How do you cut your negatives?

I tried an exacto and it was not good. Scissors these days. Wish I had something like the old reel-to-reel tape splicer for this.
 
Very carefully. Sometimes. Other times, not so carefully.

With best regards.

Pfreddee(Stephen)

Oh, and I use scissors.
 
I rarely have two consecutive frames that I like enough to keep. So, I take a full-sized pair of scissors and cut through frames at arbitrary angles to isolate and facilitate printing and scanning of individual frames.
 
I use a small pair of scissors.
I hold the negative up towards a light background, which makes it easier to see where to cut.

Then I open the scissors, place it and aim for the holes on the other side of the negative. (I used to cut without aiming like this before, which caused some really crooked edges I tell you).

It's not perfect, but it works. :)
 
eyesglassy said:
A little pair of scissors. I like Fiskars.
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That's pretty much the idea. I use a pair with short blades just a little longer than the width of the film. The blades are also rather thin and delicate, making it easier to check that they are properly positioned between frames. I hold the film over the light box while cutting.

Although it helps to use small blades, I feel they should be long enough to complete the cut in one action, rather than taking repeated whacks at it. The scissors on Swiss Army Knives are probably out.
 
aperture64 said:
I use the Garry Winogrand method. Hold the negative over a white piece of paper, while a desk lamp shines onto the paper. Turn off the rest of the lights in the room.
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Or use a lightbox under your strip of negatives which is even better.

I have found through years of experience and trial and error that if neg is so underexposed that I can't see where the edge of the negative is too cut, then its generally not worth enlarging anyway. I've taken chunks out of underexposed negs many times, but never damaged a neg. that was worth enlarging.

Also, a nice pair of medium sized craft scissors that are sharp do the job.
 
kmallick said:
+1. I use one like this (on a light table) I bought off of eBay:

slide_cutter2.jpg
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This is what I use (bought, if I recall from 3DStore). Works great for either 35mm or MF (6x4.5, 6x6, 6x7).

Ignore the folks here who question the quality of frames with invisible edges. I shoot a lot of high-contrast stage performance work on Delta 3200 (see http://johnlabovitz.com), and very often can't find the frame edges. However, the middle of the frame is very useable. If you have an entire roll of very thin negatives, the hardest thing is getting the *first* strip of 4 frames cut. Once you've done that, you can use the cut strip as a template for the remaining strips.

--John
 
You can buy a $30 paper cutter at the stationary store, and measure out one frame, and mark it in felt on the GRID BOARD. All you need to do is measure 5 individual frames, and just move it to the 5th (or 4th) line every time.

I worked at a lab, and the machine there did this similarly
 
Jaans said:
Or use a lightbox under your strip of negatives which is even better.

I have found through years of experience and trial and error that if neg is so underexposed that I can't see where the edge of the negative is too cut, then its generally not worth enlarging anyway....
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I haven't tried to cut my Lexar SD card lately ...:D:D:D

Sorry, gone digital. I haven't cut negatives in a loooong time. When I did some concert photography, I did encounter the exact same problem in a lot of frames where only the center image was in the spotlight. I was looking for frame where the egde was clearly visible and then counted the sprocket distance to the count index number for the next frame. And yes, also using a small sharp pair of scissors and a light table.
 
I figure that if I accidentally cut an edge of a frame off, it couldn't have been that good, or I would have noticed before cutting it.
 
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