I just wanted to know what you think might be causing artifacts to show up on my prints? Sometimes the artifacts are big black blobs or little scatchy looking things (perhaps dust) on my prints. Do you think they are the fault of the processing lab, camera body, lense or film? What could of been a decent print is just about spoilt. I attached an offending photo on this post.

The quality is pretty dire ok, and I cropped it down too. I din't even use a scanner, what I did was photograph them into the PC with a digital camera! :D the real print looks better, honest!

*look on the left side of the image to see the pesky artifacts

Thnx

Depends on how the lab works. If, like most places, they develop the negs and then scan them for digital printing then it's probably just dust on the negs. If it was a darkroom print you'd have white dots where the dust is (because the white paper wouldn't be exposed to light from the enlarger underneath the dust). Scratches can come from the camera or the lab. If the scratches are parallel with the way the film goes thru the camera then that's a good possibility, but if not it's probably how the negs were handled at the lab.

You could bring it back to the lab and ask them to clean the negs and redo the print. But, if they let prints like this go out, you might not want them handling your negs. I'd find a better lab.

Any of these problems can be corrected in Photoshop but it's always best (and a big time saver) to start with a clean negative. I use a blower bulb to get as much dust off as I can. Some dust that you can't see will still always show up on the scan - that's when the Clone tool in Photoshop comes in handy.

This forum can be SOOO annoying, I just painstakingly wrote an entire reply and it got wiped away because it wanted me to log in again....fsssss!!!!

I checked out the neg and it appears the artifact is actually in the neg itself. I tried removing it with a blower brush without success. My cameras mirror probably has some dust on it, do you think a little dust would be enough cause any problems with my metering or prints? (providing it doesn't pass through the shutter and onto the neg)

These negatives we done by one of those no brainer 1hr print and processing labs, I guess they give the staff those lab coats to make them look like they're actually doing something that involves skill, like enlarger work or dish printing, but they seem to completely rely on machines and I doubt they clean them.

Anyway, photoshop is really good, but until I get hold of a digital SLR the closest I'll be able to get to digital is the ol'scanner. *sigh*

First, I've had errors after I've typed a long post only to see it disappear. I understand it's frustrating! I usually highlight my reply, right click and "copy" on PC, that way if it disappears I can just "paste" into another reply.

I doubt the dust is in the camera. If it's an SLR and you see dust looking thru the viewfinder then it's on the mirror or focusing screen - but check the lens too. Dust on the lens would have been almost impossible to see on a print like this, it would have been so out of focus it wouldn't register unless it was a very wide lens at a small aperture. Still, it probably wouldn't be so sharply defined.

Dust may still be on the film - can you see it? If film isn't carefully dried, then dust can stick to the still-wet film and dry on it. A blower bulb won't take it off - check with a camera store or good lab to see what they have to clean it with. Best if it's on the shiny side, not on the emulsion side.

Photoshop uses digital files, regardless of whether they came from film or a digital camera. It's all the same. It also can give you great results.