Good habits for loading large format film holders

Large format film holders have dark-slides with a white and black side so you know if the film is exposed or not, but if you have a few holders on the shelf, how do you know which are even loaded with film? Which are ready for developing?

Everyone has a system - here is what I do:

4x5 film holder system
  1. Empty. Film holders sat on the shelf have no film in them. They are ready to be loaded.
  2. Loaded, un-exposed. These holders are in Ziplocs, slides are white-side out and handles down in the bag so that I don't accidentally pull out the slide when removing the holder from the bag. 
  3. Loaded, exposed. Same as above, but the slides have black sides out. The holders stay in the bags until they are emptied for development. 
  4. Back to step 1.

Sandwich-sized Ziplocks are the perfect size for 4x5 film holders and help protect against the elements when out in the field. 

I process images in batches of 6 (3 film holder's worth) because this is the capacity of the mod 54 insert for the 3 reel Patterson tank. Used film holders are cheap (check out the bargain ones on KEH) - I keep two sets of 3 holders so that I can still shoot even if I have one batch still to process. 

 

 

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