Film archiving and scanning reference ideas

[Julian Thompson]

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So here I am on roll 5 of my film adventure with quite a few scans in the computer and suddenly it occured to me that I'd better get organised so that if I want to get access to a particular shot I can find the negative easily. I can see how this will be tricky as my collection grows!

 

So can anyone give me some tips on archiving, numbering and storing my negatives? Is it just a question of roll number in the metadata or are you going to the trouble of numbering specific strips of film within each roll?

 

TIA!

[tgray]

I just number the roll. The strips have this cool thing called frame numbers on them

 

Seriously though, I label by date and roll on that day, and the specific frame number. So 20100413-2-10 would be the 10th frame taken on April 13, 2010. I stick these labels in the keywords of my scans.

[cheewai_m6]

i work similar to tgray. but i give more structure to the scanned digital filing then i do with the negatives. i use a similar dating system as tgray, but simpler also less detailed. maybe not as good either, but it's just what i've been doing. for instance.

 

date: 14th april 2010

location(s): shops, football..... whatever.

 

i'll put all my scans from that roll of film into a folder '100314 - shops'

my negatives are sitting in a storage box without any labelling on them... that's no good. a lot is sitting on my desk loose. no good either. i think i'll start labelling my negs like tgray does.

 

i archive all the digital files after the post processing is done on an external hard drive. hard drives are cheap these days.

[Michael Hiles]

My negatives live in 6 strip pages (standard stuff, forget the name). One roll per page. They are page numbered and go into 3 ring binders.

 

I scan a roll and store the roll this way. The image files in my computer as Binder N - PageX - ##.

 

I also use captions extensively - Dominion Square, Mary, Roses etc. Using either PS Elements or Picassa, I can find all my pictures of Adrienne (my daughter) and can find the binder and page where the negative is stored. I do no know which frame, but I can find the specific negative easily by looking at the page.

 

I do a similar thing with labeled boxes of slides.

 

I spent 2-3 years scanning and filing my entire archive. I can now find anything and lay my hands on the negative in 15 seconds.

 

It really works very well. It relies on files names that link with location, and captions that have meaningful "key" words.

[menos I M6]

As I grow up digital and THEN found out about film again, I do the full digital approach:

 

I use Lightroom for all photographs.

folder structure:

pictures/year/month/yyyy-mm-dd name of the shoot/image files

 

I treat my negatives the same as digital files. I have the rolls in A4 neg holders and only write the date of development on the roll (if I remember the date of shoot, I prefer that of course).

 

I stock the neg holders in plastic archive boxes with some silica gel.

 

From each roll, I have my initial scans in my digital archive and do rescans, as necessary.

If I rescan a frame, I exchange the initial (low res, small) file with the new one in Lightroom and take over key wording, tagging and processing.

 

If I look for a specific frame, I use Lightroom.

If I need a specific negative, I search in Lightroom and look it up in the archive, sorted after the date.

All frames of one roll have their respective negative frame no. from the film strip, so searching is quick.

 

I find this digital approach quite convenient and time and labour saving ;-)

 

One thing, that cannot be stressed enough:

Make backups regularly, make backups regularly, make backups regularly !!!

[andybarton]

The worst negs to store are C41s which tend to get cut into strips of 4. To store with the 6x4s or not. That is the question.

[stunsworth]

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Andy, you can get standard sized neg that take strips of 4.

 

As for organisation, my method was to put each film in its own folder. The format for the folder was...

 

AABBCCC where AA was the year I did the scan, BB was the type of film (BW=black and white, CN=colour negative, CR=colour reversal) and CCC was the number of that film type for that year.

 

So a film's folder could be 10CN006 - this would be the sixth colour negative film in 2010.

 

The individual scans would have the folder name with an ascending two digits at the end. So they'd be named 10CN00601, 10CM00602 etc.

[tgray]

I should elaborate on my system. The date I use is the date the roll came out of the camera. If it was a busy day, then it was most likely shot on that day. If not, it contains pictures from the previous week or so.

 

Negatives get filed in sleeves and the whole roll goes into a little folder with information written on the front: roll number, dev, time and temp, camera, plus any other notes that seem pertinent, like where it was shot, etc. Folders go in order in a box on the shelf.

 

I don't scan all my negatives, only decent shots. Good shots get a full scan, ok ones get a lower res scan. Most of these go to flickr at some point - I treat that as a searchable database. Scans are filed in folders with the roll name, and those get filed by year. A digital version of the box on the shelf.

 

Scans get keywords and other data added to them in Photo Mechanic. I tried some of the other solutions for this like Lightroom and Bridge, but Photo Mechanic is the fastest and most flexible way to keyword files. For example, if I have 10 scans in folder 20100412-1, I can have Photo Mechanic automatically rename them 20100412-1-frame# - it can use the folder name or any of about 100 different variables to name AND add metadata. So once my filenames are set, I have it automatically add a keyword based on the filename to the metadata. This shows up on flickr, so if there is an image I have on flickr I want to print or access, I can just look down at the keywords and find out what it is.

 

Edited jpgs for the web get filed in one folder structure and go to flickr. Ones for printing get stored along side the original scan. I'm toying with using Lightroom or Aperture as a catalogue on the raw scans, but have found I haven't really needed it yet. If I do, they are already have keywords, etc., so it will be easy to integrate that in. I also find Photoshop much more powerful for careful editing of photos than Lightroom/Aperture, so I'm not particularly interested in those capabilities. Maybe if I was doing digital.

 

It sounds a lot more complicated than it is. I suggest a date based way of naming your negatives. YYYYMMDD is a good one because they will sort appropriately in any operating system. You can always sort those by project if you wish.

[Julian Thompson]

Sounds good.

 

Where can I get some decent film archive binders?

[tgray]

You can get printfile negative sheets. Other companies make them too.

 

I prefer to get sleeves/folders/boxes from Archival Methods. Light Impressions and other companies have similar products. You can get them through some stores like B&H or order directly.

[peter_n]

It sounds a lot more complicated than it is. I suggest a date based way of naming your negatives. YYYYMMDD is a good one because they will sort appropriately in any operating system. You can always sort those by project if you wish.

This is what I do, so if I finish my roll(s) today they are in a folder named 2010-04-15 by roll(s).

Where can I get some decent film archive binders?

I use Print File neg holders and Archival Methods binder/slip cases. Both highly recommended.