frustrated by the quality of b&w prints at local processors

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I love shooting b&w with my M6 and summicron 50 & 35 lenses. I prefer b&w over color, I've always loved b&w and used to develop and print them as a hobby which I no longer have the time for. I have been very disappointed by the low quality of b&w prints done at the local developers (one hour or drop box types), and only a few will even process b&w these days. I've tried the Kodak tri-x that you can have developed with the color C-41 process, but never got the right tone or contrast. I currently live in Houston. Is there a good quality b&w developer around at reasonable prices that somebody knows of? Or is there somewhere that I can ship my b&w film to get processed that produce good quality prints? At reasonable prices?

-- Jung Suh (jungsuh@hotmail.com), February 04, 2002

Answers

These one-hour shops even deliver bad color prints, don't bother bringing anything elso but snap-shots to them.

If you have them shipped to a lab, they will take somewhat longer than color prints, but there is an improvement.

But the best way is simply do it yourself en spent some time on the print. You could bring them to a lab for quick prints, pick the ones you like, and process them in your own darkroom, play with pushing/pulling/contrast, until you get what you want. If you want print fast, invest in a film scanner.

C-41 b&w film is notorious for it's lack of contrast and non black tones (portra seems to be acceptable). Beter use normal black and white film and ship them to a lab. Takes a little longer but at least it is realy black an white

Reinier

-- ReinierV (rvlaam@xs4all.nl), February 04, 2002.


Jung, you are right - unless you can find a really good B+W handprinter who understands the way YOU like your prints to look then you really need to print them yourselves.

I have always used XP2 (I am not sure what is being said above about tones - XP2 is fantastic) - have it processed and contact printed by a decent pro lab and print your favourites at home. With very modest equipment and some care you can easily rival the best commercial printers.

By using the C-41 films, you can forget about the hassle of developing combinations, XP-2 gives you massive exposure latitude, high street processing and all the depth of tone and fine grain in your prints you could ever need. Grade 3 works for me!

-- Giles Poilu (giles@monpoilu.icom43.net), February 04, 2002.


The so-called "local developers" print on a roll of grade 3 B&W paper. If you want to get a good print you have to develop your B&W negatives a bit flat so they print well on grade 3. The problem comes because the "local developers" tend to overdevelop your negatives. This leads to excessive contrast and blocked up shadows and highlights. The solution is to develop your own negatives at home and calibrate the time until you get good prints from the local machine.

-- Russell Brooks (russell@ebrooks.org), February 04, 2002.

Jung, in a big city like Houston you may want to consider looking in the yellow pages of your phone book for 'professional film labs' I am sure you will find what you need.

-- Steve LeHuray (steve@icommag.com), February 04, 2002.

Jung; why donŽt you get to met the person in charge of your print in a good lab, and talk to this person personaly, you can get to have a better treated prints, hope this help, it did with me, but IŽm sure youŽll never find someone that prints as you would.

-- r watson (al1231234@hotmail.com), February 04, 2002.


You live in Houston, it's not like there aren't professional labs to choose from. Like Steve said, check your yellow pages. Stop going to one-hour labs or any other drop-off places. You should notice a huge improvement. It doesn't make sense to spend big bucks on Leica glass and then just drop off your film at the one-hour lab.

-- Richard (rvle@yahoo.com), February 04, 2002.

Jung:

I use San Miguel Photo Lab (www.bestlab.com). Their prices are reasonable and their work is good. All of the processing is done by hand, so your negatives will never come back scratched! I have used them for over 10 years and am a satisfied customer.............

-- Muhammad Chishty (applemac97@aol.com), February 04, 2002.


I have never had good B&W prints returned by a photofinisher. I've only very occasionally had B&W prints that I thought were decent done at a professional lab.

That's why I always do them myself.

-- Godfrey (ramarren@bayarea.net), February 04, 2002.


Ckeck with Kirk Tuck. He is a professional photographer based in Austin who contributes to this list, but he may know of a good lab in Houston.

-- Steve Rosenblum (stevierose@yahoo.com), February 04, 2002.

Jung Suh,

If you live in Houston, go by Houston Camera Exchange and talk with some of the salespeople there. They are generally a friendly group and at least one of them should be able to recommend a good source of B&W processing. Of course they may say they are the best local source. And perhaps they are. Have you tried them? LB

-- Luther Berry (lberrytx@aol.com), February 04, 2002.



I agree with all who say use a professional lab. In a city the size of yours there must be at least one B&W lab who does hand processing. When done properly good hand processed B&W is worth the extra money. Please don't be caught in the "MacDonalds" mentality where cheap and fast are the things you look for in a product. Their cheapie cheeseburger may fill you stomach but I'll bet you a months pay it doesn't compare to what you can make on your own Bar-B-Que in the back yard ! If you get stuck and need a professional B&W lab to do you work I recommend Cal-West here in Fresno, Ca. Top notch hand processing, does most of the work for the upperend studios here in the Central Valley. Prices are reasonable ( I think!) and service is timely. E-Mail me for shipping info if you decide you want to try them. They UPS all over the world with customers in Australia and Europe too. Best wishes. Scott Hayden

-- Scott Hayden (fulldome51@cs.com), February 05, 2002.

Bestlabs adress above will give you what you are looking for. Incredible results.

-- gil (gil-garcia@worldnet.att.net), February 06, 2002.

I highly recommend at minimum you develop your own B/W negs and buy a scanner and do your own dig printing and or do your own conventional darkroom work. my take (for waht it is worth) if you are critical enough to use a Leica you probably wont be satisfied with fast food prints:)

David

-- David Natho (david.natho@wcom.com), February 06, 2002.


And if you think these "fast food" type processors do a lousy job with 35mm film, you ought to try taking some 120 in to them! The common man (OK, common person) does not use enough B&W to amount to anything. If anyone knows anything about these B&W processing machines that are on the market (i.e., PhotoTherm, etc.,) it would be interesting to know what they cost and how the results were. You can find good professional processors that will do your B&W right, but it certainly is going to cost!

-- Frank Horn (owlhoot45@hotmail.com), February 09, 2002.

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