Positively Negative

About a year and a half ago, my mom gave me a box of negatives from photos she had taken in college and as a young adult. There were even some photos of her while she was pregnant with me and some of my earliest baby photos. As any scrapbooker would, I spent hours looking through them and marveling over this treasure chest that I didn't even know existed. I'd seen the photos that were developed years ago, but they were all yellowed and discolored by the time I saw them. Now that I had the negatives, I was excited to see what the "true" colors were from those photos. I had a few of them developed at a photo lab, and was thrilled when the photos I received were vibrant and colorful…they could have been taken yesterday.

This story is just one of the many testimonies for keeping your negatives for all of the photos you take. Not to mention the horror stories of floods, fires and ambitious children with crayons which can be slightly diluted by being able to say, "Luckily, I had the negatives of all of the photos, so I was able to get the important ones re-developed." Whew. Aren't you glad?

If you don't already keep your negatives organized and stored safely, now's a good time to rethink your methods. It can save you frustration, time, and most importantly…your photos.

I store all of my negatives in archival negative sleeves in a three-ring binder. As I get each roll of film developed, I slide the negatives into the next page of my negative binder, and add a small sticker label to the sheet. On the label I write what the photos are of and the date that the photos were taken. This way, my negatives are in chronological order, I can see what they're of, and they're kept safe from being damaged. It only takes about 5 minutes to do, and saves a LOT of time when I go back to find negatives for reprints and enlargements.

A nice feature of negatives is that they don't take up very much space. My binder of negatives covers a span of over three years…and it's not quite a full binder yet. I have at least five full scrapbook albums covering the same photos stored in one binder of negatives. Storing the negatives is definitely worth the extra couple of minutes and little bit of space-in exchange for an insurance policy of sorts and a handy way to reference your photos.

Some things to remember when handling and organizing your negatives:

• Be sure to use archival negative sleeves to keep your negatives from being damaged.


• Wash your hands before handling negatives, and handle them by the edges only to avoid damaging them with the oils from your skin.


• Keep your binder of negatives stored in a cool, dry, dark and temperature controlled environment.


• If you choose to organize your negatives in envelopes or in a box, be sure that the materials you are storing them in are acid free and archival safe.


• Consider storing your negatives somewhere OTHER than where your photos are stored. In the case of a fire, flood or other natural disaster, you may be better off to have them at a relative's house, in a bank safety deposit box, or another safe location.

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Related Links:  Keeping Track of Photos  Organizing Digital Photography  Photo Sorting

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