Correct that…. positive talk about negatives! 🙂
When it comes to photo organizing, I get a lot of questions about old negatives. Here are some of the most common questions and my suggestions!
How do I get a digital scan of a negative?
Many scanners come with an adapter to scan negatives. There are also great scanners that are dedicated to scanning negatives. Just follow the easy instructions to set up the scanner and you will easily be scanning your negatives!
There are also many services that scan negatives. Small businesses like Meganimous allow you to mail your negatives in and then Megan will personally scan and deliver digital photographs to you. There are many larger services online too. Just be sure you have very carefully packaged your negatives and then you can send them off for scanning.
What if I have disc negatives?
Most scanning services also digitize disc negatives.
Do I need to keep negatives?
If you have high quality digital scans of each negative you could, in theory, toss those negatives. I wouldn’t personally advise it though. Those negatives are still a form of backup. Keeping them, means you have the images secured in one extra location. Also, if your scans aren’t at the highest resolution or the best quality, they won’t print well. Having the negative will insure that you are able to make the highest quality of print.
How should I store negatives?
Negatives and photographs alike, should be kept in a dark, dry, climate controlled area. Heat, humidity and direct sunlight could start to destroy them. There are archival negative sleeves that can be used to store those negatives safely. These sleeves have three ring binder holes so you can easily keep those negatives organized in a binder too.
How do I clean negatives?
Old negatives may have collected a little dust. It’s important before you scan a negative that you make sure it’s clean. Usually a little compressed air will safely blow them clean. Be careful, especially with older negatives, you don’t want to apply too much direct air and damaged the negative. With every cleaning method, if possible, test it out on a negative that isn’t the most valuable first.
If the compressed air doesn’t do the trick or if there is something stuck to the negative, it is safe to use 98% isopropyl alcohol. Dab a little bit on and then very gently wipe with a lint free cloth.
How do I handle negatives?
It is important to never touch the surface of the negatives. Always handle by the edges or use lint free gloves.
Can I use an app to scan negatives?
I have yet to find an app that produces a quality of scan that I was happy with. However, apps like Photomyne work well to just see what is on each negative. The overall quality is not printable and often the colors are off, but if you just want to get a better look at the negatives to determine which you need scans of, that will do that trick.
Where can I get negatives printed?
There are a lot of photo labs that do print from negatives. I’ve used MPix and been happy with their results!
Be sure and check out my shopping site for all of the products that I use to keep my negatives, old prints and digital files neatly organized and ready to be enjoyed!!