Organization and negatives to keep or not to keep?

I have always thought, or been told, to keep your negatives in a fire proof safe, or at somebody else's house in case there is ever a fire you will be able to reprint anything that is lost. Maybe a safe dep. box if you don't have a fire proof safe.

i throw them eventually -- i guess i will be sorry one day but oi oi oi they get a mess

I have scanned my old ones and put them on disk along with my new ones. My mom has a copy of the disk and I have a copy of the disk. I am also thinking about giving one to my dad to keep at his work, and then put one at my work just in case. CD's are cheap and you can fit a lot of pictures in such a little space. Mel

You scanned the photos? Not the negatives? Wow that would be a lot of scanning for me either way, but what a great way to keep them.

Lynne

I actually have seen a negative scanner, I don't have one. And have seen flatbed scanners that have a negative attachment. Just an idea. I never thought of that.

Soni in NV

I keep a lot of mine, but they are scattered here and there. If I do reprints I also do them right away. If I ever needed to reprint pictures that were lost of damaged, I don't know how I would even figure out what was what on the negatives, especially since I take rolls and rolls of film. I have thrown some away before also. I don't know what to do with mine either.

Amy :( AZ

There are comercially available negative storage pages (ones that professional photographers use). They are basically clear page protectors but with the pockets on the outer edge. They come in many sizes with a number of pockets per page. I've been looking at them in an effort to get my own negatives sorted out, especially as I want to take a photography course (or two or more lol) and will need a way to keep it all sorted out. I haven't found a place to buy them locally, tho...a hazard of living out in the boonies ;)

Kellar

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Hmmm, thanks for the info.

Amy

I do like them. They are very convenient and easy to use. I have the plastic negative sleeves, the paper sleeve to hold the negatives and a plastic box to keep them all in too. I'm up to three full boxes now. I like the sleeves for writing the date (or best guess) and what's on the negatives. I have to admit after going through so many if the negatives come in sleeves I'm not transferring them to the CM sleeves. I do though fill out the paper sleeve with the description for some reason I'd ever need to make copies. I've been through an earthquake and my parents a forest fire so I guess one never knows.

Lynne

I was just going to suggest the same thing. My sister lost 25+ years of memories & pics when her house burnt down. Very hard to recover from something like that.:>(

-- Trish