Heck, Mishka, you can get a set of lousy 4x6's for $5 (grin).
However, I do understand your point. It is not a new problem, I had it 20+ years ago when I was trying to make a living off photography. However back then there was a few people (not commercial labs) who could produce superb prints for a price. I am not sure you can get "superb" at all nowadays no matter what you are willing to pay. In fact I never found a lab that could consistantly produce "excellent" prints, although I used to know of several that did "good" on a regular basis.
Custom prints should always be at least "good", because doing them over a couple of times is included in the price. The first print is only a work print, from there it is a case of you and the printer being able to communicate. That means the photographer needs to know enough about printing to be able to tell the printer what he wants done, not often enough the case. That last point is not so important with the superb printer because his ability to interpret a negative is usually better than the photographers --in the case of my portfolio printer back then only one print he made did not exceed my expectations and that was a case of emotional impact interpretation.
graywolf http://www.graywolfphoto.com "Idiot Proof" <==> "Expert Proof" -----------------------------------
Mishka wrote:
lucky you. i tried labs in boston (lots) and nyc (some). both, 1-hr type
and "pro" labs. haven't seen one that would give me back a remotely reasonable set of prints.
of course, if i were to order "custom" prints -- that's a different story.
and a totally different price point.
the way i see it, the lack of reasonably priced processing/printing basically forces digital down my throat. when i pay $20 to get a set of lousy 4x6s that would make me want to yell, an inkjet starts looking
*very* attractive. oversharpened or not.
best, mishka
On 4/16/05, Bob Blakely <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Y'a know, I'm sure there's a plethora of, well, let's just say "ordinary" labs out there that are running 35mm through the machines and just robot-like punching the buttons to select the machine's suggestion for correction, if any, to be applied to prints. No doubt some labs are stretching a little on their chemicals too. For some, it may be about money, for others it may be about apathy. There are also labs out there where they make every effort to insure that first of all, your negatives (positives) will be the best that can be produced, given what you tell them, and that the results will be uniformly excellent. I gave up on the small (1 hour type) labs long ago when my negs were just not up to snuff, and especially when I had some come back that looked like film that hadn't been in the hypo long enough. I gave up on the department mega Wal-Mart stores when I couldn't get decent printing. Right now, I gave up on the photography superstores like Samy's when I couldn't talk with the techs any more. Now I get everything done at Pro Photo Connection in Irvine, CA. They have an impressive big money client list with many of their sometimes famous photos on their walls and they want to keep it that way. Now, I'm a hack and they treat me the same as the big money clients! It's great to turn in a roll of 35, 120, 220 - whatever, and ask for whatever I want (within reason - push 1, push 2, pull 1, etc.) and have things turn out like I expected with perfect negatives and decent initial prints for proofs. It's also great to be able to mark off areas of a print for differing amounts of exposure and actually get what I want. They aren't cheap, but they are good and they are dependable.
Regards, Bob... ------------------------------------------------ "A picture is worth a thousand words, but it uses up three thousand times the memory."
From: "Mishka" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
So you cannot parse a short english sentence. That's all.
Mishka
even more (by a huge margin) stuff that's produced from film in the labs stinks. so?
So you are a bad printer. Thats all.
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