Recommended 35mm films for a traditional wedding?

[2F/2F]

"You've lost me here...do you believe they are turning away custom because I'm shooting on Fuji??"

No. I am saying they should be glad to have business at all, I guess. Doing things one way might save them money and time, but it is not in the spirit of being a true "pro" and "custom" lab. Yet again, I think the word "pro" and "custom" are being thrown around quite a bit.

"Any printer I've talked to will recommend a colour film which matches their colour set up. Perhaps in LA you can demand which paper you would like your photos printed on, but in little old UK, I've yet to experience this from a local pro lab."

This is unfortunate. Any printer I have personally talked to will ask me what paper I would like the work printed on before beginning work. (If you were the printer, wouldn't you? I sure would.) I don't have to "demand" anything. "Specify" would be the word, not "demand", and I can assure you that many, many photographers will specify a printing paper. They know starting filtrations for Fuji and Kodak, for each film and paper. At A and I, they have a notebook on hand with all the handy reference information. I remember having a discussion with one of their printers, Keith, about how their starting filtrations were so different from the ones on the other enlargers I used. (Each enlarger head, bulb, film batch, paper batch, and chemical process is slightly different.) He knew most of it by heart, as far as the most common films went. He also had every printing paper you could imagine on hand. Same with the extraordinarily talented Isgo Lepejian's darkroom (whose son owns A and I).

Their job is to provide you with what you prefer, not to have preferences of their own or change the way you work. I would venture to guess that if a lab tells you preferences, they are simply trying to save time on truly custom work and avoid having to stock a variety of brands and types of paper; *not* because they can't get results on another product.

 

[Ian Grant]

My local Pro lab (when in the UK) has specialised in processing for Wedding photographers for years.

A few years ago when they still used roll head printers and had a large staff there was far more flexibility, and large clients work would be printed often by the same person all the time, paper choice was an option. However the industry has completely changed and labs like this switched to minilab processing, and by now virtually all use digital minilabs.

The only difference now is that the operatives are highly experienced and compared to a 1 hr processing shop spend more time ensuring optimal quality for their clients image. In fact the lab in question now has one full time printer compared to 7 or 8 around 15 years ago.

Ian

 

[ted_smith]

Ian

What lab is it you refer to? I am currently using 'The Darkroom UK Ltd' in Cheltenham. I have been pleased with what they have done for me so far and I am impressed by their customer service. I recently had a 35mm Velvia shot blown up to 30" x 20" and it looks superb.

 

[Ricardo41]

Thanks all - very useful. I think I'll buy a few rolls of Portra NC160 and use either Fuji Acors or Agfa Agfapan for my B&W.


I'd be intrigued to know how people these days buy film and manage to recoup their costs when customers these days assume everything is shot digitally. As an example, 1 x roll of film, £4 say. Send it off to the lab for development and 6x4 proofs, another £10 or so. Then if you want a CD creating of each film (to save you spending hours scanning it in) an additional £12 or so each. You're looking at £25 per film average just to break even. Mmmm...I guess that's another thread topic though.

Ted

I've had excellent experiences with the Portra 160NC. You could also try the 160VC, or, for lower light, the 800 series, etc.

Here is the Kodak link that gives details. I've found no problems in having run-of-the mill labs processing the negatives.

http://www.kodak.com/global/en/prof....jhtml?id=0.2.26.14.5.14&lc=en&_requestid=727

I had a lab recently print out a portrait I took of a singer at some gargantuan size. The portrait was shot with the NC160. Skin tones and color were spectacular. No grain, a tack sharp image. I literally took a step back when I saw the image, having gotten accustomed to the grainy, soft crap you see on the web.

Show your customer a print, I think they will be extremely pleased.

As for your second question: I know it's counterintuitive, but think about the potential time savings involved in adding a film work flow to your digital work flow.

Digital:

Shoot
Upload data and backup data to your computer.
Reformat memory cards.
Sort and cull images.
Run images through RAW processor. End with homongous 8Bit or 16Bit TIFF files.
Process images in Photoshop.
Convert processed files to whatever format your clients wants the images to be in.
Prep files for printing.
Go to printer.
Realize the colors are off.
Go back to the computer, prep images again for printing, deal with the cumbersome issue of profiling your printer.

Film:

Shoot
Develop
Print
Done

I'm exxagerating, but you get my point.

Basically, all you need to do is develop the film. No need to pay extra for contact sheets. Just use any cheap azz scanner to generate a quick contact sheet, then email that to the client and have her/him pick which ones go to the printer.

I'd ask your friends, though, to cough up the cost of film, developing, and prints.

If they start whining along the lines of "I thought you wuz going to do it for free!!!!", show them a print, then ask them whether a little bit of quality isn't worth a few pounds.

Hope this helps.
ricardo

 

[Ian Grant]

Ian

What lab is it you refer to? I am currently using 'The Darkroom UK Ltd' in Cheltenham. I have been pleased with what they have done for me so far and I am impressed by their customer service. I recently had a 35mm Velvia shot blown up to 30" x 20" and it looks superb.

Ted, I rarely use a lab these days, virtually all my colour work is digital, that's what the clients want, they don't even have prints made.

But I usually used Colin Alford in Birmingham, I've used him since 1977. But a big problem with Pro labs now is that many no longer run E6 continuously & sometimes only 2 or 3 days a week, or they factor the work out. I'm just talking with someone about a 10x8 E6 shoot, and there aren't many labs outside London offering this service, at £10/$20 a sheet & another £6/$12 for processing you've got to be able to trust the lab.

There are a lot of excellent labs in the UK, I've used Colab in Coventry quite a lot, but I prefer to use somebody local so can't really make a suggestion other than perhaps try Peak Imaging they have a good reputation.

Ian