How to get optical prints from a lab

nickrapak · Jun 8, 2012

Personally, what I would do is send your film to a quality lab to get your film developed and have (scanned and printed) 4x6 proofs made. Alternatively, you could get your film developed and scanned to a low-res CD. Either way, you get a way to view your images and tell which ones you would like to have enlarged. Once you have chosen the images you like, send the negatives to a place that does optical enlargements, like Colourworks in Wilmington, DE (www.colourworks.com).

This way, you're not paying extra for optical prints you don't need, but still getting the quality of optical prints for the best shots.

RattyMouse · Jun 8, 2012

On the subject of printing. How does a high quality inkjet print (from a 120 neg) compare to a hybrid print? Equal or worse?

Bob-D659 · Jun 8, 2012

Depends, could be equal, better or worse. All depends on the skills of the people doing the printing.

RattyMouse · Jun 8, 2012

Bob-D659 said:
Depends, could be equal, better or worse. All depends on the skills of the people doing the printing.

Thanks. I was worried that it could not be as good as hybrid or optical. I am learning now that inkjet prints are basically my only option here in Shanghai. That is the only way labs print here.

wogster · Jun 9, 2012

Sirius Glass said:
Yes and " The computer determines what it's looking at, and then prints it." That is the reason that the prints of the red rock country turned the foreground red sandstone to green sandstone requiring me to return everything to Qualex who promptly lost the negatives, the scans and all the prints. The best ting they did was go out of business!

Okay a crappy lab is a crappy lab, whether the machines are operated by, computers, trained chimpanzees or even (gasp) people. I think one of the best ways of making sure that a lab is doing the right thing is Quality Control. The problem with a lot of labs is that the only quality control that gets done, is keeping track of the number of rolls through the soup for replenishment. Really you need someone who is properly trained to evaluate prints, it should be possible to look at a negative and then evaluate whether the print colours are correct, but it takes a lot of training and experience.

However if your just looking to see which images are worth digging the darkroom out for, then most labs will get you close enough. In many ways a photograph is like a symphony, the negative is the score, the print is the performance.

bvy · Jun 9, 2012

Sirius Glass said:
Golden Color, http://goldencolor.com/, does exquisite all optical work. I use them for large prints.

I'm interested, but I can't make heads or tails of their website.

Sirius Glass · Jun 9, 2012

bvy said:
Sirius Glass said:

Golden Color, http://goldencolor.com/, does exquisite all optical work. I use them for large prints.

Click to expand...

I'm interested, but I can't make heads or tails of their website.

You need sunglasses to see the site.
Call them and ask your question.

RPC · Jun 9, 2012

polyglot said:
C41 is the colour negative film process, it's been around since the early 80's I think when it replaced C22.

Actually, it's more like the early 70s. My Photolab Index dated 1972 includes Kodak's Flexicolor, or C-41 process. Back then the only film there was to develop in it was Kodacolor II.

multivoiced · Jun 15, 2012

I finally got my digital scans (but not the negatives or prints) back from Richard Photo Lab. I want to avoid ranting here but their lack of understanding of digital imaging is very surprising. I will never use their services again. If anyone is curious about what happened let me know and I will tell the story.

Stephen Frizza · Jun 15, 2012

polyglot said:
the issue is that basically no commercial labs do optical prints anymore because hybrid is so much more time-efficient and tweakable. Their printers are profiled and they know from what's on-screen exactly what will come out on the paper; instead of spending a couple sheets of paper and half an hour doing test exposures and developing them, they just move a slider on-screen for a couple of seconds.

If you want optical prints, you're going to need to do them yourself. It's not real hard as long as you have a colour enlarger (which people tend to give away lately) and RA4 chemicals and papers are readily and cheaply available in California (which is where I assume you are).

I own and operate The Lighthouse Lab in Sydney all I do is optical prints. and I know of 5 other labs in sydney that also do optical prints these labs include Blanco negro, Pix Photo Media, Vision Image Lab and Sandy Prints.....This being said there are commercial labs all around the world still doing hand prints.

I do Ra-4, B&W and for only a short time longer Ilfochrome. I also process E-6, C-41 and B&W.

yes its more expensive to get a hand print made because it is more labor intensive but the qualities are worth it no?

pentaxuser · Jun 16, 2012

DREW WILEY said:
In mini-labs you've got some kid making three dollars an hour. The week before he ran the popcorn
machine at the theatre. Next week he'll be behind the counter at Starbucks, and the week after that
he'll become some big box store manager learning how to create industrial accidents.

I hope that kid doesn't have a passport. If he does then please give me his name so I can pass it on to the U.K. border control agency.

A great description. Made me smile

pentaxuser

How to get optical prints from a lab

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