Topic: The backlog

[Urban Hafner]

Now that my new desk is setup with the computer and the scanner and there might be some time in the near future for developing and scanning now that we're almost done moving I had a look at my backlog of films to scan and develop. 11 rolls of black and white to develop and an additional 23 rolls to scan (C41 and E6). Oh my! I'm not sure I'll catch up any time soon. Especially as I have just started shooting again (3 rolls of 120 on a short weekend trip to Paris).

So how do you deal with that? Are you disciplined enough to not let that happen or do you just skip TV in the evening?

Urban

[Late Developer]

As I don't (currently) do my own developing, I pay over the odds to have my films processed by probably not the best "High Street" labs out there. However, what this means is I have a bit more time for scanning / processing. I now have a small "tent" in which to load films into a developing tank and I will make a resolution to start when I get back from holidays.

My backlog issue is around haphazard film cataloguing and storage. At the point when my ex and I split, my negs / trannies, etc. somehow vanished  never to be seen again. Therefore, I don't have a massive back catalogue of negs to sort and file but, as the months go by, the stash is definitely growing....

I'll give digital imagery one thing - EXIF data and meta-tagging definitely has its benefits.

I suppose you'll just have to make a commitment to doing so many per week or month. That, in itself, will probably slow your shooting rate down and stop the backlog growing too much.

[Sandeha Lynch]

I did away with the TV ten years ago.  Priorities, priorities.   

[DS]

Backlog! Tell me about it. I've got about 30 odd rolls of 35mm B&W and about 25 rolls of 120 to do (haven't souped since march). I'll get around to it as soon as I have:

• written the paper due next month
• sorted my data analysis
• tiled the bathroom
• sanded and varnished the floors
• fitted the kitchen
• painted the house
• made sloe gin
• built the darkroom (yess! my own darkroom. Woohoo!)

Reckon by about christmas I'll be ready to start dealing with it.

Still, when I look at this I think my backlog is not so bad (from about 4:27 or so on. That's a real backlog...):
Garry Winogrand - Part 1

I did away with the TV ten years ago.  Priorities, priorities.  

Damn straight. Life is far too short for telly.

[Mojave]

I dont watch regular TV but I do have Netflix and watch shows on the TV from Netflix via a Roku box. I dont watch it all the time and when I do watch, its for an hour or so, but it doesnt take a lot of my time.

Im crazy when it comes to film. I simply cant wait to see it large so I scan it as soon as I have it. For b&w, I usually develop and scan in the same day I finish the roll. For color, I am now having Walmart process my 120 and that takes a few weeks to get back but when I get it, its all scanned the same day I get it. Same with color 35mm, only I get that back in like 15 mins from Walmart or target. But yeah, I cant wait to see the film so I have been known to stay up till 2am or later scanning film so I can see it just as soon as I have it.

Oh, but as for putting it all in sleeves and safely tucking it away? Well, that is something that takes me forever to get to and sometimes my cat gets a hold of the film and chews it up.

[Urban Hafner]

Yes LD that's the advantage of digital. But I also use Aperture for my film shots (and I change the dates of the scans to approximately match the date they were shot) and just give each roll a unique ID so that I can find it again.

Erin, staying up late is not an option with a 1 year old on the house

[calbisu]

Well, I am pretty much like Erin. Whenever I have a roll of film to develop I saviour that moment. To develop black and white is kind of therapy. And whenever I am living abroad I do not have TV, so lots of time saved.  As per organizing film, I put it in sleeves and stick a label with a name of the place and camera, plus I file them per year. For example, Canon A1, Rizal Park 11-1, and then organize the folders equally in the computer. By camera and year. On that I have a backlog but is not too terrible.

[original_ann]

urbanhafner, I shot 37 rolls in August.  Got back at the end of the month, and started developing.  Once I started scanning I was on a roll (no pun intended).  It probably only took me 2 weeks to scan all of them.  Some of the E6 rolls had odd color shifts and so took longer to scan due to adjustments, but b/w and color neg were a breeze.  Hoping you find a rhythm and whip through those rolls!

