More feedback from my NGS Magazine article.

Calley Savage wrote asking for my thought processes on the way I suggested to archive the most important pictures versus the less important pictures in my NGS Magazine article. Here is my reply:

Dear Calley,
I'm glad my article was helpful to you. I was surprised to see your e-mail as I haven't seen the issue yet.

Sleeves should work fine for you and you did a good job getting binders that slide into covers. That will protect 99% of what will damage your photos. My reasoning for putting the "most important" photos in boxes is that sometimes older photos will be warped, or cracked, or already have some damage to them. Storing them in boxes, horizontally without uneven pressure from the surrounding materials can I think help reduce pressure on those areas that might have already been damaged. If your pictures are in good shape, I think your binders will be fine though. Just be careful that you don't have too much pressure between the pages when the binder is closed. If the edge of one photo crosses through the middle of another on the opposite page, and the sleeves are crushed too tightly together, you will get a nice (or not so nice) crease through the middle of the second picture. Does that make sense? Just try to keep the pressure off the pictures and you will be fine.

Also be careful how you put them in the sleeves. If possible, try not to attach them to anything else, of course don't tape or paste the back to something. If you use photo corners, try to keep them kind of loose as well so that there isn't any damage if you need to take something out. Again, be careful of the pressure the photo corners have on the opposite page. Ideally, if you can get sleeves with multiple pockets that are the right size, it would be best not to attach them to any backing paper.

With what I called, the "most important" maybe 10 or 20 of the wedding pictures, maybe professional pictures etc, you may want to put copies in the binders, and keep those pictures in boxes, suited to their size to be sure to keep any undue pressure off them and make sure that they aren't handled very often. But that is only a suggestion. If they are in good shape and you are careful with them, they will be fine. They will be much better off in the binders than if you left them stuffed together in a dirty trunk in the attic or something.

That is my reasoning. I'd be happy to discuss any other questions with you. It is good you are trying to take such good care of the pictures. Good luck with your project.
Thanks,
Janet Hovorka