How do you store your prints?

[p.giannakis]

Hi everyone,

I am thinking to start printing some of my pictures. I am wondering how do you store them. Do you have them mounted? Are there any products out there for mounting and storing?

Regards,
Pan

 

[daveleo]

see the sticky up above:

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=129001

 

[p.giannakis]

Thanks Daveleo !

 

[Ronald M]

RC or fiber. RC stores stacked, Fiber needs to be flat prints or mounted and then the mount tales up space.

Light Impressionsdirect.com sells archival storage boxes .

The best way is on a wall in a frame with a matt and glazing. Adopt a standard size or two and you can interchange them as you desire without redoing the framing. Use photo corners or print small on a sheet that fills the frame.

It is a bear to get fiber prints without wavy edges. Impossible to not get a slight lengthwise curl, but that flattens out. You can not press out wavy elongated edges.

Blotter roll or a dryer with stack of corrugated boards and blotters and a fan that blows through. Difficult to even find used. You can tape to a drawing board or some claim a glass sheet works. Cut off the adhesive damaged areas. Over 5 decades I have tried everything else without success.

Forgot about the 3 foot diameter heated drum, belt fed. That also works. Small ones do not. The 3 footer were electric heated and gas heated. I have not seen one since 1966.

RC is a snap to flatten. Take care to thoroughly process with complete fixation and 8 changes of wash water and toning. I have some 30 years old that look as new. If you don`t resist temptation and get sloppy, they will do all kinds of nasty things some fast some take longer. But all in all it is a quicker process. Do not forget selenium tone to preserve the silver. You can dry RC on a screen, old bathroom towel, just not on a waterproof surface. Squeegee lightly. A blast with a hair dryer moves things along, just do it evenly over low heat. Some papers darken when drying specially fiber. Dry test strips to evaluate.

I like the Ilford RC best of all RC. Made in UK. Fiber still has the best look, but it is hard to tell under glass.

Buy a good enlarger and lens. Every prints goes thru it and it deserves to be the best.

 

[sepiareverb]

Boxes, piles, envelopes, stacks, drawers. There are prints all over the place here...

Light Impressionsdirect.com sells archival storage boxes .

I would hesitate dealing with Light Impressions in any way. This once great company has become extremely flaky. Many people (myself included) have had orders taken and never appear over the last several years. Phone calls when answered were nothing but a runaround. There are several threads around about this on apug.

 

[meanstreetshooter]

Boxes, piles, envelopes, stacks, drawers. There are prints all over the place here...



I would hesitate dealing with Light Impressions in any way. This once great company has become extremely flaky. Many people (myself included) have had orders taken and never appear over the last several years. Phone calls when answered were nothing but a runaround. There are several threads around about this on apug.

Yes, STAY AWAY from LI!
When I got back into photo after retirement (1999), I spent a hundred dollars or so at LI for negative storage and other related photo items. Several years later many items were always out of stock (OOS). I looked back on my notes and found that in 2010 the "Info Flaps" were OOS. I called them the other day, and found they are now back in Rochester, NY under a new brand name. And guess what? The "Info Flaps" are still OUT OF STOCK!

But back to the thread.
Exceptional prints are matted, framed, and hung on my walls. Worthy prints are matted and stored in a clamshell box(s). Others are stored in in an LI portfolio-binder with the plastic sheets. I sometimes carry this around to show folks some of my work. I usually carry a small Itoya 4x6 album in my camera bag when traveling light.
Older prints are stored flat, in glassine sheets, in an old LI flat drop-front box.

If you need boxes to store prints try:
www.archivalmethods.com.
I just placed an order and the boxes are good quality items.

 

[segedi]

I store mine in frames hanging on the walls of my home. 😀

 

[shadowfox]

Mostly on Itoya portfolio binders.
The ones matted live in acid-free sleeves (16x20).
I almost never frame my photos.