getting negatives developed....

[Big-t-2538]

O.K...so as some of you might have read, I went to the Straits in MI this past weekend for some wreck diving. I shot 2 rolls of film and dropped them off to the local "pros" to have them developed.

No, I don't have anything fancy for a camera, just a sea-life reefmaster. HEre's my complaint...in addition to the roll of film they develop, they print out a sheet of paper with thumbnails of the actual photo. The thumbnails looked head and shoulders better than the prints.

I asked the nice lady at the counter if they had been developed as requeted (the local wal-mart has done a better job then the "pros" did on my pics) with a little red and yellow added b/c they were underwter pics taken fairly deep, and I couldn't get close enough to the big stuff (stair wells, wheels, props, dead eyes, etc.) for the strobe to be very effective.

she told me she would look into it, and went and printed one of my negs. again as requested, and wow...night and day difference. A practiaclly all blue print now had the big winch I originally shot in it. She said it would take another day or so to get the 70 pictures re-developed.

My question is, can I scan the negatives myself, and use photoshop or some other program to get the photos the way I want them, and then have them re-printed? It appears that the local photo labs just don't get it. I just don't want to go back tomorrow and find crap prints again.

 

[TheAvatar]

It sounds like your "pro" place probably just put them through the machine on auto (so you were charged pro prices for walmart service with better dust control). Of course, at WalMart you wouldnt have been able to have them reprinted most likely. If you can whip the pro place into shape, they might be an option. I have had the best luck by finding a Mom and Pop. My favorite place (until it closed) was just a husband and wife working on an Agfa lab and adjusting the settings for each frame, including printing more than one of each frame if they didn't think it came out right. They had way better prices than the local camera stores or the pro place (not as cheap as MoronMart). I had my E6 done at the city pro place because they did an incredible job for about the same price as the rest. If you are shooting black and white, you'll have the best results by printing it yourself, which isn't that hard.

As far as digitizing your images, if you want to do it cheaply, you just need to $125 flatbed scanner with a transparency adaptor, photoediting software, photopaper from office max, and any inkjet printer. This will let you do things at home for pretty cheap.


If you really want to do a quality job, you will want a $400-$1400 35mm film scanner, Photoshop, and an Epson 2200P printer ($800), high quality epson inkjet paper, a high quality display, and a Spyder color calibration suite. This will give great quality and versatility. It'll be diffeerent than a pro-lab. You'd do well to have a fast computer with lots of memory. It is a very expensive method.

An even higher quality options is to have photoshop, the 35mm negative scanner, the calibration and good monitor, find a pro lab with a Lightjet or a Fuji Fronteir who can print from digital sources. This way you don't need the fancy printer, just a CD burner. This will probably give you close to the quality that the prolab will do (when they are paying attention). This is cheaper than printing on your own printer. You wont have to deal with paper and ink problems, paper costs, printer screwups, or the cost of the printer.

 

[TedJ]

Take the negatives to your local dive shop, have them sent to Kodak SeaLife and reprint the whole batch. They do not need to be and cannot be redeveloped. Printing is the problem. I have done this numerous times after coming back from Grand Cayman with "blued out photos".

TedJ

 

[Big-t-2538]

So what does this kodak super developing cost? How well does it work on wreck photos that are a little under exposed?

 

[TedJ]

I really don't remember exactly how much the SeaLife processing was for just printing, but it's not cheap. However, if you have shots that you really like give it a try. I did some side by side comparisons of printing locally and printing by this process and the results were remarkablely different, so much so that my local dive shop put them up on their site as examples of what could be done. Since I have switched to digital I no longer have to deal with the problem and now my wife is shooting Velvia 50 slide film in a nikonos V with an SB-105 so the color is always there.
TedJ

 

[TheAvatar]

Kodak sounds like it would give you results like your first batch of the pro-lab except they would have a set in filter. They put it through the machine on auto with a filter. You get charged a lot and you have to wait a long time. I think a good pro place or mom and pop store that will take care with each image will give you the same or better performance for the same or less money than pumping it through machine on auto with a filter (kodak can't afford to look at every picture and adjust it manually) and the local places will certainly get your pictures back much faster. Of course I've never used the Kodak sea process so I could be wrong.

 

[TedJ]

Of course I've never used the Kodak sea process so I could be wrong.

You are.
IMHO.
TedJ

 

[blacknet]

Hello,

the kitchen sink, several small bottles, a temp gauge, canister, chemicals, a funnel and a palm pilot is all you need to develop your own film. I do it with b/w film all the time, that's mostly what I shoot. Then I use my minolta dimage dual scan II (the III is approx $250) or my epson 3200 flatbed if i'm shooting medium format.

Ed

 

[Scubatooth]

after reading this thread i have a couple of reccomendations

1. if you take film to a pro lab give them the following directions. decrease the cyan levels by 50% and bump the magenta and yellows by 20% from there it should come out real good. one tip about pro labs is get to know the tech before you process film(this helps you to see if they have ever processed film used under water.


2. for who reccomended using a flat bed scanner and photoshop, that is a scary reccomendation because most scanners today(except for film scanners) software cant scan negatives to well plus they dont have the software to remove dust and scratches, plus the optical resolution isnt all that good. another thing is that it is so easy to scratch a film neg on a flatbed scanner it unreal.

3. kodak sea processing is worth every penny of $13 you pay for(which is close to some pro labs) it because they know how to process the images and print them perfectly. the processing is all done by hand and each image is processed individually so that the color balance is just right. when they go to print the prints each one is viewed on a monitor before printed just incase some color shift is needed(the ability to see a image that needs color shift isnt cheap it requires some very expensive monitors and calibrators) because your wouild be amazed what the difference of .5 % cyan shift looks like its dead obivous to the human eye.

this auto correction filter you talk about isnt on all printers the devolp film its on alot the 1 hour photo places(ie sams, wlamart, target, etc) andwhen i devolp any film there or send in my workflow for prints i tell them to not use anycorrection on them at all, because the printer always gets it wrong (ie. last set of prints from my dad were of my moms god son they shifted the magenta to gray even though he had put no corrections on the enveolpe when i dropped it off. (and this was for Agfa 400 pro color neg film) and before anybody say that its my dads fault for the shift i disagree i have digital negatives i took and there is no shift and the pink is just right

FWIW

 

[Big-t-2538]

Scubatooth once bubbled...
after reading this thread i have a couple of reccomendations

1. if you take film to a pro lab give them the following directions. decrease the cyan levels by 50% and bump the magenta and yellows by 20% from there it should come out real good. one tip about pro labs is get to know the tech before you process film(this helps you to see if they have ever processed film used under water.

3. kodak sea processing is worth every penny of $13 you pay for(which is close to some pro labs) it because they know how to process the images and print them perfectly. the processing is all done by hand and each image is processed individually so that the color balance is just right. when they go to print the prints each one is viewed on a monitor before printed just incase some color shift is needed(the ability to see a image that needs color shift isnt cheap it requires some very expensive monitors and calibrators) because your wouild be amazed what the difference of .5 % cyan shift looks like its dead obivous to the human eye.

FWIW

O.K...thanks for the advice...I have no idea what these prints are going to look like....If need be, I'll just have them refund the $$ or give me a credit.

Is that 13$ the price per pic or per roll (24 exp or 36 exp). If it is for a 36 exp roll, then they are only a dollar more expensive than the "pros" who are still trying to develop my film.