Victim of the 1 hour developers: It makes no difference how well I exposed, how creatively I frame or how selective I am with my lighting; as long as I am depending on "convenience"...

memorykeeper Loc: Indianapolis, Indiana

It makes no difference how well I exposed, how creatively I frame or how selective I am with my lighting; as long as I am depending on "convenience" photo labs my film photography will suck. I am convince now that my knowledge of The Zone System has improved enough to obtain my desire results at least 90 percent of the times; digital photography has proved it I will love to develop my own work but do not want to be limited to black and white only however, I have not been able to find a supplier to ship the chemicals. Anyone has any suggestions? I still shoot film because i love the entire process just like some artists use different mediums to express themselves plus I love loading and unloading a camera weather it be 35mm or Medium Format. Thanks for your patience fellow Hogs.

gdwsr Loc: Northern California

I found if you use a quickie lab, take a grey or color card picture at the beginning of the role and tell them to use it to set their exposure and don't adjust the settings for each photo.

Use a better lab, There are lots out there with prices low to high. Use a local professional photo processor if you have one.

You can get chemicals on line. I don't have a source at my fingertips but I am sure others here will give you sources.

docrob Loc: Durango, Colorado

thememorykeeper wrote:

It makes no difference how well I exposed, how cre... (show quote)

do you know why convenience lab prints will not show your zone system exposures? Because they "correct" so that all images will print. So, you need to find and work with a pro lab - tons out there - get proactive. Chemicals, as someone said you can get chemicals for B&W processing and possibly Color neg development - Color slide film development is difficult to work with. Again a good pro lab can do this for you so that you can see your zone system exposures for your self.

Festina Lente Loc: Florida & Missouri

Have you ever developed color film before? It can be expensive and dangerous if done at home without proper ventilation.
The better labs out there just cannot be beat cost wise and they are successfully servicing some pretty persnickety professionals.

The old days of developing B&W were so much easier (and fun). Dodge and burn to your heart's content. Sigh...

home brewer Loc: Fort Wayne, Indiana

I use to develope my own ektachrome to save money. I also loaded my own film and would push the asa. Also did black and white film and printing. Never tried the color since the equipment was more than i wanted to spend.

The gray card is a good idea. Might also want to include some of Kodak color test strips. Many years ago I read about a lab that was having troubles printing a photo of a dog. No matter what they did the color was not correct. Turned out that the owner had dyed the white dog green for St Pats day.

tom

Festina Lente Loc: Florida & Missouri

home brewer wrote:

.... Many years ago I read about a lab that was having troubles printing a photo of a dog. No matter what they did the color was not correct. Turned out that the owner had dyed the white dog green for St Pats day. tom

Now that's a good story. Thanks!

Patw28 Loc: PORT JERVIS, NY

home brewer wrote:

I use to develope my own ektachrome to save money.... (show quote)

Yes, and years ago a Network was setting up a color TV (!!) demo in a DC hotel room from one floor to another. The team in the transmission set dyed the banana blue in the test pattern.

bkyser Loc: Fly over country in Indiana

I usually use merridianpro.com, but for quickie prints I send to Sam's club. Sam's does have a checkbox that says do not correct color right on the order form. If they color correct, I hand them back and have them redo it. After a number of 20x30 prints (very reasonable, I think it was only about $10 each) they now pay pretty close attention, because they know I won't accept them if they aren't right. If you are paying, get what you want or get your money back. Only problem with sams is that its primarily a big ink jet printer, and most of my large prints have gotten a green cast to them after a while on the wall. I use them for short term photos that I don't plan to have hung very long, and never for a client.

ace-mt Loc: Montana

I have just started using a place called Bay Photo. Wow, they are very good. I highly reccomend them.

Wahawk Loc: NE IA

home brewer wrote:

I use to develope my own ektachrome to save money.... (show quote)

LOL!!! Sounds like the trouble I had one year when taking slide film and I used a crazy colored piece of plastic as a "filter" for something I was playing around with. I then took the slides in for some prints. The lab I used was a "1-Hr" photo lab, but was run by a Pro Photographer that I knew. I intentionally did not tell him about the "playing" that I was doing and when I went to pick the prints up he was so apologetic that he wasn't going to charge me for any of the processing and printing because he was "having a lot of problems with his equipment" that day. I busted out laughing, while handing over the full amount of the order plus some extra!! Told him that his reaction to my "playing around" was well worth the extra cost!! He went back and printed the "test" based on the readings of the other frames and from then on he NEVER second-guessed my "playing around"

mtnredhed Loc: The part of NorCal that doesn't move

thememorykeeper wrote:

It makes no difference how well I exposed, how cre... (show quote)

You could go hybrid. Develop film and then scan to digital. I did that for awhile for 6x7 and 4x5. I used an Epson 4800.

B&H and Calumet (B&W, E6 and C41) will sell you chemistry as will the folks below.

http://stores.photoformulary.com/-strse-Developers-cln-Film/Categories.bok

I like their BW-2 for Tmax and their FX1 for TriX

Color isn't so much rocket science as it is a stickler for time and temperature control. Kodachrome process was pretty toxic, but the newer E6 and C41 not so much. Some of the old school B&W developers were very toxic as were the print toners.

memorykeeper Loc: Indianapolis, Indiana

mtnredhed wrote:

quote=thememorykeeper It makes no difference how ... (show quote)

Yes, that was my intention to just develop the negs and then scan them myself. I do like the idea of the grey card but I was told by CVS that they had no control over the process that it was totally auto. I myself do not believe it. Thanks

memorykeeper Loc: Indianapolis, Indiana

docrob wrote:

quote=thememorykeeper It makes no difference how ... (show quote)

I asked the CVS lab not to make any corrections and they said it was an automatic process. They also said they had no control over the size of the JPEG file which I also do not believe. I will use Roberts Imaging Downtown Indy by mail; guess just have to wait a bit. Thanks

twowindsbear

First off, find a better - or at least different - lab. Make friends with the owner, or manager, or person that's 'in charge' - not just whoever happens to be running the machines. They should be willing to work with you to make your prints the way YOU want them, not the way the machine wants them. I KNOW it can be done, I did it all the time with the Noritsu/Kodak mini lab I ran at a KMart store.

memorykeeper Loc: Indianapolis, Indiana

twowindsbear wrote:

First off, find a better - or at least different - lab. Make friends with the owner, or manager, or person that's 'in charge' - not just whoever happens to be running the machines. They should be willing to work with you to make your prints the way YOU want them, not the way the machine wants them. I KNOW it can be done, I did it all the time with the Noritsu/Kodak mini lab I ran at a KMart store.

Thanks I will do the camera store and lab downtown (Roberts)