my black-and-whites turned out sepia

[maddieb]

Hi! I apologize if this has already been discussed- I couldn't find it anywhere. I recently had some rolls of 35mm black and white film printed at the cvs on my corner and was very upset to see they turned out almost sepia. Several looked okay to me but most of them looked brownish, and on some you could clearly see the red-brown in the light areas of the photo. I took them back but the photo technician said it was a problem with my film, not with their processing or printing. I'm not entirely sure I can believe her, but I don't know what to do. I took the pictures using my vintage Canon AE-1 SLR- it's not in the best shape (I lost the lens cap a while back and haven't gotten it cleaned) and the color is always just slightly off, but I've used it enough to recognize how my film should turn out. I've never seen this before and haven't been able to find anything about it online. I took the pictures in Arizona and there is a possibility the film got too hot- I don't know what happens to film in high temperatures but I did my best to keep it cool. I also had the rolls with me on the plane, but I've never had a problem with the x-ray ruining my film before.
So I was wondering if anyone has seen/heard of this before and can offer me an explanation. I don't want to spend the money on having them processed somewhere else if they may turn out the same, but if they are better the cvs photo technician told me I can get a refund there. Any advice? Thanks!

 

[compur]

What film was it?

Did CVS process and print it or did you bring them negatives processed elsewhere which CVS printed from?

 

[Sjixxxy]

minilab + B&W. Not a good idea. If it was a c-41 process black & white film like XP-2, then having them develop it would be find, just don't expect a nice neutral black & white tone from any machine prints.

Back in the day when I'd I'd send C41 Black & white film to a lab I'd always get back green hued prints. I think you got lucky with a sepia tone.

 

[ann]

this is a common problem with having these places print black and white images. unless you can find some place that will do custom printing you will have some sort of color shift. NOT a true neutral black and white image. They are using color paper with color chemistry and there will be a color cast . Your lucky it is sepia, rather than green or magenta. It is madding

 

[BKMOOD]

Ann is exactly right. CVS, Target and the like don't have the ability to print pure black and white. Their "chemical process" and machines are designed to print color. If you want pure black and white you must send it to a lab (or print it in your own darkroom).

I develop my own black and white negatives (yeah, I still shoot film) and I have stopped taking them to the corner shop for prints because they come back in all sorts of colors (lol).

 

[maddieb]

thanks guys. I did have them do both the film processing and the printing, and I'd been looking forward to the kind of results I got when I used to process and print my own black and whites at school. I guess I've never actually had them done elsewhere before. Such a shame. But good to know. Thanks!

 

[Mike_E]

Try here... Mpix.com - Paper Types

 

[Pgeobc]

>they turned out almost sepia.<

No problem! Just tell everyone that they were taken before 1940 or so.


Everyone knows that most stuff happened in sepia-tone before 1940. Just look at the ads, etc.

 

[malkav41]

I had Walgreens process/print some Kodak BW400CN C-41 once, and all the photos were green! Also had Wallyworld do some of the same type film one hour, and had pretty close to B&W prints, but they don't do one hour anymore so...

 

[djacobox372]

Unless they're printing with a b/w process then you're going to have issues like this.

B/W film varies alot in it's emulsion color... some is bluish some is neutral and some is sepia tone--of course this doesn't matter if you're printing on black and white paper.

 

[epatsellis]

minilab + B&W. Not a good idea. If it was a c-41 process black & white film like XP-2, then having them develop it would be find, just don't expect a nice neutral black & white tone from any machine prints.

Back in the day when I'd I'd send C41 Black & white film to a lab I'd always get back green hued prints. I think you got lucky with a sepia tone.

Well, partially true, we have a Fuji Frontier at the studio. If you calibrate each roll with the built in densitometer and are concientous about your chemistry, you can get a dead neutral black and white, we do all the time. However, few labs bother.

 

[ann]

that is good to know, but hard to find those places that care and have the people trained to do so.

 

[Josh66]

Can't you just tell them to print/scan it greyscale/monochrome? (They can do that, right?)

 

[Flash Harry]

hand print black n white, I've never been happy with bw from digital, scanned or otherwise. H

 

[ann]

a lot of the one hour place don't have people who would understand greyscale. they are taught to push a button not read negatives. sad but true.

You may be able to find a place that does know what to do and how to make the corrections as has been suggested but that might not be easy.

we do have here in town (atlanta) a camera shop that will do custom processing but they are rare even in a city this size