I am curious as to how most handle the developing of their film images. Before I became serious about photography, the mail order lab I used was "good enough". I am as Misha might say very "anal retentive" now about my prints and negs. For color negs: What I am wondering is....do you have prints made, or just negs developed. And do you mail them out or use a local lab...consumer or pro? If you just have negs developed how do you get your prints done? Has anyone ever tried using the developing available thru Adorama or B&H? I'm getting so frustrated with my current developing circumstances that I'm willing to try other places thru out the country.

Attached Link: http://www.lightboxinc.com/home.html

Great public service you are doing here, 'Chelle! The URL is from a place I have had good experiences with, (not perfect, but far better than elsewhere). [Check out their Gallery in any case!] What they say on their site about "dip and dunk" vs dusty-scratchy rollers, seems true. They will do mailorder, I guess, but maybe a google search on dip and dunk will turn something up closer to you. My tempermental LS-1000 scanner is now doing horrible mechanical grindy things. Why does old equipment always break right before Christmas?

Figured Id chime in on this one as this is a very sticky issue with me. I have only had a few lab prints made in the last 2 years. Basically I got tired of storing all the prints. I have my film processed and cut only, by a local pro lab, then scan the film using a Nikon 4000ED. Every once in a while I get in a hurry and give my film over to a 1hr place, and I have NEVER been pleased with the results. They always come back with damage like Misha described.
Once I decide the images I want to print, Ill print with an Epson 1270 for normal stuff, if I rely want the best quality and I print with an Olympus P-400 Dye Sub. The only problem that comes up is storing all the raw files at 68mg or so each. So to counter that I burn to DVD-R.
Finally the negs are saved in archival sleeves in archival storage boxes.
It may not be a perfect solution but it works for me, and in the long run by not having anything printed at the lab, I feel that it saves me money.

Thanks guys....Quinn what you are doing sounds very much like what I would like to do. The Plan: Buying the Canon FS4000US film scanner, wish I had an extra grand for the Nikon, but I can't wait any longer, my flat bed is useless to me now. Once I get that I can get my color negs developed without prints. From there I can scan and archive on CD's. I am currently in the process of archiving negatives and relegating them to archival storage boxes. Once I get the scanner and can digitize them I can then organize them using Extensis Portfolio, which is an overwhelming amount of work. I just finished doing this with my digi cam files and it took a lot of time. As far as printing...Right now I'm using the Epson 870, sister printer of the 1270. The next purchase after the scanner will be the Epson Stylus Photo 2200. Not overly expensive and the fact that it uses seperate ink cartridges for each color I like. I'm still torn about the lab printing though...I really love being able to look at a print in my hands, but the expense and aggravation of a bad print is getting on my last nerve. As far as B&W and darkroom is in the works.......

That sounds like a good plan, Michelle, (except for the cataloging and organization part of it... chaos helps creativity!) The Canon scanner is supposed to be pretty nice. I hope other folks chime in on this thread, as I'm sure it is a common problem. I was somewhat bummed to learn that Nikon's Digital ICE does not work on conventional silver B&W. Opaque to the IR sensor. But I guess if I process the negatives myself there should not be any dust or scratches needing removal? I've generally been shooting C-41 color negative materials, and converting to B&W in Photoshop. Do any of you have opinions about the relative merits of this, conventional silver B&W materials, or the C-41 dye-based B&W films? I'd imagine an expert can still do the "best" with conventional B&W?

Gee- So serious. Actually I use the local Supermarket to develop my prints. In general I am happy with the results about 85% of the time. I know of one 1 hr photo place there the guys are professional and do a REALLY good job. To me the advantage of the 1hr photo over the supermarket is that I can explain what I want or what problems will arrive. I don't believe I will get that kind of attention through mail order. Which also I've seen others use. Their result seem alright and the price is cheaper. Regarding developing film. Michelle you may want to consider developing the film on your own. There are several kits you can use, it's not too hard to do, and you will retain controol of processing the negatives. Bsteph

I go for the pro lab that can offers me the best and quickest service....always have it developed first after which I scan them myself, adjust and correct and then I choose if I want to have a print from the original or from the file. And one needs another printer than the other usually. I can go to them if I want prints from my slides, so that we can judge the proofs and correct them where needed. Digital prints are send to them as PostScript, and they offer assistance with calibration for each individual printer they have.....So I always do developing and printing seperately, cause I want to judge the originals :) B&W is fun to develop myself, but I don't always have time for that (or I can't risc messing up my work) and e6 kits are not an option. (twice as expensive as any lab). PS Normal c41 prints are usuallt corrected on average (by taking the average deviation of the first and last shot) so from all options that's about the only one that has a garantueed low quality. Aside from them mistreating your film (see the other thread ;)

I thought about the same thing lately,

I use slide film and an old Nikon LS 30 filmscanner.
That gives me only 2700 DPI, but with a bit of postwork
this should be sufficient for prints up to 20 cm x 30 cm.

