How should I store and preserve 35mm slides long term?
Asked 2/17/2018
2 views
2 answers
0
I want to preserve slides shot after 1980. Right now they are in sleeves inside a box, stored in a cool, dry, dark place. I’m considering moving them into archival polypropylene pages that have passed the PAT, then storing those pages in an acid-free, lignin-free box. Is that a good long-term approach?
I’d also like general guidance on storage conditions for slides and negatives: what temperature and relative humidity are best, and what levels should be avoided for extended periods?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
8y ago
2 Answers
1
The #1 best way to store the pictures is to scan the slides as soon as possible and save multiple copies of the digital files in multiple places. Slides will degrade. The only question is how fast.
There are various degradation mechanisms of slides.
One is that the dyes simply fade. As with most chemical processes, lower temperature slows this down. The film type makes a difference here. Kodachrome, for example, fades much slower than others.
Another degradation mechanism is mold. Here the main drivers are heat and humidity. You also want to keep mold from spreading when the inevitable single mold spores grow and eventually make more mold spores. So here the defenses are cool, dry, and physical separation or barrier.
Note that cool is good for both, so that's a no-brainer. However, humidity is also very important. A damp basement, even if relatively cool, is a really bad place for slides. Really really dry air can have negative effects on the dyes and the gelatin, so somewhere in the 30-50% humidity range is usually reasonable.
Anecdote
My mother stored many slides in her basement. These ranged from the 1940s to the late 1970s. While that was the overall coolest part of the house, it was also the most moist. She didn't have a dehumidifier down there, so in the summer the humidity was probably close to 100% for months. Many of the slides were in bad shape when I inherited them in 2013.
The oldest slides had faded. However, with a modern scanner, it is remarkable what you can recover from faded pictures. You start by making the darkest part of the scan black and the lightest white. That by itself goes a long way to adjusting for the fading. You usually have to do a custom non-linear curve per slide, and fiddle with the color balance of the mid-tones. In the end, there is still some loss, but with a little care, you can make digital versions that look much better than the original faded slides.
The real problem is the mold. No, wrapping everything in plastic doesn't prevent moisture from getting in. Water will diffuse thru just about anything given enough time. What a "impermeable" layer does is slow down the exchange of water with the ambient air, resulting in roughly average humidity inside. This can be really bad for slides, paper, and many other things in a non-dehumidified basement in a temperate climate.
One thing I noticed is that the slides stored in slide trays had significantly less mold on them than the ones stored in boxes right up against each other. This seems to be the main driver for the extent of the mold damage, not the age of the slide. My guess is that the larger physical separation distance made the difference. Mold spores from one slide simply had a harder time getting to the next slide.
Again, though, slides will degrade over time, no matter what you do. Scan them now.
Originally by user7603. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user7603
8y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Yes—archival polypropylene pages and an acid-free, lignin-free storage box are a sensible long-term storage method, provided the slides are kept cool, dry, and dark.
The main risks are dye fading and mold. Lower temperatures slow chemical fading, while low humidity helps prevent mold. Physical separation, such as sleeves or archival pages, also helps limit damage spreading if one slide develops mold.
Practical guidance:
- store in a cool, dry, dark place
- avoid heat and high humidity for long periods
- stable conditions matter; extremes and fluctuations are harmful
- archival, PAT-passed, non-PVC materials are appropriate
There isn’t a single magic number in the answers provided, but cooler is generally better for slide longevity, and dry conditions are important to reduce mold risk.
Also, the best preservation strategy is to digitize the slides as soon as practical and keep multiple backups of the scans in different places. Film will continue to age no matter how carefully it is stored; scanning preserves the images even if the originals eventually degrade. Kodachrome is generally known to fade more slowly than many other slide films, but all film benefits from careful storage and digitization.
Recommended products
UniqueBot
AI8y ago
Your Answer
Related Questions
How should I store and preserve 35mm negatives and slides after scanning?
Can camera lenses be damaged by storing them in very low humidity?
Do I need a dry cabinet or dry box for storing point-and-shoot and DSLR cameras?
How should I store photos and slides at home to control humidity safely?
Should I save scanned 35mm slides as JPEG or TIFF for archiving?