Throwing away photo negatives?

[Imzadi]

I was watching Clean Sweep earlier, and organizer Peter Walsh recommended throwing out all old photo negatives. He said that nowadays, it's easy to have duplicates made by scanning, and to save old photos on photo cds, instead of having the negatives around.

I know he was focused on decluttering and the family had piles and piles of pictures they never looked at. The chances are rare that they would have more than one or two pictures ever enlarged. But, on the off-shoot they ever did want to have an old baby picture duplicated and enlarged, isn't it still better to do it off the original negative than a scan of the photo? (I'm not talking about having new pictures saved to photo cds.)

 

[Calrissian13]

It's definitely better to do from the negative. Enlarging from a scan will only make the picture more blurry. Unless you happen to scan a picture that is already a larger size (8x10, 11x14, etc), you're not going to get a quality enlargement from your standard 4x6.

 

[safetymom]

Hold on to the negatives. When you are scanning the photo you are scanning someones idea of how the print should look. If you scan the negative you can then process it the way you want.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

If you want to keep it, make a high quality scan of the negative. Don't scan the picture. The image quality will be significantly reduced.

 

[npmommie]

scan the negative? i never heard of doing that? how do you get a print from a scanned negative

 

[sandramaac]

keep the negatives!! copys from a copy will never offer a great image

you can buy a piece of equipment for about $100 that will allow you to scan directly into your computer a first generation, digital copy of the negative/photo, similar to what you would download from your camera's memory card from a digital camera and yes, some printers offer an option to scan in the negatives

only after the above would i ever consider throwing out the negative I have all our old, old negatives on one shoe box, there are possibly thousands of them in this one little box for that tiny amount of space I would never get rid of a lifetime of memories and family history for future generations

de-clutter yes!!! but not something like that

 

[Geoff_M]

scan the negative? i never heard of doing that? how do you get a print from a scanned negative

When you scan a negative, it creates a "positive" image (just like a print). You then can save it as a high-quality/resolution JPEG for safe-keeping.

Another reason NOT to throw out negatives, even of scanned ones, home burned CDs/DVDs go bad with age. I've already thrown out CDs that I burned 10 or so years ago that no longer are readable. Part of my problem was that I used cheap "free after rebate" CDs that I bought one "Black Friday". Fortunately, I had backups of the CDs' contents.

 

[irishbosoxfan]

Keep your negatives!

DH and I had a small wedding ceremony and used a regular camera for our photos--we had them developed and it wasn't until a few years later that we wanted to have enlargements made. Well somewhere in between my oldest DD(then a toddler) had gotten into the photo album and scribbled all over the pictures!!!

I hunted high and low for the negatives and never found them so we had to take what pictures hadn't been scribbled on in for enlarging and they look kinda crappy--we went from a 3x5 to 5x7 and 8x10 and we are blurry(and my eyebrows look like big hairy caterpillars in the 8x10!!)

 

[cteddiesgirl]

De-cluttering junk is one thing. But negatives are not junk.

Never throw them away.

 

[irishbosoxfan]

When you scan a negative, it creates a "positive" image (just like a print). You then can save it as a high-quality/resolution JPEG for safe-keeping.

Another reason NOT to throw out negatives, even of scanned ones, home burned CDs/DVDs go bad with age. I've already thrown out CDs that I burned 10 or so years ago that no longer are readable. Part of my problem was that I used cheap "free after rebate" CDs that I bought one "Black Friday". Fortunately, I had backups of the CDs' contents.

Really? Crap! I bought Verbatim brand CDs and copied all the pics on my computer onto them and deleted my pics thinking the CDs would last forever(well at least until the next great thing came along)

So all the CDs sitting in the fire-safe will be garbage in a few years and I'll have lost all those pics!!

I have recently taken to getting double prints of all the pics on the computer before I burn the CD and deleting them.

I'm kinda lost on what I should do now--I take a lot of pics!!

 

[RadioNate]

Really? Crap! I bought Verbatim brand CDs and copied all the pics on my computer onto them and deleted my pics thinking the CDs would last forever(well at least until the next great thing came along)

So all the CDs sitting in the fire-safe will be garbage in a few years and I'll have lost all those pics!!

I have recently taken to getting double prints of all the pics on the computer before I burn the CD and deleting them.

I'm kinda lost on what I should do now--I take a lot of pics!!

Upload the CDs and print them on new media. Nothing lasts forever. I'm BIG into photos and I have my jpgs (all digital now) on my computer hard drive (which is failing and being replaced Wed), my DS's computer hard drive, 2 external drives and hundreds of CDs. I'm also buying a 3rd external drive for a different kind of back up tonight.

