lab scanning

[manfromh]

I get all my pictures scanned at a lab (cheap one). Some of the pics are quite grainy. My question is that, if they do bad scans, would all the pics be bad (grainy or something)? Because the ones, where i used flash or was in better light, are fine. Since i dont have prints of my pics, i dont know if its they're scans that are bad or if its just natural grain of the pics. They were shot on ISO400 film. Im just wondering if the grain (lots of it) is because of me or because of them.

English is not my first language. So, sorry if something is un-understandable. And im bad at explaining things.

 

[Rob]

Hi there,

Your English is fine - no worries! It sounds as if you've just had a picture which isn't quite exposed correctly causing a normal breakdown of the film. ISO400 is about in the middle for grainyness, so it's probably going to have a degree of grain in the darker regions.

If you post a picture example then we can probably help confirm this, but I think it's most likely not the lab's fault.

Rob

 

[manfromh]

okay the first one isnt very grainy:
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y217/manfromh/_1A_00061.jpg

and the second one is:
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y217/manfromh/21A_00041.jpg

and also, the shutter speed on the second one was about 15 seconds. Does that increase grain?