archival colour processing

[dileep_prakash4]

There is a lot of dope out there about getting archival quality b&w negatives. Does anyone know how to get archival colour negatives and transparencies?

[pete_andrews]

Archival, meaning how long? 25 to 30 years - maybe. 100 years - no

way.<br>Firstly. Make sure everything is processed by a careful lab

that doesn't skimp on chemicals, especially on the final stabiliser

bath.<br>Secondly. Keep all your slides and negs under proper

conditions in acid-free glassine envelopes (not plastic), in the dark,

and in a dry atmosphere.<br>Thirdly, inspect them all regularly for

signs of degradation, fading, fungal attack etc. and take appropriate

action. (duplication, anti-fungal bath, or whatever) That's about all

you can do.

[n_dhananjay3]

If an image really matters to you, you could think of making silver

based separation negatives, I guess. DJ

[rob_tucher]

If the image REALLY matters to you separation negatives (for

reproduction from then on) and duplicates (for dissemination)are the

way to go and then seal the original neg/chrome in a special freezer

bag (from Light Impressions or others)and put it in the freezer until

you need it again. Everlast prints are supposed to be archival. Who

knows? B&W archival isn't even really. The best I have seen claimed

is an estimated 500 years and then...?

[dk_thompson]

The current "bible" on this is Henry Wilhelm's "Permanence and Care of

Color Photographs". There's just too much information here in this

book to relay in a message. I will give you a few pointers aside from

processing. First, avoid color neg. materials. If you do use c.n.'s,

and are concerned about their life, look into cold storage, or at

least a cool, controlled environment. For transparencies, you might

want to use polyester (or ESTAR base, as Kodak calls it) sheet film.

Acetate based films (almost all roll film) have a shorter life than

polyester. I would also suggest avoiding all glasseine products for

long term storage. This book will provide you with alot of guidelines.

Some online sources include: Conservation OnLine, and the Image

Permanence Institute. IPI has a great downloadable software called the

Preservation Calculator. This used to be offered for sale along with

their "Guide to Acetate Based Film Storage", but now that's all free

online. It's really handy, taking into account your relative

humidity/temp. for storage, and giving you an estimate for how long

your film will last. They have some other good publications including

a guidebook on storing color materials. If you were in a controlled,

cold storage archive environment, you could achieve a very long life

for color, even nitrate based B&W materials. You have to factor in all

sorts of things when you talk about "archival", it's not just about

the base material. Environment is very important, as well as enclosure

materials. There are quite a few products on the market that are sold

as "archival" when this is not necessarily so. My suggestion, if you

are serious about this, is to study the conservation sites, and do

your homework, then decide just what "archival" means to you.

[qtluong]

If you'd like to archive beyond the film's lifetime,

you could scan at high resolution. The materials which

hold the scans are not archival, but the digital files

can be duplicated easily and without loss, unlike the

film itself.

[dk_thompson]

Here's another good site for general FAQ's on storage, it's the

National Archives (NARA) page:

http://www.nara.gov/arch/faqs/aboutph.html

There is also an article about their guidelines for cold storage. I

won't get into all the details about all this, but it's not so easy as

just using any old freezer. Cold storage is the "hot" topic in

archives today, along with scanning images for access uses. I don't

want to turn this into an anti-digital thread, but digital is not

considered a replacement for the original media. You can find all

sorts of answers to your questions if you peruse these sites, I'm a

staff photographer for a history museum, and we use color transp. and

b&w negs. for our artifact files (long term records). There's a whole

profession that studies these issues outside of photography, so all I

can say is do your homework.