"Can you tell us more about what makes one photo lab better than another?"
Boy, have you opened not jsut a can, but a barrel of worms!
"From experience I know that the operator of the printing machine to some
extent controls the color balance of the print,to what extent does the
proper mix? "
The printer has all the control. The amount of varience from paper,
chemicals, and film represent but a small fraction of the variability in the
printing from the operator.
"quality and freshness of the developing chemicals have on the
quality of the final print?"
Again, the person printing has ultimate control, the chemicals will bear
more on consistency.
"Does the freshness of the developer chemical matter much?"
Again, the person printing can make gross changes, where the chemicals make
minor ones. The best labs use a replenished system, that is regularly
checked with control strips. Minilabs often use one shot chemistry that is
run to near exhaustion.
Titoy ( trying to know better one good quick photo lab from another.)_
Let me try to give a sort of overall view of labs. This is from my USA
perspective, so what happens in other countries may vary.
There are overall, two kinds of labs, photofinishers, and what we will call
for purposes of this general discussion, pro labs. Photofinishers range from
large concerns like Qualex and Fuji, to the one hour minilab. Their job is
to take vast amounts of film, and very quickly produce small prints. While
they may provide other services, this will represent the greatest share of
their work. Some produce quite good results, but speed and price are
paramount. I am continually amazed at how someone like Qualex can take so
many rolls of film and produce respectable results with so little loss and
damage.
Pro labs can be divided generally between those that serve portrait and
wedding photographers, and those who serve commercial photographers. The
labs that serve wedding and portrait photographers are more geared to
volume, and are generally set up to produce packages. Many require negatives
to be cut individually and taped onto pieces of cardstock with windows, that
are coded for the size of print. Many will have little cropping options.
Often these labs will require a minimum monthly expenditure to do your
business.
Labs that cater to commercial photographers generally offer the highest
level of personal service. Hand prints are common, although digital printers
are certainly making their mark. Machine prints are usually checked
individually. Eash order is handled by several people, with the highest
quality their goal. This is, of course, priced accordingly. (I have found
that film processing from these labs often can be competetive in price, and
higher in quality.) These are the only places that you will find respectable
B&W work.
I will generally do this: snapshots and other things that can be easily
reshot, go to a minilab or Qualex. Things for my clients, and stuff that
cannot be redone easily, like overseas vacation photos, go to the commercial
lab. All chrome processing, commercial lab.
Remember, these are generalizations. In each community, you can probably
find an exception. The way you find a good lab is by your experience. Keep
trying until you find one you like.
Bill Pearce
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