Question about negatives

[smtjoy]

Hi All,

I just purchased my first negative and had a couple questions.

1- Do I need to store it in any special way

2- Whats the best way to get a quality print made and do you have any recommendations for who to use and what I should ask for.

3- Any special tips I should know?

Thanks for the help and once I can get a print made I will for sure post it up here.

[D. Bergin]

Store in a cool dry place, away from any light source.

It's not the type of thing you should take to a show and display out in the open on your table.............especially an outdoor event with the sun blasting down on you....LOL!!

Is it a glass neg or an acetate neg?

Glass negs are much more complicated in getting somebody willing to handle them for you. I found one guy in my area years ago and then he went out of business.

Thinner acetate negs, much easier to find somebody. Anybody who develops photos can handle them...........though most are done digitally now, rather then through a traditional photo process.

I solved the problem of other people handling them for me by picking up an Epson Perfection V700 Dual Lens System scanner, that specializes in scanning larger format negs. A bit pricey but well worth it if you handle negs on a regular basis.

Try not to touch the negative with your bare hands...........use cotton gloves of some sort. The acetate will instantly absorb the oils in your fingers and you'll have a permanent fingerprint(s) on your neg.

[drc]

You can make high quality quality digital prints from negatives and slides. I knew a retired Vogue photographer who made gallery quality large prints from his old old Vogue slides. He had a special scanner and printer. There will be many places than can do this type of work for you. You can even try and scan it yourself if you have a home scanner-- see how that comes out.

I don't know if it's proper conservation technique or not, but I met another pretty famous Vogue photographer who kept his old film negatives in normal little manilla paper envelopes. I assume he knew what he was doing.

[Runscott]

Originally Posted by drc

I don't know if it's proper conservation technique or not, but I met another pretty famous Vogue photographer who kept his old film negatives in normal little manilla paper envelopes. I assume he knew what he was doing.

How "pretty" was this famous photographer?

I used to have a special 'slide and negative' attachment for a scanner - it worked great. This was eight years ago - I assume they have made a lot of progress since then.

I would go with David's recommendation, simply because you are going to want to control the finished product (sepia vs b&w, paper type, etc). I recently purchased some silver gel prints made from original glass negatives, and they do NOT look like vintage prints - as nice as they are, they still look sort of cheap and modern, and they cost enough that I doubt I'd do it again.

[D. Bergin]

I forgot to mention, if it's a smaller 35mm neg or slide, you don't need much in the scanner category. It's pretty standard nowadays to get a fairly cheap scanner with a 35mm neg attachment.

The one I mentioned above is for the larger then 35mm negs...............up to 8x10 or so.

[repsher]

I own a few negatives including some glass ones. I store them individually in glassine envelopes which I then store them together in acid free photo envelopes. And then they go in an archival (acid free) box.

Do not store glass negatives horizontally.

I have not had any prints of my negatives made yet. I would like to send them away to be processed the old fashioned way (non digital), but haven't really found a place to do that yet. I will probably purchase a scanner like the Epson v700 in the future. Just can bring myself to spend the $.

I've listed links to some of the storage stuff I use.


http://www.adorama.com/FSGE2350S.html

http://www.amazon.com/Acid-Free-Lign.../dp/B001THPMWO

http://www.adorama.com/FSBN45.html

[steve B]

The best results for a print would be having an actual photo lab make a photographic print. Local photographers will know who does good work, assuming they still work with film. Unless you want it enlarged, nearly any place still doing film can make a contact print. Enlarging means having the right holder for the negative to fit their enlarger, and most places don't have carriers for older formats.

My scanner has a negative attachment that is supposed to do 35mm negatives. I've never been able to get it to work. The scanner won;t even run with it plugged in. Plus it only handles strips of 3 like you get from the typical lab. I've got a fairly wide range of negatives, from 110 size up to some glass ones.

What has worked for me is scanning them by placing my wifes small light table over them. It's just like the attachment and I can do up to about 8x10.
The light table was inexpensive and she got it from one of the sewing/craft stores.

Steve B

[thecatspajamas]

Was just about to post that David may have some good pointers, then saw that he had indeed posted but recently changed his avatar

The negatives I have handled seem to have always come in either a manila envelope or glassine sleeves, with a few more recent ones having archival quality album pages (typically for negative strips). Adorama has a number of different storage options, including archival glassine envelopes in all manner of sizes. I personally like to put them in a glassine envelope and then drop that into a toploader for stability, though that added thickness adds up fast with a stack of negatives. My understanding regarding storage is that temperature and light (well, lack of light) are of key importance. Humidity can be a factor as well, though few of us have options for controlling that in our homes. I know the Library of Congress has done some research on optimal storage conditions, and may have that info on their site, though I don't recall the specs off the top of my head.

I would add that if/when you have prints made, have them do a high quality (as high resolution as they possibly can) scan so that you can do any further prints or englargements from the scan, and can also go in and clean up any scratches or other faults with Photoshop or other programs. The reason I say "scan as large as possible" is you can always reduce file size if you need to upload the scan somewhere, but if you decide to do an enlargement later on, you won't have to re-scan it to do so.

If you decide to scan them yourself, as the above poster said, the Epson V700 will handle the medium-format and larger negatives up to I believe 8"x10" size. I have an Epson Perfection 4990 that will also handle the same size range. I'm not sure what the new retail price is on those, but you can find them somewhat frequently on eBay in the $400 range, or maybe a little cheaper if you don't need the film holders/guides. If you decide to go that route and have trouble finding a scanner, let me know as I have a "back-up" 4990 available (don't really use the main one enough to justify keeping a back-up ).

[drc]

The photographer wasn't pretty. He was an about 60 year old British guy with a white beard.

I'm not saying he was ugly.

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by thecatspajamas

If you decide to scan them yourself, as the above poster said, the Epson V700 will handle the medium-format and larger negatives up to I believe 8"x10" size. I have an Epson Perfection 4990 that will also handle the same size range. I'm not sure what the new retail price is on those, but you can find them somewhat frequently on eBay in the $400 range, or maybe a little cheaper if you don't need the film holders/guides. If you decide to go that route and have trouble finding a scanner, let me know as I have a "back-up" 4990 available (don't really use the main one enough to justify keeping a back-up ).

If you do have a lot of negs I would suggest making sure the film holders/guides come with it. They really have come in handy for me and the software in the scanner is programmed to line up with them.