matt nalley
New member
Along with a large print I would like to give a negative as a gift for a special someone. The thought is a print can't be carried with you wherever you go, but a negative is very portable. This frame seems to be the perfect size. It is 40x40mm and the circle will nicely frame the subject. One side will hold a contact print, the portable version of the large print. The opposite side will hold the negative. The other point of this part of my gift is to say not only is this a true one-of-a-kind print for your wall that you can also take with you wherever you go, but the original negative is also yours.
Here is my problem. How can I preserve the negative? Although very unlikely, if the print is ever damaged or destroyed the negative may need to be retrieved if she wants me to reproduce the print. Even if that never happens I want to make sure the negative doesn't get dusty or scratched for aesthetic reasons. My only thought is to sandwich the negative between two very thin pieces of UV-protected plexiglass with a sheet of acid-free white paper behind the negative. (One suggestion I received on another forum is to tape the negative to mat board so the negative doesn't touch the glass.) All I can find online are standard plastic sleeves, which won't provide adequate protection. Does any sort of single-frame negative mount/preservation product exist? If so, would it be thin enough to fit in a frame like this designed for a paper thin print?
I'm not set on this particular frame. It just happens to be the right size for a 35mm negative. And she just happens to love silver
My original idea was something more basic than a hinged silver frame (that's just all I've been able to find so far). I thought about a simple square plexiglass sandwich, roughly 35x35mm. The negative could be directly behind the contact print, with the back of the print serving as the white background to make the negative as visible as possible. For this I had no idea what to Google so I haven't found anything yet. Ideas?
The frame:
Here is my problem. How can I preserve the negative? Although very unlikely, if the print is ever damaged or destroyed the negative may need to be retrieved if she wants me to reproduce the print. Even if that never happens I want to make sure the negative doesn't get dusty or scratched for aesthetic reasons. My only thought is to sandwich the negative between two very thin pieces of UV-protected plexiglass with a sheet of acid-free white paper behind the negative. (One suggestion I received on another forum is to tape the negative to mat board so the negative doesn't touch the glass.) All I can find online are standard plastic sleeves, which won't provide adequate protection. Does any sort of single-frame negative mount/preservation product exist? If so, would it be thin enough to fit in a frame like this designed for a paper thin print?
I'm not set on this particular frame. It just happens to be the right size for a 35mm negative. And she just happens to love silver
My original idea was something more basic than a hinged silver frame (that's just all I've been able to find so far). I thought about a simple square plexiglass sandwich, roughly 35x35mm. The negative could be directly behind the contact print, with the back of the print serving as the white background to make the negative as visible as possible. For this I had no idea what to Google so I haven't found anything yet. Ideas?
The frame: