workflow organization of negatives, prints, etc

[BetterSense]

I just got into 35mm 6mo or so ago, and eventually will do medium format. At first I shot C41 and got it developed at Target. So now I have probably two dozen of the little Target folders with negatives and prints, jammed in a bookshelf. But since I'm developing myself, I need a better system. Now is the time to start. Space efficiency is important for WAF.

Are there convenient containers for these materials like negatives? I'm imagining a DVD flip-book-like container for storing negatives.

If you shoot for years, you must have an awful lot of negatives and prints to organize. So how do you do it? A roll of 35mm in plastic negative sheets can be folded up to be very small, so it's a waste to use full-size hanging file folders, unless you put large prints in with them. Or do you separate the prints from the negatives and have some numbering system to correlate the two? How do you organize, by date? Format? Process type? Do you keep notes with the prints, and how?

 

[JBrunner]

A pack of these:

http://www.freestylephoto.biz/13011...ve-Pages-35mm-holds-6-strips-of-6?cat_id=2308

And a three ring binder should do you for while

 

[Palantiri7]

Whoa. I need that. But it means I'll have to sort through piles of 35mm negs stuffed in my <ahem> wardrobe drawers. I think I will procrastinate some more...

 

[MattKing]

If you are considering the binders and negative pages, it is important to realize that some pages are designed to fit in normal, easily found binders, while other pages are designed to fit in larger, proprietary binders.

The larger pages are big enough to hold a 36 exposure roll.

I prefer myself to be able to uses standard binders.

The next challenge is the one you might encounter if you shoot 6x7 - what do I do with the 10th negative.

You will understand, if you shoot 6x7 .

Matt

 

[winger]

For 35mm, I use Print File 35-7B pages. Then I put those in binders that have pretty solid sides so they don't get squished (I can't remember where I got them, but it was likely Light Impressions). The same binders can hold the pages for 120 and 4x5 (but I have separate ones for each format).

 

[Dan Henderson]

I put all of my negatives in Print File sleeves and store each roll in a file folder along with a contact sheet, exposure notes and any work prints and printing maps that I have made from that roll. Everything associated with a roll of film is in the same place. The files are stored in an old steel filing cabinet. I also make a second contact sheet of each roll and store them in 3 ring binders to make finding specific rolls easier later on. I file rolls and contact sheets in chronological order which corresponds with my numbering system. I shot a roll yesterday which will be 2009-01-03-01 (year-month-day-first roll shot that day).

I wonder, though, why I cannot bring myself to throw away rolls of crappy images that I know will never see the light of an enlarger. They get contact printed, numbered, and filed just like the keepers.