This month's article is the last of a three part series on storing and organizing your slide collection. Tips #35 reviewed proper storage methods and last months tips#36 discussed how to organize (or file) your slides for ease of retrieval. This month's article will deal with labeling each individual slide. While labeling is a tedious task, it is nevertheless worth the effort.
In essence there are two basic methods of attaching information to the slides. Traditionally this was done by writing directly on the slide sleeve and is still the quickest and easiest method. A word of caution here is to avoid using pencil, as the graphite particles will inevitably end up on your images. It is better to use ink or a permanent marker.
The alternative is to use labels generated on your computer. They can be generated from a database that you created of your slides or generated as required. Databases are much more labor intensive but gives greater versatility as well as a professional touch. Avery Addressing Labels (05267) are the perfect size to place on the larger borders of your slide sleeve. There are many cheap database programs available for generating mailing lists that can be used. Instead of addresses you could use the data fields for subject name, location of shot, film type and perhaps some information on your camera settings (i.e. F stop or shutter speed). One Avery address label sheet holds 80 labels that could then be printed off and attached to your slides. One word of warning is necessary; you may waste a few pages playing with font sizes and paper alignment before getting a printable result. If you are really serious about slide databases, there are several programs designed expressly for the purpose of creating photo databases, that can then be used to generate labels. An example of one such database is Proslide. There are others as well and are often advertised in major photo magazines such as Outdoor Photographer. Some allow you to incorporate thumbnail scans as well. This is handy as it refreshes your memory without having to look in your files.
The next decision to be made is what information to actually put on your slide. Last month we discussed the need for each slide to have a unique identifier code (number). This allows for keeping track of your slides when they are out of your collection (e.g. for slide shows, publications, getting prints made...). If you are writing directly on your slides the technique described last month works well (Using the sheet number and slot number to specify each slides location). However when you are generating your labels from a database it is not always easy to know the slides location when you are entering the information. One of the authors uses an identification number that includes 2 digits for the year when the photo was taken, 3 digits for the film roll number that year and 2 digits for the slide number. Although this may be more complicated than many would wish to try, the bottom line is whatever system you choose; your slides should have a unique identifier.
The most obvious information to include on your slide is the subject title. Most often this is simply the name of the species photographed but can also be more of a description. Space is generally limited but this is the most important part of the label. Bold face or larger fonts will make the title stand out.
Probably one of the more useful bits of information to include on your label is the type of film used. This may not always be obvious to you years later and is useful for helping you compare and contrast different film types especially as new film types become available.
Other information that can be included on your label includes location of photo -e.g.- Point Pelee, Grey County, etc. You may wish to consider (if known) placing your camera setting information on the label as well. Some of the more modern camera bodies have the ability to store all the settings that were used and can be downloaded into a computer for later retrieval. This represents one of the quickest ways to improve your technique. By studying the camera settings, you can analyze the exposure information to see where things succeeded or failed.
The last point to make is that you may wish to generate a label that is in fact an address label! This would include your name, a copyright symbol (if possible), your address, phone number and possibly an email address. Naturally you would not place this on all your slides but only the ones to leave your collection for various purposes as outlined above.
Proper labeling of your slides allows efficient cataloguing and retrieval. If you ever consider submissions for publications, a computer-generated label presents a professional appearance.