I also have scrapbooks and prints of some of the more special images.

Overkill, probablly, but I won't be with out them.

You could also consider uploading to a professional online storage site. I think a few of the posters on this thread can recommend one.

 

[chicagodisneyfan]

Scan the negatives - you get great photos!

 

[Geoff_M]

Really? Crap! I bought Verbatim brand CDs and copied all the pics on my computer onto them and deleted my pics thinking the CDs would last forever(well at least until the next great thing came along)

So all the CDs sitting in the fire-safe will be garbage in a few years and I'll have lost all those pics!!

I have recently taken to getting double prints of all the pics on the computer before I burn the CD and deleting them.

I'm kinda lost on what I should do now--I take a lot of pics!!

There are a number of variables that will determine the readable life of a CD-R. The first is the quality of the media itself... this was my problem. The "cheap" ones are the biggest problem. If you used Verbatim brand, that'll work in your favor. The question mark is the type of dye used in the manufacturing process. The cheaper ones don't last. (Note that the life of "stamped" pre-recorded CDs have a much longer life expectancy). Storage conditions are another factor.

 

[maelstrom]

I would never get rid of negatives. I have the negatives from my Nana's wedding and I can't wait to find a place that will make prints from them. I wouldn't trust just any old place with them; they're from the 1940s and very delicate and I would hate for anything to happen to them. When I have the prints made, I'll finally get to see what one set of my great-grandparents looked like!

 

[OctMtnWoods]

Just how much space does it take to keep the negatives anyway? Jeesh. I have mine and plan on keeping them.

 

[Laura]

Just how much space does it take to keep the negatives anyway? Jeesh. I have mine and plan on keeping them.

My thoughts exactly.

 

[Imzadi]

Another reason NOT to throw out negatives, even of scanned ones, home burned CDs/DVDs go bad with age. I've already thrown out CDs that I burned 10 or so years ago that no longer are readable. Part of my problem was that I used cheap "free after rebate" CDs that I bought one "Black Friday". Fortunately, I had backups of the CDs' contents.

So this means all those VHS tapes & home movies we finally burned to DVDs are degrading too and have to be transferred to something else?

I would never get rid of negatives. I have the negatives from my Nana's wedding and I can't wait to find a place that will make prints from them. I wouldn't trust just any old place with them; they're from the 1940s and very delicate and I would hate for anything to happen to them. When I have the prints made, I'll finally get to see what one set of my great-grandparents looked like!

Yes, make sure you only get one or two pictures developed at a time. This way, if the lab does screw up or the place loses your pictures, you only lose one or two.

 

[manning]

Really? Crap! I bought Verbatim brand CDs and copied all the pics on my computer onto them and deleted my pics thinking the CDs would last forever(well at least until the next great thing came along)

So all the CDs sitting in the fire-safe will be garbage in a few years and I'll have lost all those pics!!

I have recently taken to getting double prints of all the pics on the computer before I burn the CD and deleting them.

I'm kinda lost on what I should do now--I take a lot of pics!!

I haven't gotten to negatives yet. The last article I read indicated that a cd may last about 5 years, give or take. The jury is still out. What I do when I make a cd I date it. My test is four years. If the cd is approaching that date I make another copy of the cd/dvd.

As time goes on we will begin to know how long a cd/dvd will last. The length given now are educated guesses. There is one company( can't remember their name) who conducts test and then comes up with a guess as to how long cds will last.

Some get tripped up with laser burning. What is happening is digits are burned into a dye and that is what fades. the dye.

 

[AnnR]

I use cheap CD's to back up my entire catalog. I also have it backed up on an external hard drive which stays in my fire safe safe. I keep some on flash drives and have many on my laptop. I bought archival gold CD's - I plan on backing up all the photos that I want forever. I take tons of photos so I am not going to put them all on them. I will continue to back up my catalog on cheaper Cd's but they are name brand and I will be duplicating a lot of the photos.

That said, pictures printed from negatives are generally much better then ones from CD's especially if you don't back up at the highest resolution. I never throw my negatives out unless they are of pictures I do not want.

 

[Geoff_M]

So this means all those VHS tapes & home movies we finally burned to DVDs are degrading too and have to be transferred to something else?

Effectively... yes. If you want to keep them for sure, you'll need to every decade or so burn new copies from the previous set. There's also another reason you'll want to do this... no format will last forever. Fifteen years from now it might be hard to find a drive that will read DVDs. They may be the equivalent of 3.5" floppy disks by then.