away your negatives is madness.

KenS · Apr 10, 2018

Billy Axeman said:
I keep my negatives in binders like MattKing. Each (glassine) sheet contains one 135 roll, cut into 6 strips with 6 frames each. My sheets (Hama No. 9520) have 7 rows so my top row has no film and it contains a strip of paper with basic info like date, film type, camera, lens, filter, developer type, developer use and subject. So, each sheet is completely self-supporting and the binder can be looked-up independently from other data and scans on the computer. All the sheets are stored on date.

This is a compact way of storing films, and I keep all my films indefinitely (so far); my first film is from 1968

Glssine negative 'holders' have been banned from use by me for many years. They have proven (to me to be less than a safe means of storing negative... they tend to 'turn' a "yellow-ish colour" after few years in a 3-ring binder.
I cannot say that it IS the 3-ring binders... or the 'paper' from which the glassines have been made.
I now ONLY use my diminishing supply of the clear "plastic" marketed by "Pint File' (I'm not sure if they are still in business BUT their address Is PO BOX 607638, ORLANDO, FLORIDA 32860-7638.... they come in 'singleton' 4 per page (horizontal or vertical for 4x5) as well as 35mm negative and mounted 35mm slides and 120 film formats. they also supply 70mmand 8x10"

Ken

long-time medium for archiv

Billy Axeman · Apr 10, 2018

Well Ken, we are now entering the discussion which material for the sleeves is archival. Officially the glassine is not archival, but only because of the glue between the strips, not because of the material itself. I have always used the Hama sleeves and even my earliest sleeves (1968) are not yellow. I looked it up for this post, and believe it or not they actually have exactly the same color as my new sleeves.

GRHazelton · Apr 10, 2018

Like Matt King I keep my negs in PrintFile pages, marked by the image numbers generated by scanning and dated. I'm way behind in scanning some 50 plus years of shooting; when scanning I'm able to assign subject headings which aids in locating a particular negative or slide. (I'm trying to utilize some 40 years' experience as a professional librarian.) Take it from me, choose your subject headings or tags or categories carefully! There should be a rational hierarchy imposed on them, and it should be "obvious" to others. With care you'll be able to find a negative/slide via LightRoom or whatever pretty rapidly.

Throwing away negatives is a sin against the Photo Gods. WalMart and the other sinners who do so will be judged and found wanting!

Theo Sulphate · Apr 10, 2018

The negative is everything. All mine are logged and archived. Some are in safety deposit boxes.

In the process of writing my colossal book and going through my photo logs of 1972-1973, I discovered the existence of three extremely precious never-printed frames that I'd long forgotten about.

avb · Apr 10, 2018

I also use the PrintFile pages - the 7x5 negative ones.
I like shooting my Nikon F5 because I use a custom setting that the camera stops at 35 exp for a 36 exp roll.
Currently I number by year, month, roll (of the year), neg. Like 1802R04_N15.
I RA-4 print from the negs so all are kept.

LeftCoastKid · Apr 10, 2018

Like Matt, I, too, keep all my negatives in PrintFile archival pages. My 35mm and 120 format work are each kept in a series of binders, chronologically, by location. I have, for example, a 35mm binder full of negatives of Vancouver (the city proper, and the GVRD as a whole), one of work shot on the Island (festivals, cityscapes, etc), one of work shot in New Orleans, one for Atlanta, one for the rural South, etc; for 120, I have binders for Louisiana architecture, the Canadian Rockies, Vancouver Island landscapes/nature (black and white and E6), the GVRD, etc. Currently, I have, at last count, 12 binders full of negatives. My 35mm Kodachrome and Ektachrome slides are kept in several dozen Archival Methods storage boxes as well as Logan metal boxes.

Paul Manuell · Apr 10, 2018

In a large plastic storage box under my bed. Each negative sleeve and envelope dated and a brief description of what's on them. Can't see me ever using any of them, but you never know...

ic-racer · Apr 10, 2018

Ces1um said:
I have a giant box full of negatives, which I imagine I'll never use again.

You can burn them like Weston, but I like to have the ability to make as many prints from each negative as I want.

Agulliver · Apr 14, 2018

I cannot, for the life of me, imagine not keeping my negatives in at least a reasonable state. When all is said and done, it is the camera negatives that will be the highest quality and most long lived source of the images.

My hand processed B&W negatives, going back to 1986, are kept in files like other users here.

C41 negatives are usually kept in the envelopes provided by the lab or occasionally where no envelope was provided in similar sheets to my B&W negs. I've also taken on the negatives of my late father (C41 colour and B&W including glass plates).

