Archiving Negs, Prints, and Slides

[Rafael]

Yesterday I decided to finally begin my long overdue project of cataloguing and archiving my negs, prints, and slides. Let's just say that I'm facing a mess 😱 (although, being only 31, I suppose it could be much much worse). Thus far, the excavations of my closets have yielded the following:

1) Slides stored in Print File Sleeves

2) Slides stored in boxes

3) 35mm Negatives in Print File sleeves (no prints)

4) 35mm Negatives in envelopes with matching prints (un-catalogued)

5) 35mm Negatives in envelopes with matching prints (neg reference number written on back of prints)

6) Un-cut 120 negs rolled

7) Prints in envelopes or shoe boxes (no negs)

8) Large prints in envelopes

9) Large prints in portfolios

How do all of you archive and store your negs, prints, and slides? I have several primary interests here. Firstly, do any of you use an archival system that allows you to quickly identify different format negs and slides that come from the same shoot? Do you base your archival system on date, format, subject, or other? To the real geeks out there, do you have a system for cross-referencing date, subject, and format? Do you bother archiving prints? Lastly, how do you store everything, particularly your un-cut 120 negs?

Thanks in advance for your responses. I really want to get going on this project because I know that this mess will only get worse the longer I wait to set up an archival system. And I'm getting a little tired of wading through boxes and boxes of negs and slides every time I want to print one of my favourite images.

 

[nightfly]

Ok I'll bite.

I store everything except prints in negative sleeves ( I like Clear File Archival Elite because they are a little thicker,I buy 100 packs now for about $20/per 100 from B and H) in 3 ring binders organized by year. Every page of negatives is marked by year and number (2006-001). Then finding any given negative is a matter of just finding what number on the roll in what sleeve it is. I develop and cut my own rolls of 35 and 120 to fit. When I shoot slide film, I get them processed and left unmounted and use the same technique. If I've got old slides that are mounted, I get sleeves that store those. Every picture then has a unique ID (year-roll-number).

I should then mark this number on the back of my prints, but I don't. The prints are all in those museum cardboard boxes totally unorganized. Maybe one day when I'm old.

I mimick this system when I scan the negs into my computer by having file folders for years and then subfolder for rolls and then having 3 subfolders in every roll # for PSDs (original scan, cropped and layered with adjustment layers for curves and whatever else), tifs (these are the final print, flattened, 8 bit, 300 dpi) and jpg (if I create a version for the web). If I'm feeling very anal, I will scan the whole sheet in it's plastic sleeve on my flatbed, name if proof.tif, store it at the top level of the roll# directory and then print a copy and 3 hole punch it into the proper binder with the sleeve. This doesn't happen all that often though.

My system lacks any sort of meta data. No way to find all pictures of rocks or anything like that. I plan on adding this someday using maybe Aperture or Adobe Lightroom or something. Suggestions?

In reality the way the system works is that I develop stuff in bunches. I don't label anything and then scan something into my computer and put it in the correct years folder but name it "New York Random Fall" (I just did this last night). Then later when I have a bunch of these, I go back and label the negative sleeves and then label the computer folders properly. This usually occurs on a cold Saturday or Sunday in the middle of the winter.

The general idea for this system came from David Vestal's "Advanced B&W Printing PHoto 303 The Pratt Institute Handouts".

It's nice because it works for both anaolg and digital file systems. If I labeled the prints with the unique id I could track back anything and if I added some sort of metadata database search system to the electronic versions, I could search by category or whatever. But I can always retro fit that stuff on to the basica system.

It's virtually the only thing in my life that I am remotely anal about.

 

[Rafael]

Thanks for the input Nightfly. I don't (yet?) shoot digital. So I am dealing solely with negs, prints and slides (should have mentioned that all of my slides are mounted). Your system sounds good, reliable, and relatively simple to maintain. Anyone else?

 

[rogue_designer]

I have a hybrid system, since I shoot both film, and digital.

All my negs (35, 120, 4x5) go in clear-file pages in binders, labeled by date of shoot (or a close guess, where possible) - and a sub code for whether it was client (further identified by an ID code) or personal (date only)

Scans of negatives and chromes are then entered into my digital asset management program ( I use Extensis Portfolio) where I can keyword further, and I can cross-reference the binder location. This dovetails into my digital shots as well, which can be searched by the same client numbers, or keywords etc, and whose file locations are similarly coded.

