Glass Plate Negative Questions

[Jobu]

I have never owned a glass plate negative and I have a few questions for those who collect them:

1) How do you display them/keep them protected?

2) Can you have the image printed without damaging the negative?

Muchas gracias.

[Michael B]

I store mine several ways. Due to space restrictions I keep some in the original boxes. Others that were purchased separately I keep wrapped in paper surrounded by bubble wrap or sheet foam. You certainly can print them. There are several ways to do that.

1. In a darkroom making a contact print by laying the negative on a sheet of photo paper, exposing and developing.

2. Using a pro photo scanner. A photo scanner has glass on the base and inn the cover allowing the scan light to go through the negative to be exposed. Many consumer scanners do have the ability to scan negatives and transparencies (slides) when you remove a mask from the cover, however most of them are set up for 35mm film only and not larger format.

There are photo labs that will print them for you. They would scan them as most do not have the negative holders to print them in a darkroom.

Here is one that I scanned.

[glchen]

Are glass plate negatives from the prewar era unique? That is, if you own the glass plate negative for an image, is that the only one there is? Or is it like Type I photos where there could be multiple for the same image?

[Jobu]

Thanks Michael, that is helpful. In addition to Gary's questions, I also wonder how expensive it is to have a professional print made (a normal size, nothing 3' x 4').

[D. Bergin]

Are glass plate negatives from the prewar era unique? That is, if you own the glass plate negative for an image, is that the only one there is? Or is it like Type I photos where there could be multiple for the same image?


For the most part they would be unique. Exceptions might be when the photographer took more then one shot of the same scene (though there would likely be slight differences in the poses), or in the case of duplicate negatives. (A photo of a photo).

A lot of the glass "slides" that we see offered are usually photo of a photo types mocked up for whatever slide show they were being used for.

I use an Epson V700 scanner to scan negs as large as 8x10.

[D. Bergin]

Thanks Michael, that is helpful. In addition to Gary's questions, I also wonder how expensive it is to have a professional print made (a normal size, nothing 3' x 4').


Used to be most print shops would not touch glass negs for fear of damaging them. Now with digital technology it should be fairly easy to find somebody to do it fairly cheaply.

Basically once you have a high quality .jpg scan (I like saving at about 600-750 dpi), you can have prints made up almost anywhere. There are places on-line you can order large prints and even posters inexpensively if you provide them with the .jpg file.

[Joe_G.]

There was some good discussion on caring for negatives a little over a year ago here (see post #41).

http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=200961