where can I get my wedding negatives developed

VThokies03 · Aug 19, 2006

As part of our wedding photographers package, we got to keep all of the negatives. Now, I'm wanting to get some of them developed and enlarged, but I don't know where to do it. I live in a very small town and don't know of anyone who does developing other than commercial places like Walmart and drug stores. Any ideas where I can get good quality (but hopefully good priced) developing and enlargements from our negatives?

stingray · Aug 19, 2006

if you've got negs that's as far as developing goes... when you develop, you go from film to negatives. As for printing its best just to find somewhere local that has a good reputation or some sort of pro-lab.. if its a small town perhaps they still haven't been caught up in the digital revolution and most places that do photography/film developing should be able to make enlargements.

VThokies03 · Aug 19, 2006

Will places like Walmart give good quality prints and enlargements?

jwkwd · Aug 20, 2006

I just don't think that I could have photo's of my happiest day put into the hands of Wal-mart. There are too many what if's, what if they screw up the negatives ? What if they misplace them and so on. I generally use slides, but when I have print film to process I go to a local Rite-aid, which is a brand new store with brand new machines that use Kodak paper ( which I prefer ). The other benefit I have is, the one girl that works there, is very good about any color corection that might have to be done and she will tell me if I should bring the film back later because the chemicals will soon need to be changed. Would a Wal-mart do that ? I'm sure that some Wal-marts are better than others but........

VThokies03 · Aug 20, 2006

Yeah, I don't really trust our Walmart. I'm not really sure about our drug stores either. I don't necessarily have anything negative to say about them, I just don't have any experience with them. How do you go about making sure a place is good?

jwkwd · Aug 26, 2006

In the case of what I did with the local Rite-aid, I went in and asked them what processing they used. The girl said they used Kodak processing and Kodak paper. I went out and shot a roll of 400 ASA and 100 ASA, both 12 exposure and turned them over. I also told the people that some might be over/under exposed. They told me no problem and I went back in a couple of hours to pick up. The girl working said that there were no problems and said that she changed some colors on an indoor shot to balance it better and also reduced the contrast whatever on one that was taken outside and overexposed. They basically just made me feel comfortable taking them there.

Tolyk · Aug 26, 2006

jwkwd said:
I just don't think that I could have photo's of my happiest day put into the hands of Wal-mart. There are too many what if's, what if they screw up the negatives ? What if they misplace them and so on. I generally use slides, but when I have print film to process I go to a local Rite-aid, which is a brand new store with brand new machines that use Kodak paper ( which I prefer ). The other benefit I have is, the one girl that works there, is very good about any color corection that might have to be done and she will tell me if I should bring the film back later because the chemicals will soon need to be changed. Would a Wal-mart do that ? I'm sure that some Wal-marts are better than others but........

I took my first roll of film to Walmart when I got my SLR.. They butchered my negatives. They cut them crooked and for some strange reason into various lengths (which isn't as big a deal, but I just find it odd). But, as I said, crooked.. they cut parts of the negatives off, some times just a little bit off the corner, but others entire sides of the picture. I'm glad it was just a test roll, but still, I had one decent picture on it.. it's still reprintable, but a little bit of lost info.

DeepSpring · Aug 27, 2006

i have been happy with rite aid when i do the ship it off to kodak so it is actually kodak who does the developing not rite aid but it takes about 3 days depending on the time u drop it off. when i actuallyhad rite aid develope my roll came back completely blank...... now i know ihad 24 well exposed shots on it i was sad. i never took in negatives so i dont know how they would do with that

jwkwd · Aug 27, 2006

Ouch! To the previous 2 posts. I use print film for a car camera and some other stuff, but mainly slide for anything "serious". Either way you look at it there can be risks. If you ( VThokies03 ) have good negatives, short of doing them yourself, the worst thing that can happen is they screw up the prints and you don't pay for them. If I had my way with getting prints from negs, I would take them to a pro lab.

terri · Aug 27, 2006

I'd call the photographer and get his input, myself. If there are good pro labs in the area, he's probably using them too.

Check with him before taking them anywhere else and risking a mishap as described above!

Good luck.

BubblePixel · Aug 28, 2006

Just a tought, maybe you could rent a negative scanner from somewhere?? (don't know where though!) I knew someone who had one and I scanned all my wedding photos and burned them on CDs... then it's a matter of sending the files to be developped.

I wouldn't trust just anyone with your negs either...
good luck!

JIP · Sep 1, 2006

terri said:
I'd call the photographer and get his input, myself. If there are good pro labs in the area, he's probably using them too.

Check with him before taking them anywhere else and risking a mishap as described above! Good luck.

Here Here!!!

Or mabye go online????

DO NOT LET ANYONE BUT A PRO LAB TOUCH YOUR NEGATIVES!!!!