picture processing

[Slingblade]

On Wed, 23 Jul 2003 12:02:24 -0400 (EDT), [email]FBI-25@webtv.net[/email] wrote:

>My questions are:
>1. What do professional processors do differently in the development of
>film?
>2. If I had a roll of film processed by Clark, can I take the negatives
>provided by Clark and have them processed by a professional lab? If I do
>this, will the result be higher quality pictures?

The answer to question number 1 is...theoretically NOTHING. If your
film is "processed" properly, it should turn out the same no matter
who processes it. The answer to number 2 is...you asked the wrong
question, because your negatives are already processed...it's the
printing you'd be dealing with, and that's what everyone's talking
about in the first place. Most one hour and department/drug store
photolabs use color correction, exposure correction and mass printing
techniques on your prints. So, if you try to be a little creative
with lighting or colors, often times you have wasted your efforts,
because they are going to "correct" what they perceive as a mistake.
A lot of this is because they use machines to print that auto-adjust
for common mistakes that the average joe might make while shooting
little Billie's seventh birthday party, or Becky Sue's high school
graduation. To the average person, this is probably appreciated...but
to the serious amateur or pro photographer it's the kiss of death. A
decent pro lab will print your shots just like they were intended,
especially if you tell them to do such. But as I said, in theory, the
negatives themselves (or transparency film, if you shoot slide film)
should be no different no matter who processes the film itself. There
are occassions where these quick labs make mistakes though.

[FBI-25@webtv.net]

Thank you.