developing underwater photos

[donnad]

hi there! i am a new diver, got certified in february, just returned from my first dive trip.........cozumel.........had a fantastic time!!! did twelve dives.. i love it!!!!! will be getting my advanced open water now. question, i took pictures on three of my dives, two day dives, one night dive. 35 mm. i need advice on where to take my film for developing. before i was a diver, i had some bummer developing on some of my pics from snorkeling (using those little $8 disposal cameras), and had some good experiences too, but i sure want the best for these rolls from cozumel. my feeling on the drugstore, grocery store, walmart, etc. is the people doing it probably aren't trained enough and experienced enough to do the best job possible. should i go to like a photo shop or what?? thanks for your help!!

 

[DBailey]

Might want to ask this in the underwater photography forum here at ScubaBoard.

**edit: looks like the thread was moved.**

 

[Karen Dancheck]

Hi

No you definately don't want to take your underwater film to a drug store. My LDS sends photos out to a lab that does "sea processing" I'd call around to some of your LDS to see who does this. It takes the blue out of your photos.

I was at Beneath the Sea dive show in March. I was introduced to a lab in Northridge, CA called the Darkroom. I just sent them 15 rolls from my recent trip to Bonaire. I haven't gotten them back yet. The shots they had at the dive show were fabulous. They are a bit pricey...I paid $227 for 15 rolls/36exp. If you are interested, I can drop you a line when I get my pictures back.

Karen

 

[cdiver2]

Hi

No you definately don't want to take your underwater film to a drug store. My LDS sends photos out to a lab that does "sea processing" I'd call around to some of your LDS to see who does this. It takes the blue out of your photos.

I was at Beneath the Sea dive show in March. I was introduced to a lab in Northridge, CA called the Darkroom. I just sent them 15 rolls from my recent trip to Bonaire. I haven't gotten them back yet. The shots they had at the dive show were fabulous. They are a bit pricey...I paid $227 for 15 rolls/36exp. If you are interested, I can drop you a line when I get my pictures back.

Karen

Look in your yellow pages for photo labs they usually don't sell stuff just develop and print and if you get a good one and don't like your prints you can ask them to do it again.
I find if I need to change a print it is usually along the lines of minus 1 blue minus 1 green + 1 red

 

[gt2003]

Dang, I'm probably going to get banned for saying this, but, I actually took 3 rolls to Walmart 1 hour photo, asked them if they do anything special for underwater pics and they said there is a setting on their machine just for them. So, I handed them my 3 rolls and to my suprise they actually turned out pretty darn good. I'll post a few so you can see what you think. And, I use a very simple reefmaster rc with the external strobe so its nothing fancy. Plus, its my first try at underwater photography. So, I was quite pleased when I got them back. It seems that they did their job developing if I did the write thing photographing. Please don't ban me!

 

[Dee]

You got the scanner thing worked out...cool!

 

[cdiver2]

Dang, I'm probably going to get banned for saying this, but, I actually took 3 rolls to Walmart 1 hour photo, asked them if they do anything special for underwater pics and they said there is a setting on their machine just for them. So, I handed them my 3 rolls and to my suprise they actually turned out pretty darn good. I'll post a few so you can see what you think. And, I use a very simple reefmaster rc with the external strobe so its nothing fancy. Plus, its my first try at underwater photography. So, I was quite pleased when I got them back. It seems that they did their job developing if I did the write thing photographing. Please don't ban me!

Very good prints I would think you have got someone that knows about uw photos and is prepared to do a little extra, hold on to them

 

[gt2003]

I hope so. Really all I did was tell them they were underwater pics and they said "Ok, no problem". It was actually at a different walmart than the one I called to see if they made adjustments for underwater pics. I learned a lot about my cameras limitations on this trip and have gotten some great help from a lot of the people here. After recounting, I probably got 20-30 pictures out of the 4 rolls that I'm really happy with. Non-divers seem to be much more accepting of the pics than I am. I just see the excellent work of those here and know I can do better. I figure my percentage will improve with the more I learn. I'm sure I'll be upgrading before my next trip to cozumel, probably to the Oly 5050 if I can still find one and a housing to go along with it. This could be addictive. Thanks again to all. Take care, Greg