Writing, marking negatives...

Hey!

Can anyone tell me what the pros like Helmut Newton, Jeff Wall and so one use to

mark or choose their negatives? I saw it in some movies like "Contacts" that

they used some kind of purple/blue pen...

Thanks!

Helmut doesn't use anything. He's dead.

But the traditional instrument for marking on contact sheets is a grease pencil, available in a variety of colors. Some people use a Sharpie pen. You would not want to write on a negative.

Whatever you do, don't write on your negatives. Contact sheets on the other hand can be marked up wioth anything that works. A grease pencil is a good choice and might be more archival than a Sharpie. I use a Sharpie and don't consider any of my contact sheets to be terribly archival. I can always refer a contact sheet to a set of negatives, so if I have to remake one it's no big deal.

It is forbidden to mark anything on the processed film. Usually, the entire processed film should be cut in units of 4 frames (each) and then keep in a little special plastic "bag" covering exactly 4 frames at once. This plastic "bag" prevents dust, finger's stamp and scratches.

 

 

The film's index board (it contains the vignettes of each frame) is the most usefull indicator for archive activity, because you will be able to see at once what was on your film ; you can mark on this board some data like place, time, type of film used, intentional under or overexposure, etc.