Making medium format negatives legible for the future

Scanning Shagrir’s medium format negatives is a preservation task, a technical imaging problem and an act of historical interpretation. Each frame may hold visual evidence about Israeli political life, military events, journalism and ordinary people, yet the information is stored on a fragile strip of film that can curl, fade, gather dust or carry marks from decades of handling. Learn more about Chumacraju.org.

Medium format film is physically larger than 35mm, but its size does not make digitisation simple. Different cameras, emulsions, processing laboratories and storage conditions create variation from frame to frame. A scanner must capture fine detail without exaggerating scratches, flattening tonal range or introducing colour that was never present in the original negative.

For an Australian audience, the project also raises familiar collection-care questions. Coastal humidity in Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane can accelerate deterioration, while dry inland heat and bushfire smoke create different risks. The most useful digital copy is therefore one that combines careful scanning with reliable metadata, documented decisions and storage designed for long-term access.

Why the film stock matters

A medium format negative may be 6×6, 6×7 or another frame size, usually exposed on 120 or 220 roll film. The larger image area can preserve remarkable detail in faces, printed matter, streetscapes and documentary scenes. That detail is only available if the scanner’s optical system, film holder and focusing mechanism work evenly across the entire frame.

The emulsion itself determines much of the workflow. Black-and-white negatives often contain a dense silver image with strong highlights and delicate shadow information. Colour negatives have orange masking, multiple dye layers and possible shifts caused by ageing. Older acetate film may show warping, brittleness or vinegar syndrome, while adhesive residue and handwritten markings can complicate identification. Before scanning, technicians should record the stock, frame numbers, visible damage and any existing sleeve or box labels.

The historical context is equally important. Images made for press use may have been selected, cropped or annotated according to deadlines rather than archival standards. A frame that appears technically imperfect may contain a crucial visual clue. The oil crisis documentation illustrates why the original negative should be preserved even when a newspaper reproduction seems to be the primary reference.

Preparing a stable scanning station

Handling begins with a clean, controlled workspace. Nitrile gloves are useful when they fit well, although clean, dry hands can provide better tactile control for some conservators. Film should be held by its edges, never dragged across a bench, and supported when it is limp or tightly curled. Loose dust is removed with a hand-operated air blower and a soft antistatic brush; compressed aerosols are unsuitable because they can propel contaminants or leave residue.

The scanning room should avoid strong sunlight, rapid temperature changes and high relative humidity. This matters in Australia, where a collection stored in a non-air-conditioned room in Darwin faces a very different climate from one in Canberra. Film should acclimatise before opening sealed containers, especially when moved between cool storage and a warm workroom. Sudden condensation can damage both the negative and the scanner.

Flatness is a central technical challenge. A curled negative may sit outside the scanner’s depth of field, producing soft corners or uneven sharpness. Adjustable holders, anti-Newton-ring glass and carefully tested wet mounting can improve contact and focus, but each option carries risks. Wet mounting can hide surface scratches and improve optical clarity, yet it requires compatible fluid, cleaning procedures and staff trained to avoid staining or emulsion damage.

Choosing resolution and tonal depth

The best resolution is governed by the detail present in the film, the scanner’s real optical performance and the intended use. A nominal setting of 6,400 pixels per inch does not guarantee 6,400 pixels of useful information. For many medium format originals, a well-calibrated professional scanner operating around 2,400–4,000 optical pixels per inch can capture substantial detail without creating unnecessarily large files.

A 16-bit-per-channel scan gives more tonal information for adjustment than an 8-bit file. This is especially valuable for dense black-and-white negatives, underexposed frames and colour material with faded dyes. The master should be scanned with restrained settings: no sharpening, minimal automatic contrast correction and no destructive dust removal. Derivative files for the website can be sharpened and resized separately.

A technician should make a small test scan before processing a whole box. Check edge sharpness, shadow separation, highlight detail, grain, colour neutrality and the visibility of scratches at 100 percent. If the scanner software produces an inverted positive, retain the raw or minimally processed negative scan as well. Future software may produce a better inversion than the system available today.

