where do you develope your film?

explody pup · Mar 20, 2004

Sorry for such a newbie question, but a cursory search of the forum didn't yield what I'm looking for.

I just got my first SLR, a Pentax K1000. Before I had a Kodak APS camera that did the job it needed to do. I would usually bring my film to the drug store to develope. But now that I'm getting more serious about building my photography skills, I'm also getting more serious about who developes my film. So I'm curious about what/whom you folks use to develope your film. Though, admittedly, I did get impatient to see the results from my first roll and it's currently at the local Walgreens. Hopefully it'll turn out good. If so, I might post some tonight.

Anyway, there aren't any professional photo places w/in a 30 minute drive of where I live, and the only one I found is a 8-5:30 M-F deal, so that's out due to schedule constraints. Has anyone here had any luck with companies like photosfast.com, as advertised on the header of this forum?

Thanks in advance.

Nice forum, by the way.

-Joe

vonnagy · Mar 20, 2004

hi explody pup,

the fact that I couldn't development my own film is one reason I went digital, I've never had luck with any processing labs, even ones that I sent off too. If you aren't going development the film yourself, you'll have to do the research to who can do this best. You *might* be able to find a good one at Walgreens, but it depends how busy and how well they know there stuff.

:idea: The best photolabs I have visited always display pictures on there walls, because they take pride in there work. I have always found this to be a good rule of thumb when deciding who will process my film in the days that I had my regular camera.

If you are serious, i would suggest developing them yourself, as soon as I get the $$$ I am going set up my own darkroom too. The darkroom forum here has alot of good information to get started, make sure and give it an eyeball.

Welcome to the forum mate and good luck with your endeavors!

Bob_McBob · Mar 20, 2004

In the bathroom

explody pup · Mar 20, 2004

Thanks for the reply, vonnagy.

Yeah, I suppose there isn't going to be a substitute for research and experience. It would be nice if there were more professionals in my area, but I'll figure out a way to deal with it. I'll also try a couple online places and see what kind of results I get. But I'll wait on that to see if anyone recommends any particular labs.

I considered going digital, but the quality of film is much greater at my price range. Plus there's just something fun about having an all-manual camera.

A darkroom is in the plans. But space is the primary issue right now... as well as experience.

explody pup · Mar 20, 2004

Bob_McBob said:
In the bathroom

I'm not quite there, yet. But soon...

voodoocat · Mar 20, 2004

Well color will require a much larger investment to develop. And it really wouldn't save you money over the cost of taking it to the lab. I take all my color film to a pro lab that does exceptionally well. negative film is $3 process only, and about $10 for 38 slides mounted. I haven't had anything printed there yet... of course i don't have any negatives that I feel are worthy of an enlargement over 8x12. But there are some incredible prints displayed on the walls. On in particular of this old man taken on 8x10 Provia. it was wow.

markc · Mar 20, 2004

A bit ironic in the home of Kodak, but I haven't been happy with the pro labs around here. I discovered that a fellow photographer ran one of the mini-labs at a local Eckerts (and she did the training for western NY). I had better luck bringing film to her than to the pro labs. I had to use C41 film, I have to say, I was pretty amazed at how neutral she was able to get T400CN to come out on color paper. Every place else I've tried couldn't get rid of the cyan or magenta color cast.

Even several of the pro labs don't do B&W anymore because of the lack of customers wanting it.

The best thing to do is to pick a place that seems to do decent work and get to know the people that work there. If they get to know you as a friendly regular who appreciates what they do, they're more likely to treat your work with TLC.

Heather said she was so thrilled to see anything that wasn't the typical snapshot that she would go out of her way to make sure that the prints were perfect. She didn't skimp on the snapshots, but if she could see that you were actually doing more than just "documenting", she would go that much further.

She moved around, but I made sure I took my work to whereever she was at at the moment and asked for her specifically. That's the kind of person you want to be doing your developing and printing, where ever it is.

dlc · Mar 20, 2004

I use Dale Labs in FL if I want hi res scans to a CD, or Ofoto, a pretty good online lab. I have even used their scans of my rolls to post photos on the web. I don't have a film scanner, so I need to use one of these sources to archive my photos. Both labs make excellent prints, and Dale does very good slide processing.

Jeff Canes · Mar 20, 2004

Costco mini-lad in Davie for 35mm color development and 35mm prints both color and b&w

And Full Spectrum in Sunrise (Ft Laudable - west suburb) for roll film and B&W development

emski · Mar 20, 2004

I develop my black and white pictures at home and at college..

although I try and get most of them done at college because we have better facilities there..
The college I'm at now isn't equipped to teach us colour processing..

Although I get to do it next year, when I change college courses

But for now, with my colour photos..I guess I don't bother much about where I get them developed, since i normally need them as quickly as possible..
Asda 1 hour processing normally does fine

although I take more black and white pictures anyway because I prefer to be completely in control of it all

vonnagy · Mar 20, 2004

Full Spectrum in Sunrise (Ft Laudable - west suburb) for roll film and B&W development

hey jeff this is a small world!

when i lived in Florida I had Full Spectrum do my shots! I liked their work, but if you have a chance, also visit this guy in Plantation which may be a closer drive to you.

I don't know the name of the place, but right before the intersection of Peter's Road and University Drive there is a minimall entrance. If you pass the Bank of America you've gone to far. In the mall, its the the only photo developer i know in that place. I can't remember the guy's name but I was really really impressed with his work that I switched from Full Spectrum (who do good work too).

ZERO · Mar 20, 2004

i use C41 color-negative film and have them scanned into TIFF on CDR.
i have a few rolls of CR-56 slidefilm that i need scanning onto CD too and I
need to find a lab that cando in a couple of days turnaround.

soulfly · Mar 20, 2004

just a note, I do all my developing right through work, (employee discount and all) I work for Fujicolor Processing Lab in NY , Customer Service, our lab does processing for Walmart and Sams clubs, also some small independent stores like your local pharmacy,etc, I think my lab has always done very nice work, and, in cases where they dont, they always fixed it at no cost to me...also, walmart seems to have a large number of pro photographers who do their work, both enlargements/reprints and original rollwork through the local walmart...good luck.

Jeff Canes · Mar 21, 2004

vonnagy said:
I don't know the name of the place, but right before the intersection of Peter's Road and University Drive there is a minimall entrance. If you pass the Bank of America you've gone to far. In the mall, its the the only photo developer i know in that place. I can't remember the guy's name but I was really really impressed with his work that I switched from Full Spectrum (who do good work too).

Mark

Drove by that place today, its out of business