Best Way to Store / Archive Analog Film, Proofs?

[CameraQuest]

OK folks, What System do you use to store, organize, and preserve your millions of rolls of developed and proofed film?

This stuff takes up space. After about 10,000 developed roll of film, its remarkably difficult to find a particular roll / exposure,

 

[Godfrey]

It'll probably annoy people to death, but I stopped saving/archiving film media years ago. Now, whenever I shoot a roll of film, I process it and scan it with a high resolution scanner and save/archive that as my masters. I fully annotate the film with IPTC metadata and archive it in the same library as all my digital captures.

The only film I save now are Minox 8x11 format negatives (take up no space, essentially), Washi-120 paper negatives (because they're beautiful even as originals), and instant film prints (because each one that's worth saving is a finished little jewel that I often give away as gifts to friends). They're all scanned too and join the digital archive as well.

Most of the run of the mill 35mm and other stuff I have on the shelf is film that I exposed and haven't scanned yet, up to 55 years old now. It takes a while to scan all of it!

I don't necessarily say this is the best way, and of course it's absurd if you like darkroom printing. But I'll never do darkroom printing again at this point.

G

 

[Tom R]

OK folks, What System do you use to store, organize, and preserve your millions of rolls of developed and proofed film?

This stuff takes up space. After about 10,000 developed roll of film, its remarkably difficult to find a particular roll / exposure,

Wow! Where to begin? I am sure that others have they own (and maybe better ways of doing this ....):

First thing I'd do is devise a Filing/Naming system: year-month-roll#, etc. Ask yourself how you anticipate searching through these negatives.

I assume that you've cut these negatives and are storing them in those standard envelopes, 6 frames by 6 or 7 rows? If not, then you'll need more help than I can provide (maybe someone else on this forum will be helpful?).

Basically, I place the cut negatives in plasticine pages (along with any handwritten notes) in three-ring binders. Along the top of each plastic page I record the "label" based upon my filing/labeling scheme. I put no more than fifty or sixty rolls in a binder. Next, I use a label maker to create labels for the spines of each binder. Labels include years (inclusive), and roll numbers. These three-ring binders are then organized in bookshelves in chronological order.

If you have contact sheets these should be labelled (on the back sides) with the same filing/naming system you use for negatives. I keep the contact sheets in a different place than the negatives for a number of reasons. For one, adding the contact sheet to the negative sheets increases the weight and makes handling the books somewhat awkward. I also care less about losing or misplacing a contact sheet because I have the negatives and the scans ...

If you're scanning these negatives, I'd consider investing in a good metadata editing program; I use PhotoMechanic, but I'm told that a lot of freely available software works well. Before creating lots of metadata, I'd carefully think about Keywords (structured or not), and some standardized way of titling, crediting, etc., these images so that you don't have to revise lots of metadata. I keep "lightweight" (i.e., lo-res JPEGS) of complete rolls on my main computer. Note, I name the directories to conform to the same filing/naming convention that I used for the negatives and contact sheets (if any). This way I can quickly look through all of the scanned negatives in a much larger format than what I might obtain with a loupe on a contact sheet. But, in order to do this I had to spend LOTs of TIME scanning and providing metadata for these older negatives. Because I do maintain keywords and metadata, I can load these scans (directories) into PhotoMechanic (or any other metadata editor) and quickly find topics, dates, locations, etc.

Now, depending upon what you're doing with these images, you can then create Excel Spreadsheets using any number of fields and including your Reference numbers when creating portfolios, photo books, submitting images/product to the copyright office, etc.

I am sure that this gives you an idea of one way to proceed here. I'm curious to know if more "automated solutions" are available, which is one reason I'm writing such a long post.

Let's see what others do and have done.

TR

 

[Bmoze]

I put my negs in Print File sleeves. I put the sleeves in three-ring binder boxes I purchase from Light Impressions. I use separate binders for medium format and 35mm, and these are somewhat organized by decade, or in a few cases by subject. Being home so much during Covid, I’ve been going though a lot of older stuff. Amazingly, I can find everything, even negs going back 45 years. Can’t find, however, what little digital I shot 10 years ago. It seems to have vanished with my last computer upgrade.

I put a lot of metadata on each sleeve: Subject, Date, Film, ASA, Developer, Dilution, Development Time.

 

[Mackinaw]

All of my film work is stored in archival storage pages. I label the page header with film used, developer used, development time, date and camera used. These go into binders.
Nearly all of my film work is scanned, put into an appropriate folder, then stored in the cloud. Ditto for all of my digital work, all stored in the cloud. All of this seems to work, at least so far.

Jim B.

 

[charjohncarter]

I've used Print Files since the 60s and still use them. Then I put them in notebooks by year. I do make notes at the top of the print file (like a digital tag). But it is impossible to find what I want sometimes. One help is Flickr, I use the drop date for the newer images to find the negative in the my files. It still doesn't work that great, but it is all I have.

 

[benlees]

Year- format-roll number. Scan printfile contact on flatbed. Make sure the hand written ID number on the printfile is visible on scan. Scan whatever keepers there might be on that roll and name after the ID number. Put all scanned contact sheets in one folder. Put printfile in a binder to never be looked at again. The problems begin when I scan the keepers first and then forget to scan the contact sheet...

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

Each roll of film I shoot goes in a Print File page, which is marked with a roll number. The pages are stored in archival file folders in a file cabinet.


I used to keep track of each roll in a notebook, but after my stroke screwed up my right hand's fine motor skills, I find writing difficult. So now I keep my notes on the computer using Evernote software.

