Question on photo developing!

[booboo]

Hi.
Have a question here on film developing.
Is there a difference in the quality or the overall result of the negatives between those done in the traditional darkroom and those developed in those normal consumer photo-shop?

:think:

 

[d7t3]

that's a rather vague question.

are you talking about developing colour or B+W negatives?

 

[canturn]

Hi.
Have a question here on film developing.
Is there a difference in the quality or the overall result of the negatives between those done in the traditional darkroom and those developed in those normal consumer photo-shop?

:think:

Let me try to answer your qn. If you're refering to silver halide film (traditional b&w film), you need to send them to pro-shops and I doubt the photo lab in your shopping centre/neighbourhood can do those for you.

If you're talking about those C-41 b&w film, e.g. 400TCN, Ilford Xp2 super, you can send it to any neighbourhood shop to do for you and don't they dare tell you that C-41 b&w film cost more to develop.

As for silver halide film, not many shops can do a good job, IMO. Most of the time you end up with over-contrasty negatives or over-processed negatives because they just lump your negative together with like 8 other rolls and process all at one go. Don't expect them to do it one roll at a time with pushing and pulling unless you are willing to pay premium for it. At the end of the day, you might end up getting water marks or negatives that are not washed thoroughly enough of fixer.

Moral of the story, learn to process your own film, cheaper, better and once you start hanging up your first roll of film, you'll find it very addictive, hehe.

 

[singscott]

If it's colour neg most shop do a good job. Colour silde or trans better sent it to places like fotohub in beach road or other pro labs. B&W is do it yourself to get the result you want, most pro lab just use what ever chemical they have and process the film at the standrad processing time they had preset on their machine.

 

[mulberrybay]

Moral of the story, learn to process your own film, cheaper, better and once you start hanging up your first roll of film, you'll find it very addictive, hehe.

I second that... once you've gone to the wet side, you dun want to go back to the dry side )

The darkroom is where the FUN begins

-mb

 

[d7t3]

labs have machines to do colour negative (incl. chromogenic B+W). this is probably more consistent than doing it yourself. besides, the chemicals are not cheap.

for traditional B+W, usually the shop will develop by hand (which costs more) and this is not necessarily better than doing it yourself.

 

[canturn]

labs have machines to do colour negative (incl. chromogenic B+W). this is probably more consistent than doing it yourself. besides, the chemicals are not cheap.

for traditional B+W, usually the shop will develop by hand (which costs more) and this is not necessarily better than doing it yourself.

Unless you have your own motorised tank developer or ATLs for C-41 with controlled temp, send the c-41 negs to labs because chemicals heated at that temp is more volatile.

 

[bent]

is it true that your photos can come out differently (colour wise) depending on the kind of shops you go to to process film?

 

[d7t3]

if i'm not wrong, most shops should DEVELOP film properly, unless they don't replenish their chemicals or something.

but PRINTING negatives to photos usually depends on the person who's doing it, so even a different person from the same shop can result in different print colour

 

[bent]

if i'm not wrong, most shops should DEVELOP film properly, unless they don't replenish their chemicals or something.

but PRINTING negatives to photos usually depends on the person who's doing it, so even a different person from the same shop can result in different print colour

hmm, cool! thanks! coz i sent my pics to one shop and the colours weren't great? lol...

 

[booboo]

hi.
thanks for all who answered my doubts. i am taking photography in school and we do have a darkroom to play around with.

yes i am using traditional b&w film. at first i thought sending it for developing at a pro shop because i thought it may save me some time and less effort as well, but i guess from what you guys said about the poor quality i will probably get from them, i guess i better get my ass down to do it myself. haha.

thanks all for the advice! :bsmilie:

 

[jj1987]

Also remember that non pro labs will use a roller processing system which can scratch negatives VERY VERY easily. Most professional grade labs have dip and dunks, so the film cannot get scratched.

Each morning a control strip should be run so that the lab knows if the temperature and or chemical balance is off. This sill show up when they do a density reading on the test strips which come from kodak fuji exc pre exposed perfictly to match each day.

That being said, the roller film developing is safe, as it wont scratch many rolls, but if you go a day without cleaning the rollers (most 1 hour labs do) then you will DEFINATLY scratch SOME film.

 

[detrop]

apparently its true that doing ur own bnw film processing has more controllable result... however, note that u muz be consistent in how much mixture of chemicals r there fr each step.. and also, if ur agitating the film, or maybe shaking the can (or any process ur using) u muz know how much agitation or strength u put into it, as well as the time taken to produce that acceptable result...

another point is... different film has different processing time too.. i;ve developed 3 types of tmax-es, 1 type of ilford (frgot which 1) and 1 type of tri-x.. all with consistent mixture of chemicals n as consistent level of agitation... apparently d time taken fr the developer to make that 'acceptable' result differs by 1 min in the case of tri-x400 n t-max400... so.. ya hafta figure out this too...

lastly but not least... im not sure wat d correct term to use... but each lenses has its own reciprocity value on the film (is this d correct term?) or something like that... this too will affect the quality of the film during n after development.. unfortunately i havent been able to get more info regarding this... maybe any one of u can give a pointer?

 

[detrop]

oh, might i add that i've been to d wetside... n i personally dun feel like i belong to that side of the road... i'll stay on dry land... =]