Re: file numbering systems

wpettit@xxxxxxxxxxxxx · Fri, 21 Jun 2013 21:27:10 -0400 (GMT-04:00)

Jan, I had no idea your catalog went to that depth.  It seems to me (an I'm no expert in cataloging ) that you should be able to access any image you need in a reasonably short time.   Several years ago I had a long discussion with one of the archivists at the LOC.  His opinion was that silver halide negatives both  paper and safety film (properly fixed) were about as permanent as one might achieve with current technology--he had no confidence in dye based or magnetic digital media.   Of course accessibility is very different than archival storage.   But all that said,  small digital thumbnail  images may assist in identifying similar images in a catalog.

Bill 
-----Original Message-----

From: Jan Faul 

Sent: Jun 21, 2013 8:31 PM

To: List for Photo/Imaging Educators - Professionals - Students 

Subject: Re: file numbering systems

On Jun 21, 2013, at 3:35 PM, David Dyer-Bennet wrote:

On 2013-06-21 12:53, Tina Manley wrote:
All of my film, including negatives, is cut and mounted into Gepe slide
mounts.  The mounts hold it flat and make it much easier to scan and to
file by subject and country.

Yes, if you're going to cut film down, you pretty much have to go all
the way into slide mounts or some such.  Way too much trouble and money
for me (and in a smaller collection, too; but a rather less valuable one).

	I’ve been using my date-backwards system since 1970 and I have a bit more than half a million exposures listed this way. In addition to the number, unlike you folks who don’t care about where anything is, I care. My number gets a country code (DK for Denmark etc), if it’s a battlefields it gets  a four letter NPS locator and if it’s a portrait it goes into a different section completely.
	Mercifully, I have yet to transition to digital as it would be a terrific loss in quality. A RAW file from a 5D does not compare with a 300MB scan from a Creo.  Sorry, but the 5D is still too contrasty and not a large enough file to make a print 54x182”.

Art Faul

The Artist Formerly Known as Prints
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