Transparency Storage Tips Needed


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Terence

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Nov 16, 2003
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My collection of transparancies have been steadily growing over the years and it's come time to put them away in a more logical and recorded manner. I have a mixture of 135 and 120 slides and negs and up till now, they have been stored in the holders that come from the lab and kept in the original envelopes. All of them sit in a large drawer and its becoming messy to retrieve and store them.

Any of you seasoned film shooters can share storage and archiving tips with me? I'm lost. I suppose the best thing to do is to scan the film once back from processing and shelve them away.
 

1. If you want to scan, why not shoot digital to begin with? Good scans take a long long time, esp. if you're scanning every frame. In any case, storage and scanning are not related per se.

2. Get archival sleeves and boxes for filing away your negs. Label every page once you get the roll back from your lab. Label every box by year. If you have enough to be labelling by subject, you can do so too (eg 2006 Fashion shoots).

3. I find labelling individual frames to be too tedious, so I only do it when there's something important, or when I want to record individual exposure information. Your mileage may vary.

4. Use a small spreadsheet to track your slides, so that you can quickly see what is in 2006 Page no 25, for instance, and you can do keyword searching.
 

waileong said:
1. If you want to scan, why not shoot digital to begin with? Good scans take a long long time, esp. if you're scanning every frame. In any case, storage and scanning are not related per se.

2. Get archival sleeves and boxes for filing away your negs. Label every page once you get the roll back from your lab. Label every box by year. If you have enough to be labelling by subject, you can do so too (eg 2006 Fashion shoots).

3. I find labelling individual frames to be too tedious, so I only do it when there's something important, or when I want to record individual exposure information. Your mileage may vary.

4. Use a small spreadsheet to track your slides, so that you can quickly see what is in 2006 Page no 25, for instance, and you can do keyword searching.

Thanks for your reply, let me address the points you brought up.

1. Let's not enter into a film vs digital debate here. There are a multitude of reasons why one would shoot film over digital and it's not all about convenience. Storage and scanning are related imo. What does one do with the negatives/transparancies once scanned? I shoot panoramics and this is the reason why I shoot film as there aren't digital equilvalents for what I need. I use digital for my other needs.

2. I've noticed this to be common amongst studios which still use film. I doubt my volume will be as much but I suppose labelling by way would be one quick way to sort and find what I need.

3. This is something I can do as panoramics aren't something one would shoot in a trigger happy manner. Typically, each 120 and 135 roll shot yields about 4 and 20 images respectively, so labelling the more important shots is viable.

4. Good idea... all I need is the discipline to keep up the recording in an accurate and timely fashion.

Thanks for your thoughts.
 

Who's debating?

Terence said:
Thanks for your reply, let me address the points you brought up.

1. Let's not enter into a film vs digital debate here.
 

waileong said:
1. If you want to scan, why not shoot digital to begin with? Good scans take a long long time, esp. if you're scanning every frame. In any case, storage and scanning are not related per se.

2. Get archival sleeves and boxes for filing away your negs. Label every page once you get the roll back from your lab. Label every box by year. If you have enough to be labelling by subject, you can do so too (eg 2006 Fashion shoots).

3. I find labelling individual frames to be too tedious, so I only do it when there's something important, or when I want to record individual exposure information. Your mileage may vary.

4. Use a small spreadsheet to track your slides, so that you can quickly see what is in 2006 Page no 25, for instance, and you can do keyword searching.

good tips :thumbsup: i should have started labelling and tracking my film strips long ago. now one big binder full. guess i should start before it really gets out of hand :sweat:
 

waileong said:
Who's debating?

You phrased your point like it was a debate, at least that's how I read it. If not, my bad.

" If you want to scan, why not shoot digital to begin with?"

The medium I shoot on isn't necessarily a means to an end. I don't think it's as simple to just go through an entirely digital workflow to avoid scanning. I sort of enjoy scanning, especially if I have a good and decently fast scanner to work with. Gives me something to do on a lazy afternoon. It's the anticipation of a good scan which makes it all fun for me.
 

madmacs said:
good tips :thumbsup: i should have started labelling and tracking my film strips long ago. now one big binder full. guess i should start before it really gets out of hand :sweat:

Never too late to start. I'm starting off with a bunch of poorly organised negatives which need to be rescanned at higher resolutions. Hopefully I can remember the important facts like... location, dates, camera used etc...
 

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