[astrobeck]

skipping the telly will help a lot!  Like others, developing is therapeutic for me.  Smelling fixer is somewhat euphoric.  

I'm also on the can't wait side of the table.  I have three unfinished rolls in various cameras, but the rest are all processed and scanned.

However, I do not have a one year old in the house which totally  changes the equation.  As long as you are taking photos of the baby, and your other interests then all is good- just catch up when you can.  
But I would give up the TV for a while....

[Mojave]

Yeah, the youngin' definitely changes things time wise.

[charles binns]

I always seem to have a backlog - but actually I find that a having a long delay between exposing and scanning allows you to look at each negative with a fresh eye and be more objective about whether or not it's a good image.

I read once about a photographer who would deliberately leave almost two years between taking a shot and developing it so that he could look at each image dispassionately and without being influenced by whatwever emotions he felt when he took the photos. Waiting two years is abit too long for me but it's an interesting way of looking at things.

I developed 19 rolls of film this week end - 8 b&w and 11 colour slides and have some 300 odd scanned negatives to sort and edit so my backlog is not getting any smaller.  Am also off for 5 days hiking in Spain tomorrow (something I haven't done in almost twenty years) and will be yomping with almost thirty b&w films and three holgas (one of them a pinhole).

What I do though is to spend an hour or so most week day evenings scanning or working through images and whilst I never seem to catch up - who cares?  If I ever did that would mean I had stopped taking photos.

[calbisu]

I always seem to have a backlog - but actually I find that a having a long delay between exposing and scanning allows you to look at each negative with a fresh eye and be more objective about whether or not it's a good image.

Totally agree. Is not something that I do, but totally agree. By the way I went to your website and was delighted, what fantastic images you have there. The one of the cemetery and the one from the countryside, wow.

[charles binns]

Calbisu

Thank you very much.  It's great to get some positive feedback.  I need to organise my work more as it's all abit random at the moment  - and that's I find a back log does work against me.  I find I spend all my time playing catch up.

[Phil Bebbington]

I get stuff developed right away and scan as soon as I get them back. My problem is getting the negatives filed. I think I have at least 6 years worth of negatives piled up on the desk. There never seems a right time to address them!

[jojonas~]

interesting topic, specially with the mention of the guy who waits to years to distance himself from his work(!) personally, I'm still learning how to do all this with choosing what to shoot, composition, how to develop so I like when I get to develop right away when I still remember clearly what I did and can learn something from it.

I went through all my old rolls of bw this summer and had about as much colour to take care of, sadly my c-41 tetenal kit died on me only ruined two rolls but now it's harder to motivate myself to either get a new kit or just send the lot off for someone else to develop (costly!)

[greenstphotography]

I alternate between uber organized and uber lazy.  It starts with the lazy period when I often end up with a backlog of film and cataloging to do.  Then I get feed up and spend a few furious weeks/months scanning and filing then I get tired of that and repeat the cycle.

My system seems to be too time consuming.  I develop my own B&W and send out the color (this was fine until I actually started shooting color recently for some odd reason, now I may need to start souping my color as well).  Then I do a low res scan of the whole roll of film so I can make a quick "contact print:.  The negatives are given a number and stored in numerical order roughly in the order they were shot.  Then the contact print (printed from the scan) is stored by category in various binders.  Then I select the few images that I want to scan to do some post on and potentially print.

I have 150+ contact prints to make and catalog
14 roll of color film to cut/sleeve
3 rolls of B&W to soup
and who knows how many individual scans to make from the recent 17 rolls of film, and who knows how many scanned images to post.

for all of my organization I feel very unorganized

[Francois]

One thing you could do to save time is to bring uncut negatives to a 1 hour photo place and just ask them to do an index print or something. Their machines are in reality digicams so they give results almost instantaneously.

You could also ask them to output to CD. Might be the cheapest way. Walmart charges 1$ for an index print...

[mickld]

I believe the guy who waited a long time before editing his negatives was Garry Winogrand - the chap in the video above. He left enough time between shooting and editing so that he forgot the context of when the photo was taken, thus allowing him to more objectively assess the image as a thing in itself and not be influenced by what he was feeling at the time.