1950's Photo Negatives

Discussion in 'Photos & Video' started by Ina I. Wonder, Feb 1, 2015.

  1. Ina I. Wonder

    Ina I. Wonder Supreme Member
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    After my husband's death last December, I started going through the paperwork in his study, and I found some 1958 photo negatives of myself and my brother. I took them to Walgreens, Walmart, and even CVS, but all three said they could not return my negatives after processing them. This made no sense to me, and I know that the negatives are worth a bit in themselves.

    So my question to one and all is, "Where can I develope these old negatives without loosing them to the processor." I would love to be able to share them with my brother. :confused::rolleyes:
     
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  2. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    Walgreens makes a point of advertising this service and, like you, I don't know why they wouldn't be able to return the negatives used. Since every drug store still has a photo section, I had assumed that you could still get that done, as previously. I can find some places online that advertise such services but can't vouch for them, and don't know what the costs would be:
     
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  3. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    Most people have digital cameras; so they probably do not develop a lot of film that has negatives anymore.
    Even if you don't get the negatives back; you can just order several copies of the pictures, and I think that you can also make a copy for online. That would be much simpler than giving your brother the negatives to make hhhhis own copies with.
    They used to make a photo CD for you, but I think that is obsolete nowdays, and they probably have a better way of doing it besides just giving you the prints.
    Photo sharing is usually done online now, anyway, so if you even had one copy made and then scanned them into the computer, or have your granddaughter do that for you.
    If you have an online photo storage like Flickr, then you can put your pictures on there, label them, so everyone will know what , when, and who the picture is about.
    You can make these albums private so only you can see them, oor you can choose to share the albums with friends and family, as you determine. You just invite whomever you want to share with.
    This is what we are doing in my family. My kids are all uploading photos, and then we can each look at any of the photos, and download the ones we want to download.

    Flickr has an app for iPad that is easy to use, and you just need to get a yahoo email to sign up for Flickr.
    You might even be able to do it without a yahoo email, I am not sure about that part.
     
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  4. Michelle Stevens

    Michelle Stevens Veteran Member
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    I've never tried anything like that, but it sounds really strange.

    If there are a lot of negatives it might be worth your while investing in a scanner that can scan negatives onto your computer. I don't imagine that the negatives would get damaged in the process. And that way you could choose the ones you want to get printed and give the lab the digital version to print.
     
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  5. Allie Seay

    Allie Seay Veteran Member
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    Ina, there must be some old photography buffs around where you live who still have working darkrooms. Maybe you could put an ad in the paper?
     
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  6. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    I haven't tried it, but here are instructions on converting film to digital. I also just looked at some equipment at Best Buy that would do that. I think it was in the neighborhood of $80, and I think it worked with a PC, Mac, or Linux.
     
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  7. John Donovan

    John Donovan Veteran Member
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    Hey, Ina. I'm sorry about your loss. I think you would be able to get them developed at a Kodak store or a Canon store. I don't know if there are any left in the US, but in here there are plenty which are still working on this kind of things.
     
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  8. Corie Henson

    Corie Henson Veteran Member
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    If those negatives have not been developed yet, I guess it is worthless now since Kodak had already closed their developing department. In other words, there is no more laboratory for developing film negatives. Now, if what you mean is the developed negative and you want some photo prints of that negative that you have, there is a gadget that is like a scanner of negative and have an output of the photo in digital form - jpg format. If you need more information, check on Google for that.
     
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  9. Hannah Davis

    Hannah Davis Veteran Member
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    Oh yes, negatives, something that is becoming obsolete. I know someone who had old negatives of pictures they wanted developed. The only problem is they coudln't find anyone who could develop them. A friend of their's happen to know a professional photographer who had been in the business for years who was able to develop the picutres and also return the negatives to the individual. So, I guess this is the only advice I can give is to look for someone in the photography industry and see if they can do it along with how much it would cost for them to do it.
     
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  10. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    You can still get film developed. They may have closed the photo section in your local store because there aren't very many people using them, but you can still buy film and you can still get it developed. Unless you live in a larger city that may have a photo place still open to walk-in customers, you may have to mail it out but you can still develop it.

    Larger stores will still have a photo section. For example, Walgreens photo film processing. Or The Photo Place. Search on "film developing" and you'll find several options.
     
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  11. Allie Seay

    Allie Seay Veteran Member
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    Check out the negatives from the 50's and 60's this man got hold of. He dropped $387 for them but found them to be worth far more. The photos are so full of feeling. Hmmm. I'd say I wish I could make a find like that, but I'd really rather have a talent like that.:)

    http://www.webburgr.com/vivian_maier/
     
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  12. Ina I. Wonder

    Ina I. Wonder Supreme Member
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    @Ken Anderson, Thank you, I'll take your suggestion. What I have are 10, 3x4 negatives of myself and my brother, at the ages of 8 and 9. I guess my mother had the negatives developed, but I don't remember ever seeing any of the pictures. My brother and I only have a two or three picture of ourselves as children, and I was hoping to surprise him with some nice pictures of us for Christmas. They are the only ones I know of with the both of us together.
     
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  13. Michelle Stevens

    Michelle Stevens Veteran Member
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    What an amazing find. It's really sad that she didn't live to see her own success though.
     
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  14. Corie Henson

    Corie Henson Veteran Member
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    That's nice to hear. At least those old negatives can still be developed. However, I have learned from a film director that undeveloped negatives should be kept refrigerated, he mentioned a certain degree of coldness required otherwise the negative will be spoiled. And even after the developing, the negatives should still be kept in a cool storage. That is about the film in the movies and I guess it also applies to film in our picture camera.
     
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