Organizing Your Negatives

[deebel]

35mm mainly as I shoot very little 120. Generally use C-41 processing at local Asda/Walmart. i specify develop only keep the film on a roll + CD. i then cut and file the roll in a negative binder (6 across) and stick a post-it in the sleeve at the bottom with Camera used Film used and Process Date.

i copy the CD to a file on the hard drive of my PC. C:/Images/analogue/Camera/YYYYMMDD/

Works for me as I am biased towards the camera collection as opposed to the chronological sequence of images.

 

[filmfan]

All my recent film goes straight into a labeled archival page and into an appropriately labeled 3-ring binder.
However, my old stuff would be scanned right after having been dried, and then thrown loose into a big wooden box full of other rolls. I keep telling myself that I need to go through them and organize them, but it may just never happen.

 

[wgerrard]

Organize negatives? Yes, I should do that!

But, then, why should I give special treatment to my negatives?

 

[bolohead]

I sleeve my negatives right after processing. They go into a drawer which is my "to scan" drawer. After scanning, they go into a binder in chronological order. Dates and notes are at the top of each sleeve. Scans are saved in folders with the same info that appears at the top of the sleeve (e.g. 20101109 - Mamiya 7 | Portra 160NC | Manoa Falls).

 

[Riverman]

bolohead - do you scan everything or just selected images?

I'm trying to get on top of my scanning but the volume and backlog is overwhelming. I'm thinking I need to spend a bit more time really looking closely at each roll/contact sheet and being a bit more ruthless about which images are actually worth scanning or printing.

 

[Fawley]

I'm thinking I need to spend a bit more time really looking closely at each roll/contact sheet and being a bit more ruthless about which images are actually worth scanning or printing.

I am mainly a wet print guy, and I just acquired my first, very cheap, neg scanner. It has helped me organize and speed up my work flow a lot. I scan everything and then get rid of the images that have no value. If an entire cut strip of negs has no images of value, I get rid of that too. I am not attached to useless images. I then sequentially number the kept negs, and file only the neg strips that have images I am likely to print. The rest just get stored in a paper evelope. When a file sheet of negs is full I make a contact sheet. This sheet may have negs from 4 different rolls of film but that doesn't matter. I have a record of what each one is. A neg file sheet or a contact sheet is not a sacrosanct thing with me, it doesn't have to be just from one roll. This system has vastly reduce the size of my neg binders and made it far easier to find a neg I want to print.

 

[Riverman]

Wow. Fawley - that is ruthless indeed! but probably pretty effecive

 

[Fawley]

Its actually not that time consuming, but that depends on how many rolls of film you process. I guess I would average 1 roll every 2 weeks. Also, my cheapy scanner allows me to view each image, so strictly speaking I don't actually load each image onto my computer. The tough part is trying to organize my old negs in the same way.

 

[Vilk]

these, chronologicaly, in oversize closed-box ring binders. on the margin of each sheet: MM.YYYY and what's on the one frame, rarely two, worth printing; the rest is noise and is gladly forgotten

😎

 

[barnwulf]

I send my film out for processing and scanning. The negatives come back with a 4 digit number and after I have about 10 or 12 rolls returned, I put them in sleeves and label them with the processing date, kind of film and the roll number. The scans are on DVDs each roll carries the number that is on the roll. It works great for me. Jim

 

[maclaine]

Organize?! HA!

This is me at my desk trying to find the latest roll I've processed so I can scan it.

Stupidly enough, I even have a couple empty binders on my desk as well, just waiting to be filled with some nice, chronologically ordered sleeves of negatives. They've been there for months.

 

[Chris101]

While I have no organization for my socks or digital files, I can locate any negative in a matter of minutes, based on an archival, cross referenced system that involves negatives in sleeves, binders and boxes, and the contact scans on the computer. The scans are annotates, and reference to the processing date on the sleeve. A box holds a shooting year, typically from Spring to the next Spring. They go all the way back to the 1980s. Prior to that, I was pretty disorganized.

I'm glad to see this thread resurface, because organization doesn't just happen, I need to enforce it!

 

[Rob-F]

I gave up on ring binders because in order to see what I have, I have to open the binder to pull out each page, one at a time. I do use the plastic sleeves, but I tend to put them in folders now. In fact, I should pull out everything still in a ring binder and set up some more folders.

My filing consists mainly of writing something on the sleeves, like "France--Cassis" or "colorado-Telluride." Not very high tech. I have an idea to use a mnemonic (memory-aid) system that makes intuitive sense, like "CO/RMNP 1999-03" for (well, OK you probably figured it out) Colorado, Rocky Mountain National Park, 1999, sleeve number 3.

I'll get started on that. In fact . . . I should . . . after I do my laundry . . .