Color Film Developement...

[Audyn]

hello i was wondering if myself as an individual would be able to have her own chemistry for color film and color based paper? if so, how much would that cost (estimated)? however, if not would i have to go up to ****ing Wal-Mart and have just my negatives developed, and scan them and edit them in Photoshop?

Thanks!

 

[fightheheathens]

yes you can, but its more expensive, harder then B&W and involves more chemicals.

i would just suggest that unless you seriously want to invest a lot of time effort and money into learning how to print and develope color, you just find a local camera shop and have them do it. (not wal-mart)

 

[Audyn]

yes you can, but its more expensive, harder then B&W and involves more chemicals.

i would just suggest that unless you seriously want to invest a lot of time effort and money into learning how to print and develope color, you just find a local camera shop and have them do it. (not wal-mart)

oh my gosh! thank you! my teacher (who was an ex-commercial photographer in the early 80s) was telling me that i wouldn't be able to get one of my own because it just be me and probably a few others using it (along with a black&white development room), because of the volume, the price, and the fact that it probably dies a lot quicker than black&white if you don't use it everyday.

 

[fightheheathens]

from my understanding of it, actual developing of color negatives follows a similar process to B&W with and extra step in there.
the hard part is that you have to be very exact with the temp and agitation. just 1 degree difference in temp will cause a noticible color shift.

as far as printing, you have to do it in complete darkness and you have to have a color enlarger and you also have to have more chemicals to develop the print.

so it can be done, but most people find it easer to find a good photography store that will develope it for you

 

[fmw]

Printing color without a darkroom and some special equipment is not practical at all. Developing film is practical but, as others have stated, it is more expensive for the amateur because of the volume involved. I recommend you send the film to a lab.

If you want to shoot film for scanning, you would do better with transparency film. It is a little easier to process at home and positives scan a little better than negatives. When I was a commercial photographer shooting a lot of color transparency film, I still sent my film to a lab. Processing E6 in a tank is a time consuming thing. I did it in emergency situations when I couldn't wait 1/2 a day for the lab but not very often.

 

[PNA]

If you're re-scanning your film/photos to a computer, you might consider having the lab develop the film and scan to a disk, no prints. Then you can pick the ones you want to print after any computer enhancements. Sam's here charges $2.48 for just the disk.

 

[henryp]

hello i was wondering if myself as an individual would be able to have her own chemistry for color film and color based paper? if so, how much would that cost (estimated)? however, if not would i have to go up to ****ing Wal-Mart and have just my negatives developed, and scan them and edit them in Photoshop?
Thanks!

You can buy Kodak's 1 gallon Flexicolor (C-41) Kit for Color Negative Film for around 40.00. You'd also need developing hardware --tanks, and reels, etc of course. It's really BORING, btw and I have no problem paying someone to do it for me.

The Tetenal Mono PK RA-4 Kit for Color Negative Paper is also under 40.00. Here too you'll need hardware and here too, it's BORING. You cannot use a safelight so you're in total darkness; dodging and burning are entirely different from b&w and considering how easy it is to get the coloring wrong, here too, I am perfectly comfortable paying a lab. Not Walmart, but a good pro-oriented lab. In NYC of course I have my choice and where you are, you may not. I've used Burrell professionally by mail and they've always been top-notch.