Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site peora.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxt!houxm!vax135!petsd!peora!jer From: jer@peora.UUCP (J. Eric Roskos) Newsgroups: net.rec.photo Subject: Re: re: photo labs Message-ID: <790@peora.UUCP> Date: Mon, 8-Apr-85 08:57:27 EST Article-I.D.: peora.790 Posted: Mon Apr 8 08:57:27 1985 Date-Received: Tue, 9-Apr-85 20:04:26 EST References: <3879@mit-eddie.UUCP> <140@mit-athena.UUCP> <9668@brl-tgr.ARPA> Organization: Perkin-Elmer SDC, Orlando, Fl. Lines: 43 >> In other words, they overexposed it badly to >> try to bring out the background ... > >The store just noted >my complaints and sent the photo back, it came out OK in the end. When prints are first printed by a lab, it's usually done in a very fast machine -- everyone's negatives get taped together into a very long strip (that's what that numbered piece of tape that usually comes back with your negatives is... the piece of tape that joined it with the next person's), and the whole strip goes through the developer, then through a printer that prints everyone's prints onto a continuous roll of paper at a very high rate (around 5 prints/second on the really fast machines). Then the strip of paper gets chopped up into your final prints. That's why the prints come back on sizes of paper you can't buy at your local photo store -- it was bought as a large roll and cut up into the final sizes. But when you send negatives back and tell them "reprint these", they usually can't put it in the automatic machine; they have to do it via a slower method. Hence you get them redone on a different machine than the original processing. I've found it's much better to try to find someplace that contracts their processing out to a medium-sized local lab. Surprisingly, perhaps, here in Orlando the best place for that is K-Mart. They send the film to a very old, but very good, lab in town called "Champagne Color" (something I discovered by looking at the papers that came with a batch of prints the person at the photo counter was putting up one day when I stopped by). They do a far better job than a lot of the other places -- I think because they use slower equipment; they do a surprisingly good job of color correction, etc., even from very difficult negatives. The moral of this story is that if you have to send prints back a lot, try some other place until you find one that does a good job. As the review of Agfa print film in the latest Modern Photography pointed out, just because it's done by Kodak doesn't necessarily mean it will turn out well. The fast, high-speed equipment often doesn't work as well as the slower machines, because there's a tradeoff between speed and quality. -- Full-Name: J. Eric Roskos UUCP: ..!{decvax,ucbvax,ihnp4}!vax135!petsd!peora!jer US Mail: MS 795; Perkin-Elmer SDC; 2486 Sand Lake Road, Orlando, FL 32809-7642