I'm not sure about the printer, are these prints durable enough nowaday?
I mean, no problem if you just use them on your one
but if it comes to selling prints or use them as a gift?

My plan is rather to scan my slides and then get them printed
at one of this online labs that make prints for digital cams.
I think if I allways use the same lab, I could orientate my postwork
towards their workflow and get a good control over the result?
It's also cheaper than printing at home.

Just an idea, but I think I'll give it a try.

cheers
Thomas

"printed at one of this online labs that make prints for digital cams" I haven't been following this industry. What are these labs now capable of? Do they use a process which is more permanent?

As far as I am aware these online labs such as Ofoto and Shutterfly, print "real" photographs from your digital files. I haven't tried this yet myself. I'm not up on all the details but the Pro lab that I use (the one that is far away, but does a good job) also does the same thing. There are specifics on resolution and dpi that need to be followed in order to get a good print. @Zardoz.... At this point the only thing that I have printed myself has been digi cam images, which for the most part are OK...I haven't perfected the technique yet. Since my intentions and goal is towards selling my work eventually, my thought is that anything that wasn't for personal use would be either printed in my own darkroom or for color work done in a Pro lab.

Oh very interesting thread going on here, I am another who scans my own negs having given up on the dunk and dip brigade about 4 years ago. I use an HP Photosmart scanner which is just about good enough for my own needs and was excellent value for money when I bought it about 2-3 years ago. I then select the best images and store them on my HD and once I have a large enough collection burn them onto CDrom wish I could justify a DVD recorder but rather spend my cash on a new Digital Camera probably a NikonD100 I catalogue them with the same utility Chelle uses. For anything better I am lucky to have a good friend who is a wizz in the Darkroom who can produce exhibition quality prints. I have tried my hand at this, but not in the same class. Also been doing my own using Cibachrome etc with fairly good results, but have not bothered for ages. Dust and scratches are such a pain and I welcome my digital camera with open arms!!

Oh by the way I print my pictures with an Epsonstylus 895 here in the UK its 2800dpi and I am told the ink should stay colour fast for at least 20 years. This does provide what I consider to be remarkable results given its price here of under 200!

3 tablespoons of salt 2 egg yolks 1/2 a cup of flour half a cup of ground toenail clippings half a pint of a virgin's blood a roll of Ilford Pan-50 two squares of unsweetened chocolate 5 tablespoons of sugar wash and rinse, repeat as needed.

Funny you should mention this receipe...I have seen prints that were fixed in a solution with coffee grounds....let me tell you they were kick azz prints....one reason why I can't wait to get a darkroom set-up....the possibilites are endless.... The virgin's blood, might lead to some fascinating possiblities.....although finding some would be a major headache....heh!

Yes, this is a very interesting thread! I was wondering what you all do... Being on a very tight budget myself, I send my film out thru mailorder, download or scan the image plus retain the hardcopy for reference...I'm not thrilled with the quality & find myself removing spots, dust, & scratches- AAAAHHHH- aggravating indeed! still saving for the digi (eeeeewwww Slynky, sounds sticky!)

I'm fairly new to all of this myself, when I started I would have prints made from my negatives but the cost was starting to sway me away from photography. Luckily I recieved an awsome B-day present from my parents, sister and girlfiend which was a Pacific Image 3600 Pro. This was probably the savior of my picture taking. Now I just get cut negatives (1/4 the price) and scan the images i like the best, I save the full size images (20-50 megs)to a cd and keep the cropped and resized images on my HD. I was thinking of asking if i could get 1 print with the 24 images on it, thumbnail size, which will give me a chance to see what my developers can do and make my final printing decisions from there. A quality printer is my next purchase. I think the important thing is to find a good place who care how the final product will turn out.