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How do you keep track of your developed films?


indivisualist

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I'm surprised that there isn't much information on the internet about filing and archiving all your negatives (or slides). Quick story: I haven't shot a lot of film yet, the last time a few years ago ... so I pulled out the negatives and was happy that I had the incredible presence of mind to scribble at least a date on the sleeves. The only problem: That's about it. Some films have markers at the edges, so I know what film type I shot. Others have just a "400" on them. Since I roughly remember the locations I shot at, it could be worse ...

 

With digital files it's easy to build a system, catalog and find your stuff, then retrieve your information later. How do you guys deal with a few years worth of negatives in an "analog way"? I'm thinking about something like a contact sheet (to view them) plus a piece of paper with date, location, film type and notes. Maybe even camera and lens, the developer or other information.

 

I'm concerned about different things here: Finding a specific range of photos, like "the images from Rome" or "pictures taken last November", or after a year having no clue what this two rolls of film were that I tested. Sure, for searching stuff a digital database is almost unbeatable, but there's a reason I love analog stuff. I'd be happy to see your solutions!

 

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I store my negatives in plastic sleeves like this

 

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=&sku=42992&gclid=CPyjl8L8ysoCFVEYHwodW-QFDw&is=REG&ap=y&m=Y&Q=&A=details

 

and write on the banner on the top with a Sharpie the month, year, gear used and location

 

I store these pages in a binder.

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I combine analog with digital. I scan film and then store the film in PrintFile pages that then live in a 3-ring binder. Each page is labelled Binder 4 – 35. Binder 4 is obvious, and 35 is page 35.

 

In the scanning process I name the files something like Binder 4-35-nn. This means that the negative of scanned image can be found in Binder 4, page 35, and it will be the nn image. The nn doesn’t mean much – if I want to find the negative, I go the binder 4, page 35 and I hold the page up to the light and I can find the negative easily (the are no more than 35-37 choices). There is also a date on the file which is the date of the scan, which is close enough to the date of the picture for my purposes.

 

I use Photoshop Elements to scan, and it has facilities to do batch management of file names etc.

 

From there I use a picture management software (I use Picassa, but there are others than may suit you better). I create captions for each image (Michael, London, Horse Guards Parade, Trooping of Colour), or whatever else makes sense. The captions are both descriptive, but also contain key words on which I would reasonably or likely search.

 

The scanned images act as a “contact” sheet, and the file naming convention means that I can find anything in an archive of 10,000+ negatives and (older) slides. I can put my hands on any of my negatives from the past 50+ years in 10 seconds, and I can easily see all my pictures of Horse Guards Parade (or whatever) instantly. I have been doing this for about 10 years now, and it works brilliantly. I don’t know of any other way of organizing my archive to be searchable (which is crucial to me). Without the database it would be my memory, and that won’t do at all.

Edited by Michael Hiles
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I can remember the place, dates, film, exposure and processing of all my important pictures. BUT ask me to find pictures of, for example, the Chicago Days of Rage, and I see them in my mind, and know that they are on the bottom shelf of my library, two boxes from the left.

 

So I walk to the library, and then "WTF am I here for?"

 

It is called the portal effect.

Edited by pico
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I use the Kenco sleeves to store my negatives in a ring binder. I write on the sleeve the sequence number (01,02,03, etc), date, film and subject. I try to maintain a summary sheet at the beginning of the sleeves with the same information and a bit more detail about the 'keepers'. The trick is to do the document control (two words I never thought I would use on LUF) as soon as the negatives have dried and not wait until you cannot see the top of the your desk. 

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Another PrintFile fan. Not many UK stockists though, Silverprint usually have stock. then grey archival folder one per year, I suppose an ambition is to need two per year!!

I write on the top, felt tip,at the point of cutting strips, usual date camera lens/es developer time etc and a code incorporating the date and annual sequential. That is noted in a little (black :D ) book with any relevant details. I have sometimes written on the bottom as well if I think I may need to find that roll .I have thought of transferring the book to a database with key word search, but so far thought is all.

Transparencies are boxed per film with a similar code though I last shot E6/Kodachrome years ago and moved to colour neg.

I usually post a "diary" of ongoing shots, 3 or 4  a day, to Flickr which is searchable by tag so I can search that to find the code and hence the file sheet if I know a key word I am after. If you don't want that public you can choose that option so it becomes "cloud" private database. I should find a way of backing that up in case they go down.

A friend has been a poster at Demotix, a rolling news stills site, found Corbis bought them and overnight the site disappeared, and they were paying the photographers, not a lot of course, a warning.

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Thanks a lot for the inspiration!

 

I like the idea of keeping it simple and labelling the sleeves, plus something like an index sheet or a (black! :lol: ) book with notes. The ones I have here have just a very, very narrow paper strip at the side, not really suitable for much more than a date and maybe a location.

Combined with the hybrid workflow mentioned by Michael, this sounds manageable and like a powerful system - I'd just need a better workflow for scanning. The alternative would be an analog contact sheet, but since I don't own an enlarger or any darkroom equipment yet, this isn't an option at the moment.

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Now I put my B&W negatives in printfile sleeves. I try to develop every roll of film as soon as possible and, when dry, they go to printfile. Every sleeve is numbered, and I write the data - number page, object, date, camera, film and developer, 

 

My dream is to get the enough patience to make a cross reference by place, person, etc. But to try to make this after 25 years developing films is very difficult. 

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I'm concerned about different things here: Finding a specific range of photos, like "the images from Rome" or "pictures taken last November", or after a year having no clue what this two rolls of film were that I tested. Sure, for searching stuff a digital database is almost unbeatable, but there's a reason I love analog stuff. I'd be happy to see your solutions!

The best approach is to have a digital database that cross-indexes this information. Then you have a filing location that is based either on date or by client/job #. When you search in your database, it tells you where to go to locate the images. I used to write and market specialized image database software that is used for exactly that purpose for negatives, contact sheets and slides. It also would track which slides were sent to which customers, when they were due back, licensing history of those images, usage fees and more.

 

You can use any number of existing systems for filing and crossindexing - ACDSEE, Lightroom, etc. with or without photos.

Edited by AlanG
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The best approach is to have a digital database that cross-indexes this information. Then you have a filing location that is based either on date or by client/job #. When you search in your database, it tells you where to go to locate the images. I used to write and market specialized image database software that is used for exactly that purpose for negatives, contact sheets and slides. It also would track which slides were sent to which customers, when they were due back, licensing history of those images, usage fees and more.

 

You can use any number of existing systems for filing and crossindexing - ACDSEE, Lightroom, etc. with or without photos.

 

This essentially what I do and described above. Do don't send slides or negatives out, so no need to track. I do track what images I send to this forum so I don't forget and resend images (too often). I works like a charm. Images are searchable, originals can be found in seconds.

Edited by Michael Hiles
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  • 3 weeks later...

I also combine it with digital by digitizing the negatives. I sort them - as I do for my digital cameras - by the brand and the type of camera as main folder. Then I create subfolders with the year first and then folders with the specific date in each year folder when the film was taken (and mostly developed shortly afterwards). I keep the date of each digital folder consistent with the name of the archival plastic sheets where I store the physical negatives.

 

If I look for a specific photo, I have to go through the date folders in my digital library. After I track down the date folder with the specific photo, it is easy to find the physical negative in my archival negative sheets.

 

After years of digital photography, this digital sorting system proved to be the easiest and least cumbersome for me. I was never a big fan of adding keywords to folders etc in LR to facilitate searches. Simply too time consuming to create and barely ever made use of later.

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