How to safely store you negatives.

There are many different types of photographic film. This means there are many different sizes of negatives that need looking after. The two most common size's are larger format 2.25" and 35mm. We can, and do scan all type of negatives and transparencies.

People often ask us the best way to store their negatives, its not unusual for us just to receive are large bag of negatives all jumbled up, curled or even folded over.

Environmental conditions?

Ideally your negatives should be stored in a dark, moisture free, cool environment. Often negatives that have been found in attics stored in a the original negative packet, look as good as the day they were received back from the developers! We have noticed that quiet often negatives that have been kept in warmer climates (Far East for example) will have slight mould growth on them, this mould can be very hard to remove without damaging the transparencies. We have scanned may 1000's of this 'growth' affected type of negative and clean them as well as possible with distilled water. The machines we use have the ability to 'see' past some layers of mould. We've also noted that older negatives tend to 'weep' acid from the developing process. These negatives are deteriorating rapidly, we clean the acid off and scan them on a flat scanner.

Extreme heat will cause the transparency to curl, bend and bow. We can scan these transparencies by clamping them flat and scanning on a flat bed scanner, we then scan them with a variety of focal points on the transparency to capture the best image possible.

Extreme cold will cause the transparency to become very brittle over time; we tend to scan these on our flat scanner so the scanner optics move rather than the transparency being placed in a moving hopper.

Exposure to light will fade the transparency, our scanned can capture nearly all the image from these slides, then once in a digital format the image can be remastered on a computer (PC or Mac)

Storage wallets?

There are a wide variety of storage containers available for negatives, most common are 35mm wallets which take a single strip in a row with 4 or 5 strips per page. Larger format 2.25" negatives have similar wallets or sleeves. It is very important to ensure the paper sleeves are acid free. You can purchase plastic sleeves, these tend to be a little more hard wearing.


We sell a variety of storage for you slides and can transfer your slides, once scanned into newer containers.

To see how we scan your slides please click here.

Like to know more?

Call now on 01372 841 071 (or click here) to request samples, ask advice or arrange a free no-obligation quotation.

How we care for your negatives