Try to think decades down the line. Just last year I scanned a bunch of 120 colour negatives from 1976. These yielded 100% perfect images, better than the prints from the negatives which have been either discarded or on display for forty years. Without those negatives the images might have been lost...indeed some of them would have been.

I've had plenty of prints fade when put on display. Prints get damaged by handling. I've yet to own a HDD which lasted much more than a decade.....but I've yet to come across even a carelessly stored negative which failed to yield it's image.

I've also been working with glass plates, which at some point have had sticky liquid poured on them. I'd love to see a HDD function after treacle has been applied....with the plates, I spray on some IPA, wipe off and they're good as new.

faberryman · Apr 14, 2018

Agulliver said:
I've also been working with glass plates, which at some point have had sticky liquid poured on them. I'd love to see a HDD function after treacle has been applied....with the plates, I spray on some IPA, wipe off and they're good as new.

Takeaway: Don't store your glass plates or your hard drive in the food pantry.

E. von Hoegh · Apr 14, 2018

Ces1um said:
Just wondering, once you've printed from your negatives, or scanned them- what do you do with them afterwards? I have a giant box full of negatives, which I imagine I'll never use again. It feels wrong to throw them out but I also don't want to store them indefinitely. What do others do?

I file and index them. Slides, too back to 1975, b&w to about 1972, I wasn't so good at indexing when I was 11.
The negative is your "original file" and must be preserved; properly stored b&w is good indefinitely, color for a very long time.

Joe Jesus · Apr 14, 2018

I usually eat them. I toss a strip or two in with my morning smoothie to try and absorb some extra artistic inspiration for the day.

Ces1um · Apr 14, 2018

Joe Jesus said:
I usually eat them. I toss a strip or two in with my morning smoothie to try and absorb some extra artistic inspiration for the day.

They slightly resemble bacon, being in strip form as they are. They are however, nowhere near as delicious as bacon.

railwayman3 · Apr 14, 2018

A friend of mine, a family snapshotter, had each film Dev and Printed, put the best of the photos in albums, labelled and dated them, and binned the negs and poorer prints. They now have a neat set of albums of interesting pics family events going back some 30 years. In the last year or two they have printed out the only the best of their digital shots in exactly the same way, deleting the rest.

I look at all my files of negs which I'll never have time to print, and wonder who has the right idea ?

Ces1um · Apr 14, 2018

railwayman3 said:
A friend of mine, a family snapshotter, had each film Dev and Printed, put the best of the photos in albums, labelled and dated them, and binned the negs and poorer prints. They now have a neat set of albums of interesting pics family events going back some 30 years. In the last year or two they have printed out the only the best of their digital shots in exactly the same way, deleting the rest.

I look at all my files of negs which I'll never have time to print, and wonder who has the right idea ?

Your friend has a remarkable amount of discipline. When I decided to switch to film from digital it was because I needed to buy a new computer and I realized I had over 20,000 photographs on the computer on my account alone (my wife had more). I hadn't printed any of those. When I switched to film I had them all printed and threw out the bad ones but after a while I stopped photographing just the family and started taking other photos. They were beautiful and I loved that I took them, but they had no personal connection and I stopped printing them. Then my kids refused to let me photograph them as they reached the teenage years. Now I don't print anything. I have a hard drive full of scanned film photos and I'm basically heading back to the predicament I was in when I was a digital shooter. It used to bother me but now I take film photography for what it really means to me. A reason to go outside, spend some quiet time alone, exercise my brain a little and to experience the single most satisfying moment that photography has to offer- pushing the film advance lever. Sometimes I don't even rush to get my film developed because for me most of the joy comes from the moments leading up to pressing that shutter, not the results after.

GarageBoy · Apr 14, 2018

I don't wanna keep everything, but I don't wanna throw things out either... I wish I was a better photographer?

Looking over a bunch of negs, I've said to myself, this entire sheet is garbage, but there maybe one shot or so that was worth keeping just for the nostalgia...

removed account4 · Apr 14, 2018

32mm and 120 in print file pages
4x5=5x7, 8x10 either in glassine sleeves bought
through gaylord brothers archival/library supply store
or thumbed non buffered envelopes and archival shoe boxes
also gotten through gaylord brothers .. or empty film boxes,
paper negatives either in archival boxes or a fiber board/chipwood storage
thing bought from micheals craft store for less than 50$ i thnk it has 4 drawers
and they are full enough nothing else will fit in them
might just put them all in the trash soon
with regards to glassine
i worked for someone who only put negatives ( 5x7 and split 5x7 )
in glassine pages for IDK 60 years, the glassine looked like it was brand new
and the film looked perfect

Sirius Glass · Apr 14, 2018

The mistakes and bad photographs go in the trash. Almost all the 35mm, 120 and 4"x5" go into PrintFile pages.

What do you do with your negatives?

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