This is the software, and you can see a list of roll numbers. Select one to see the info on that roll:

As you can see, I put in the film type, exposure index I shot it at, developing contrast I used, developer, temperature, time, agitation used, etc.

Then I write a list of the subjects photographed on the roll, and after I scan film, I put in web-sized images so I can see exactly what photos are on the roll! I can put in keyword tags so I can search.

Below is the full note shown above.

 

[Bob Michaels]

OK folks, What System do you use to store, organize, and preserve your millions of rolls of developed and proofed film?

This stuff takes up space. After about 10,000 developed roll of film, its remarkably difficult to find a particular roll / exposure,

I don't. After decades, I finally acknowledged that I never go back to the original negatives but simply use high rez scans of my final selections. I print digitally now and cannot envision having another wet darkroom. Since I have edited tightly, why save those who did not make the cut? The most that lower 99% of negs would do would be to impair my ability to find the top 1% if I ever went searching for them.

example: I shot a major project from 2001 to 2010. I have about 8 big archival boxes of hundreds and hundreds of pages of PrintFile sleeves of negs. I have never opened those boxes of sheets of negs since I filed them away over 10 years ago. Tomorrow is garbage day. I am committed to filling up my huge rolling garbage can full of those negs and others. I have a box of about 150 final 8x10 proof prints that I will donate to the local historical society. But I still have the ability to quickly reselect 40 images for another exhibit just using my stored hi-rez scans if needed.

Last week I threw away about an 18" tall stack of negative pages from 7 years worth of my Cuban work. Again, I have all I need in organized digital scan files.

The scans stored on my hard drive (and backed up) are easy to work with since I edit negs before I scan. My computer files only contain the top 2% or so of everything I have shot for 20+ years. Never missed that lower 98%. In fact, I appreciate that not getting in the way of finding the good stuff.

I do have pocket notebooks with notes I made while shooting each project. I can tell you names of subjects or location details for an image made 18 years ago. That is important to me. Now I have no record of what lens, film, developer or those details. But none of that matters.

My system differs from most but I am happy that I everything I need uncluttered by info I will never use.

FWIW, my last 20+ years of photography both film scans and digital capture is 728 gb of data. It is so large because all neg scans are the unadjusted scan TIF, unflattened Photoshop files, and a 1024 pixel wide JPG for review. Most of my Lightroom catalogs have anything that is not a final selection deleted. But each final select does have a 1024 pixel JPG for review. Again, only what I will ever use uncluttured by what I won't .

 

[Larry Cloetta]

Each roll of film I shoot goes in a Print File page, which is marked with a roll number. The pages are stored in archival file folders in a file cabinet.

I used to keep track of each roll in a notebook, but after my stroke screwed up my right hand's fine motor skills, I find writing difficult. So now I keep my notes on the computer using Evernote software.

This is the software, and you can see a list of roll numbers. Select one to see the info on that roll:

As you can see, I put in the film type, exposure index I shot it at, developing contrast I used, developer, temperature, time, agitation used, etc.

Then I write a list of the subjects photographed on the roll, and after I scan film, I put in web-sized images so I can see exactly what photos are on the roll! I can put in keyword tags so I can search.

Below is the full note shown above.]

Excellent record keeping, Chris.

The task for me was trying to find a simple method that worked in every direction, (finding the negative when you had the print in hand and also finding the print in the shoebox when you were looking at the negative + doing the same thing with digital files of scanned negatives) and worked for prints, slides, and digital images.
Every negative, as others here have done, is in a printfile archival 3 ring sheet in a PrintFile 3 ring binder, and has a 3 digit code. Binders are on shelves numbered in sequence, binder 1, 2, etc. Each sheet in the binder is numbered sequentially. Each negative frame or slide is numbered corresponding to where it falls in the sheet. So, every film image I have going back over 100 years now (scanned Father’s and grandfather’s images as well) can be located using a short 3 digit code. Codes are written on the back of every print, and on the side of every mounted transparency. Prints are stored in archival boxes, boxes which are labeled on the outside the same as the binders for the negatives are. The same code is entered into the metadata for the image in Lightroom. If I see the image in LR, I can find the negative on the shelf instantly. If I see the negative In the binder, I can instantly find the corresponding print, or copy of the print. To find the scanned digital asset of any print or transparency I run across, just use metadata, but instead of trying “dog,Christmas,Azores” and sorting through all 40 of those that pop up🙂, just enter the 3 digit code, and the one image you want pops up.

Works, works for any digital and analog image and works in both directions, simple in use. Bulletproof.
Took half my life to put in place, seems that way. Is it really that important that I can find any negative of any print, and any digital scan file of the same image, instantly, any time I want? Or find the print of any image I see in Lightroom, instantly? I don’t know, probably not. But, I can do it! If anyone ever asks me to find something for them, it’s easy. Maybe someday someone will ask.

 

[Rob-F]

All of my film work is stored in archival storage pages. I label the page header with film used, developer used, development time, date and camera used. These go into binders.
Jim B.

That's exactly what I do. And that's all I do. No scanning, no clouds. Finding a specific image is a matter of passing the pages over a light box until I see what I'm looking for.

 

[Out to Lunch]

Anyone who wonders what will happen with their 'legacy' files and photos included, watch 'Mr. Schmidt'. With Jack Nicholson in a leading role. Cheers, OtL

 

[p.giannakis]

I usually develop and archive the negatives in sleeves on which I write when the film was shot. These negative sleeves are archived in binder folders with dates on it (i.e. 2010-2013).
When I need to find a picture I look on my blog. On my blog I state when a picture was taken, so I can find it in the folders.
So far it works very well for me.