Switching to scanning rolls: How to archive the negatives?

[cayenne]

Hi all,

I'm trying to develop a workflow (no pun intended). so that I can scan all my MF and 35mm by roll and not have to cut them out into strips or individual images....
But that brings to mind, how do I now archive them safely AND be able to know where to go back to reference them if I need to access the original negative again?

I mean, I started down the path, cutting strips of negatives, scanning on flatbed...and then putting them into the sleeves which go into a ring binder.

I can thumb through the pages to find and look at the negatives when I want.

But if I"m doing film not with film holders that allow me to scan rapidly with my digital camera as the "scanner"...how do I archive and easily reference the rolls of negatives now that are left uncut and not in a binder?

Thank you in advance,

cayenne

 

[faberryman]

• Hi all,
  
  I'm trying to develop a workflow (no pun intended). so that I can scan all my MF and 35mm by roll and not have to cut them out into strips or individual images....
  But that brings to mind, how do I now archive them safely AND be able to know where to go back to reference them if I need to access the original negative again?
  
  I mean, I started down the path, cutting strips of negatives, scanning on flatbed...and then putting them into the sleeves which go into a ring binder.
  
  I can thumb through the pages to find and look at the negatives when I want.
  
  But if I"m doing film not with film holders that allow me to scan rapidly with my digital camera as the "scanner"...how do I archive and easily reference the rolls of negatives now that are left uncut and not in a binder?
  
  Thank you in advance,
  
  cayenne

  
  Do you really need to scan every frame on a roll?
  
  I started to scan all of my slides, and after doing eight or ten, I realized it would probably be a good idea to ruthlessly edit the remaining thousand or so because of my age and life expectancy, not to mention mental health. It’s not like I didn’t edit them when I first got them back from processing, but there is a different selection criteria when you are faced with scanning a slide versus sticking it in a slot on a PrintFile page.
  
  I definitely would not leave the film rolled up. Just cut them up and stick them in PrintFile pages. Number the PrintFile page. Scan only the frames you want to print or post to the web. Note PrintFile page and frame number for the images you scan.

 

[MattKing]

You don't want to leave the rolls rolled up. They will require more storage space, and the curl will become nearly permanent.

 

[removedacct1]

I mean, I started down the path, cutting strips of negatives, scanning on flatbed...and then putting them into the sleeves which go into a ring binder.
cayenne

I've been doing that for 40 years and I have never found any reason to stray from that approach. There are good reasons NOT to leave film rolled up: storage becomes awkward and the curl will become permanent, making use of the negs in the future very challenging.

 

[Adrian Bacon]

Use twincheck stickers. If you sent them to a lab, they should be twinchecked with a number. That is your reference. If you’re processing your own, invest in a roll of twincheck stickers from Pakor. Every roll you process gets a sticker, and the matching sticker goes into your processing log book where you record the details of the roll and how it was processed. When you cut it and sleev it, the twincheck goes into the header part of the sleeve.

when you’re scanning it in, each frame should start with the the 4 digit twincheck number, then an underscore, then a 4 digit zero padded frame number.

for existing rolls that have none of that, start with a 6 digit “twincheck” that corresponds to either the rough date it was shot, or the date you digitized it, then a 4 digit zero padded frame number same as above.

 

[George Collier]

I use a database (Filemaker Pro) for all of my negs (and prints, and shows, etc). It has film, developer info, subject type, date, location, etc - anything I might want to look up under to find some random roll of film using whatever I can remember about it. 60 years and 3 format sizes, I don't know what I'd do without it. Indexed by Printfile - Book, Page, Neg number.
Even an Excel file would be better than paper, and pretty easy to use.

 

[Paul Fujita]

I scan the roll as a whole and then archive with these: https://www.freestylephoto.biz/0700330-Printfile-35mm-Continuous-Negative-Sleeve-1000-ft.-Roll (they have MF as well). Then I apply a twin check, one for roll and one for sleeve, and also add the twin check # plus date to whatever software I'm using (for example in Lightroom, the folder is 08/04/2021 #8016). This way I can pull out any roll (and any frame of course) that I'm looking for quite fast. I archive in shoeboxes with the rolls (very lightly) wrapped in an order where successive digits go on the outer roll. Works pretty well. (...may sound more organized than I actually am at least for my own work lol).