It's a bit complicated to describe, but really not that bad, and very scalable.

Darkroom prints are currently a rarity in my workflow (alas) and so are not really part of the workflow, but it would be easy to reference the same id's if necessary. Digital Prints and usages, etc. are all kept track in the notes fields of the asset managment program, where I can call them up in a seperate search. All portfolio and sale prints are stored matted with interleaving tissues in museum boxes. Work prints are all over the place. 😀

Using the software regularly has the added benefit of making sure I don't accidentally use something who's rights are more restricted (and I can also keyword and reference model releases, etc.) And having the option to search by keyword (where I bothered to put them in) or Date, or Client and see thumbnails of anyting scanned at any point, is really handy.

--

Of course, I have a huge backlog of information to input at the moment. But it's all in the personal work section, so I'm not super worried about it.

 

[nightfly]

I don't shoot digital either.

Everything "digital" in my system is from scanned negatives but the system would apply equally if say I bought that Ricoh GR-D I've been pining for...

Also I will often put a note as to what is on a negative page after the number so that just casually flipping through, I can find what I need. Adding the season or the general theme of the roll helps a lot. My brain tends to work very chronologically so something like 2006-54 makes a lot more sense to me if it says like Autumn NY or something next to it. I have found negs like this just envisioning the type of light I remember taking the photo in or the general time of year.

 

[planetjoe]

Welcome to Organized Living.

Welcome to Organized Living.

I'm with nightfly - I don't archive metadata, exaxctly, so I can't home in on specific subject content (except from memory), but what I do have has taken a fair bit of thought. I haven't been printing for a while now; in fact, I haven't had a proof print done in about a year and a half. Instead, I scan negatives and print digitally when desired. I also shoot digital, mainly from a Canon 10D. I also shoot 6x6 pretty avidly, but unfortunately have no real system yet for physical archiving. I'm working on that, though.

I'd like to give an overview of my "system", for those that are interested. It's pretty long winded, but I'd like others to benefit from my utter obsession with detail. The impatient can skip to the end of the post for the highlight reel:

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1. NUMBERING/ID: I number each roll of film with a unique date- and roll-based identifier. For example, 200610040100 would be the first roll shot (or unloaded from the camera) on October 4, 2006; the second would be 200610040200. Each image on the roll is uniquely identifiable, as well; 200610040126 would be the 26th archived frame on the first roll. For a digital "shoot" (usually a single CF card dump) the format works the same way, but would read 20061004d000 for our particular example. The reason for this is so a digital shoot can be ID'd in the archive at a quick glance. The digital number scheme has a capacity of 999 unique images per calendar day. This is a little tight for big shooting days, so if I actually produce more than 1000 images (these are "finished" images, by the way) I can easily "bump" the calendar date up by one day to allow for more. I don't think that will ever happen, except on the occasional digital job, but I'm satisfied with the solution. Assuming 36-frame rolls, the film numbering scheme can allow for (99*36) = 3564 film images per calendar day; my record so far is only around 400, so no worries there. (note: when shooting a job, I also attach a job ID to the roll ID as necessary: "200610040100_2006-01". I don't do jobs often, but there you go.)

2. ARCHIVING: When shooting film, my negatives are stored, sleeved, in FilmGuard Pro-Line negative pages (item #PL24920). This is one of few neg pages that can fit sleeved negs besides the Print-File Ultima series. My choice of Pro-Line was based on a long, complicated search process. The issue seems to be one of strip length. A 36-frame roll usually works out to 6 strips of 6 images, but - and here's the important part - there is no sealed 3-ring binder available that can easily fit a six-frame wide negative page. Yeah, I couldn't believe it either. I happen to eschew "open" binders, so you can see my dilemma. I thought about cutting the Ultima pages down width-wise, but then I'd have six strips of five frames, which would be a waste of 6 frames per roll (I shoot mainly 135-36 films). Instead, the Pro-Line pages fit seven strips of six (they're taller), and so when I cut them down (by about an inch in width) I end up with seven strips of five, which only wastes one frame per roll. As a consequence, I always wind on to "2" before shooting. All these pages are captured in ImageSafe locking binders (or the equivalent; these go by a couple different names. They're the biggest ones I've been able to find). By the way, even if I went with an "open" style binder, the only one that would fully fit - and protect - 6-frame side pages is the PrintFile "G" series album, which is pretty pricey for the flimsy binder it is.

