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Thread: Do you keep 'bad' negatives?

  1. #1

    Do you keep 'bad' negatives?

    When I started with 35mm photography I must have thrown out 90-95% of my slides and only kept the really good ones. I think I have almost every 4x5 negative and transparency I shot good and bad. I think it's time to get rid of the film that is never going to be used to make a print. The proportion of my 'keepers' has definitely gone up over time but I must say I keep making mistakes. Mistakes are frustrating but it's part of the learning process. So, I guess my question is: do people have a file with 'great negatives', another with 'maybe I'll work on these someday' and the third file being the 'circular file or trash bin'?

    I don't want to suffer from the "I'll fix this in photoshop philosophy" but I bet there are quite a few photographers who have spent a lot of time in the darkroom trying to make a decent print from a bad negative

    Scott

  2. #2

    Re: Do you keep 'bad' negatives?

    It all depends, if you think you can squeeze a good print out of the negative then keep it. I have a couple like that, mostly, those that I think are no good I throw them away.

  3. #3

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    Re: Do you keep 'bad' negatives?

    I used to keep absolutely everything. Then I got a scanner and a shredder. I scan my negative and look at it closely. If it has glaring errors, scratches, poorly focuses, poorly conceived, etc. I shred it immediately. I've found this saves me an enormous amount of time and effort because I don't try to get good prints out of obviously bad negatives.
    juan

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    Re: Do you keep 'bad' negatives?

    I don't know why, but I keep all negs... all in the same file. I also keep contact proofs and mark them up with printing notes, etc.. As storage space becomes more constrained I need to reconsider this habit.

  5. #5
    Moderator Ralph Barker's Avatar
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    Re: Do you keep 'bad' negatives?

    There may be some value in keeping bad negs as examples of mistakes, once the problem has been fully diagnosed and documented. Such things would come in handy if you were to write a book or teach a class, for example. Otherwise, frugality of storage is an admirable trait, I think.

  6. #6

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    Re: Do you keep 'bad' negatives?

    I used to keep all my 4x5 and 8x10 negatives. When we moved I culled them, tossed the ones I clearly was never going to print. There is, however, some merit to keeping them all except the ones that are unprintable because of mistakes. Many of us have experienced the phenomenon of thinking a recent photograph isn't any good because we didn't accomplish what we wanted to accomplish with it, then we look at it a few years later with fresh eyes, forgetting whatever it was we thought we missed, and see qualities in it that we didn't see before.
    Brian Ellis
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    a mile away and you'll have their shoes.

  7. #7

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    Re: Do you keep 'bad' negatives?

    I have one image like that, that sat as a 'mistake' in the file for 23 years before I finally figured out how to make it work (visually- there were no technical issues). Better late than never!

  8. #8

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    Re: Do you keep 'bad' negatives?

    A quick question:

    I developped some 8x10 negatives last night and four of them have those pinholes due to the poor quality of the film (J&C Pro 100).

    Can I scan the negatives and let the Photoshop software eliminate those defects on the negs?

    Thanks.
    Hugo

  9. #9
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    Re: Do you keep 'bad' negatives?

    Quote Originally Posted by Hugo Zhang View Post
    A quick question:

    I developped some 8x10 negatives last night and four of them have those pinholes due to the poor quality of the film (J&C Pro 100).

    Can I scan the negatives and let the Photoshop software eliminate those defects on the negs?

    Thanks.
    Hugo
    Yea, you would be able to do that easily, if you don't mind printing digitally
    Daniel Buck - 3d VFX artist
    3d work: DanielBuck.net
    photography: 404Photography.net - BuckshotsBlog.com

  10. #10
    Whatever David A. Goldfarb's Avatar
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    Re: Do you keep 'bad' negatives?

    Depends what the issue is. If I think it's an interesting shot with enough exposure but the contrast is too high or too low, I keep it, because it might print well in a different process than I had originally intended, or I could intensify or reduce the neg.

    If it's got some technical problem that would be very difficult to fix or if it's something like a portrait with eyes closed, then I toss it. It's hard enough to find time to print all the good negatives. The bad ones are just in the way.

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