Managing dust, scratches and fading

Automatic infrared dust removal is helpful with many colour films because infrared light can identify surface contamination. It is less reliable with traditional black-and-white silver negatives, where the silver image may be read as an obstruction. Aggressive correction can remove thin wires, hair, handwritten marks or fine architectural lines. For historically significant frames, manual retouching on a derivative copy is safer than altering the preservation master.

Scratches require diagnosis before correction. A scratch in the emulsion may be dark in a positive image, while a base-side mark can appear differently depending on lighting. Cleaning the film will not repair a permanent abrasion. Scanning in a way that records the defect honestly, then describing it in the metadata, protects the evidentiary value of the file.

Colour fading is harder to solve because restoration involves interpretation. A reference frame from the same roll may reveal the original palette, but automatic colour correction can create a clean-looking image that is historically misleading. The scan should retain a neutral, documented version, while exhibition or web derivatives may receive carefully logged adjustments. Broader preservation resources, such as the handling guidance available here, can sit alongside the collection’s own procedures when staff develop practical workflows.

Building files that remain useful

A preservation master should use an open, well-supported format such as uncompressed or losslessly compressed TIFF. File naming can combine collection identifier, box or folder number, roll number and frame number. Avoid names based only on a subject description, since captions and interpretations may change as research develops.

Metadata should document the physical object and the digital event. Useful fields include film format, negative dimensions, scanner model, lens or holder configuration, optical resolution, bit depth, colour profile, date scanned, operator, condition notes and any processing applied. If the photographer, location or date is uncertain, uncertainty should be recorded rather than silently resolved.

The same discipline applies to sound and related records. A photograph may gain meaning from a political debate, caption sheet or interview held elsewhere in the archive. The collection’s account of preserving political recordings demonstrates why linked materials should be treated as part of an information system, not as isolated digital objects.

Balancing access with preservation

A high-resolution master is not automatically a good public file. Large images can be slow to load for researchers outside major Australian cities, including users working with modest connections in regional Queensland or Western Australia. A responsive viewer can provide a screen-sized JPEG or JPEG 2000 derivative while keeping the archival TIFF in managed storage.

Access copies should carry stable identifiers and clear rights information. Captions can distinguish between what is visible, what is documented and what remains unverified. This is particularly important for political and military photographs, where a mistaken place name or date can be repeated across catalogues, exhibitions and social media.

The collection can also use low-resolution previews for teaching and exhibition planning while restricting the highest-resolution files where privacy, copyright or conservation concerns apply. Researchers seeking contextual information should be directed to the collection contact page, where questions about identification, permissions and related materials can be handled consistently.

Storing the digital archive for continuity

Scanning is only the first stage of preservation. Masters need at least two verified copies in separate locations, with one copy protected from routine editing and deletion. Checksums can detect silent corruption, while scheduled fixity checks show whether files have changed since creation. A local working copy, a managed institutional repository and an offline or geographically separate backup provide stronger protection than several copies on one hard drive.

Australian storage decisions should account for power interruptions, summer heat and the geographic distance between institutions. A collection in Melbourne may use a managed data centre in another state, while disaster planning should consider floods, storms and bushfires as well as equipment failure. Physical negatives still require cool, stable storage; digitisation does not reduce the importance of archival sleeves, boxes and condition monitoring.

The most valuable outcome is a traceable relationship between object and file. When every scan records how it was made, what was observed and which adjustments were applied, Shagrir’s photographs can serve photographers, historians, students and the public without sacrificing the evidence carried by the original film.

With David Ben Gurion, 1956

As an "Al HaMishmar" reporter, Shagrir interviewed Prime Minister David Ben Gurion — a landmark moment in his early journalistic career.

With Ariel Sharon, 1967

A week before the Six Days War, Shagrir was in Ariel Sharon's caravan as an IDF Radio reservist, documenting a pivotal chapter in Israeli history.

With Moshe Dayan, 1973

During the Yom Kippur War, Shagrir served as an IDF Radio reporter alongside Security Minister Moshe Dayan, reporting from beyond the Suez Canal.