Developed Negatives

[superdave]

I'm sure there are some photo centres that will produce better prints than others from film.... however, if I bring my film to be processed in one shop and the prints turn out bad... would I be able to bring my developed negatives to another shop (known to have good prints) and expect to get better results?

What I'm wondering is that can the quality of the developed negative differ greatly from place to place? (assuming both places uses the same brand of processing machine). Ie, Are there any 'human factor' in the developing process? I think there is some in the printing the process, right?

 

[student]

I'm sure there are some photo centres that will produce better prints than others from film.... however, if I bring my film to be processed in one shop and the prints turn out bad... would I be able to bring my developed negatives to another shop (known to have good prints) and expect to get better results?

What I'm wondering is that can the quality of the developed negative differ greatly from place to place? (assuming both places uses the same brand of processing machine). Ie, Are there any 'human factor' in the developing process? I think there is some in the printing the process, right?

You can always bring the negatives to another facility for printing! Certainly there are many factors which can affect the prints, such a freshness of chemicals etc.

 

[igpenguin]

yup, shops can tweak the printing from negatives. the more experienced printers will do a better job. but still dependent on the original shot lah. for example if i severely underexposed a shot the best printer can only do so much.

 

[LittleWolf]

What I'm wondering is that can the quality of the developed negative differ greatly from place to place? (assuming both places uses the same brand of processing machine). Ie, Are there any 'human factor' in the developing process? I think there is some in the printing the process, right?

As far as C41 colour negative is concerned, I haven't experienced noticeable differences in development proper (although some people claim cheap labs do not always use fresh chemistry). But there are huge differences in how carefully the films are handled. Some labs have a reputation for scratching the films, powdering the wet gelatin with dust (which on drying gets firmly embedded in the emulsion), adding a few fingerprints here and there, and even cutting through frames. Note that I live currently in the US, so I don't know about how bad the situation in Singapore is.

 

[superdave]

Thanks for the advise guys. Anyway, which paper has given you the best results? Kodak, Fuji, Konica... etc?