3. REFERENCING: I keep an MS Excel-based spreadsheet of all the rolls and digital shoots in the archive. Information like film, emulsion, equipment used, "good" frames, etc. are listed in columns. I've only been this anal since last year, so there are only about 110 rolls in the archive. I'm slowly working my way back through the dozens and dozens of un-archived rolls sitting in dark storage in my closet. I also make notes of exposure and "category" of images - a roll might have snapshots, wedding photos, landscapes, etc.; I apply codes like wd, ss, ld, for these. Hmm...I guess that IS metadata.

4. SCANNING: this is a whole 'nother issue. Raw files, finished files, TIFFs, JPEGs...if you really want to dive to the depths of my archival neuroses, drop me a PM and I'll spill the beans.

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Okay, here are the important bits, I think:

- if storing negatives, decide whether you want to keep them in pages, books, etc. I recommend the methods above for true safekeeping. It's as archivally sensitive as I could get it in my price range, but my near-term enemies are dirt and light. And seriously, if anyone knows of WIDER "locking" binders, let me know. Really.

- keep negatives sleeved in archival sleeves, preferably the "fold-flap" or "lock-flap" kind. This way, they'll never "drag" along the pages when you pull them out to scan or whatever. And once they're developed (if you do 'em yourself) never ever touch 'em.

- archival pages, binders, etc. are a real racket. Nothing seems to match, and your best plans will often go awry. But that's what they make exacto blades and bulk rolls for.

- come up with a naming scheme that connects the image IDs with the roll they came from. If I come across a scanned image on my PC and want to go back to the roll, I always know which one it is. Your numbering scheme should contain all the location-reference info you'd like to have when looking at an individual image. You can always name the image "for real" for framing, selling, etc. My IDs are only internal.

- have fun. If you're into organizing things, photography can be the Olympics of categorization.


Cheers,
--joe.

 

[planetjoe]

Oh, and another thing (I keep remembering stuff):

I found, through trial-and-error, that using an order-based numbering scheme didn't fit my particular methods. As I was working back through an existing collection, I wasn't quite sure when a roll would pop up between "2005-06" and "2005-07". Besides, despite my anal tendencies, I'm actually pretty lazy, and I wasn't sure if I could keep on top of the archiving.

For these reasons, I went with a date-based scheme, which I found to be truly scalable. All I have to do is note the date of exposure (or of developing, if the roll sits around for awhile - for my purposes the latter is acceptable).

I'll shut up now.


Cheers,
--joe.

 

[Rafael]

Thanks for your very detailed response Joe. I have a couple of questions for you: What do you mean by "fold-flap" or "lock-flap" sleeves? Do you just mean sleeves that have a flap tht folds over the opening? Also, when you write of "location-reference information" you mean location of the negatives not location of the shoot, right?

 

[planetjoe]

What do you mean by "fold-flap" or "lock-flap" sleeves? Do you just mean sleeves that have a flap tht folds over the opening? Also, when you write of "location-reference information" you mean location of the negatives not location of the shoot, right?

Rafael:

Yes, you're correct about the sleeves - I'm afraid my terminology is very "joe-centric". Some sleeves are "open" (i.e., V-shaped), but I prefer the ones that close over the opening. I usually use the sleeves that the lab puts my negs in, but I'm also working my way through a 500' roll of Pro-Line sleeving, item #PL14932.

About "location-reference": yes, location of the negs themselves. The geographic location of the shoot never proved to be an important category for me personally. More important was the ability to reference a digital image (from scan or otherwise) or a print in a "show" album to a specific page of negatives or the relevant entry in the database. These days I find the latter use more powerful - I never have to guess what lens took what image anymore, as it's all there, cross-referenced to individual images.

Thanks for the questions. I realize that my "system" is really a personal obsession, but I actually find it's a lot of fun.


Cheers,
--joe.