Organizing your Negs/Trans

**Muggs** · 15-Apr-2007, 12:08

Hello All,
Thank you all for helping me think through this. I really like the idea of a simple numbering system with a log book to hold as much information about the photograph as I would like.

Again, many thanks!

Muggs

**David_Senesac** · 17-Apr-2007, 20:11

Since this is a large format forum I'll restrict my input to just my 4x5 transparencies. I store that film in PrintFile 45-4B hanging file polyethylene sheets. From many years with 35mm and 6x7, I learned a simple coding mechanism that groups slides by date, trip, and storage position are all I needed. Anything beyond that can easily be added on a spread sheet that references the slide number. Again, the key thing for the film identification is to know what trip a slide was from, and its position in a storage system for easy retrieval. Anything more just causes overhead and complication.

In my system, each group of files from given field work has a three part alpha-numeric code separated by delimiters. Two digits for the year, a dash, one or two alpha digits for the trip code, one or two digits for the hanging file sheet number, a dash, and a one digit number for the left to right, top to bottom position on that sheet, either 1, 2, 3, or 4. Thus an image might be coded 05-G4-2 meaning year 2005 trip G, the seventh field trip of the year, hanging file sheet 4, position 2 that is upper right.

Thus the code does not have a full date but then that isn't necessary. Elsewhere I have a spreadsheet that shows more complete information for trip G in 2005 with the exact dates, a field trip name, where I visited, with whom, camp locations, etc. In another spreadsheet I list just exceptional images referenced with the above code, providing more detailed information like date, time, location, lens used, orientation, cropping suggestions, subject category, whether it has been drum scanned or printed, and more. I use dashes as delimiters, so the id is visually easy to interpret. The delimiters also allow more easily written programs or scripts to parse the fields, though I could certainly still write one without delimiters. Finding the slide physically is easy because I just need to look in the hanging file box for 2005 that has field trips sequentially filed.

One might think that there would be some reason for actually marking on the film edge itself. Why bother? If a 4x5 transparency needs to go out for some purpose like a drum scan, it is logged on the spreadsheet. There are never so many out of their sheets that I'll ever have a problem trying to figure out where they need to return to. Obviously there is going to be a sheet with a missing slide. That's one useful thing about putting slides in sheets as the other slides on the same sheet provide ready information about what I was doing sequentially that need not be explained. Once so filed while a trip is still fresh in my mind, they also are unlikely to ever be misplaced or sequentially mixed up like readily occurs with loose stacked slides in sleeves. ...David

**Robert Hughes** · 18-Apr-2007, 11:02

I keep a 3-ring binder with negatives in their plastic sleeves, with their associated contact sheets containing the date, camera, exposure & development data. No arcane numbering for me, as I'd probably just lose the key.

**Vaughn** · 18-Apr-2007, 12:01

LF negs are kept in paper 4-fold envelopes. I write all the data on the envelopes (in pencil -- date, exposure, film, lens, range of light, development data, a short description which includes place taken, and the date and process used to print it -- which can be used to cross-reference to my printing data). These envelopes are kept in storage boxes -- vertical -- by subject/place...and within the boxes by date.

Field notes are made in Rite-in-the-Rain notebooks and I can cross reference by date if I need to.

Vaughn