Color film/photos fades over time. Use Black and White instead.
Your color film can be developed as black and white photos.
You can also use a digital camera for B & W pictures.

Joan in San Marcos, Ca.

Color film/photos fades over time. Use Black and White instead.
Your color film can be developed as black and white photos.
You can also use a digital camera for B & W pictures.

B&W prints will also fade over time if they're not archivally processed.
In fact, they can fade rather quickly if not processed properly and stored
with care. The deterioration is more obvious with color film because color
changes are easier to detect than tonal changes in the greys of a B&W
photograph.

Storage boxes can be made of aluminum, stainless steel, polyethylene, hard
rubber, glass, porcelain, or metal coated with baked enamel.

Negatives should be stored in polyethylene or acid-free envelopes, prints
in acid-free paper and boxes. Anyone interested can e-mail me privately
for sources.

In a perfect world, negatives and prints would be stored in an environment
of moderate temperature and low humidity.

Bob Myles
Atlanta, GA

MODERATOR NOTE: Also read the JewishGen InfoFile on document
preservation. It has a special section on photographs. You can
access it at: http://www.jewishgen.org/infofiles/docupres.txt

Just an addition to this would be that negatives should never be store in
the same place as your photos, albums etc. In the event of a catastrophic
experience, by having the negatives in a nother location, you do no lose
the ability to replace.

Polypropelene, melenex and mylar are all photo-safe plastics, and
documentation should accompany the pictures, pref. in an album for best
sharing and viewing.