Ways to lead labs to make accurate prints from negatives

[repeseda]

Hi all,

I was wondering if anyone has a way to lead the printing labs (i.e. Ritz Camera) to make more accurate print from negatives. I was thinking like shooting a color card on the first frame of a negative so the lab balance the machine with that frame for that roll. Does anyone had tried something that helps?
I constantly have doubts about whether the print I get is truly (or very near to) what I shot. I had returned rolls for re-print but that does not garantee that the next set will be as it should be (at least it should be better than the previous one).

We always depend on the judgment of the person in front of the lab machine but, what if the person is kind of color blind (not joking) or does not really understand color composition and exposure? Not a lot of people complain about the prints and just think that the photos are not good.

Any help, sugestions and ideas are greatelly appreciated.

RP

[92135011]

better way. Print out 4x6 proofs
Make reprints. Go to lab with that 4x6 and tell them to do the following.
If it's a good lab, they will do whatever you want - for a price of course

[Clemmie]

That idea of shooting the 'color card' might give you some idea of just how far 'off' they are - but only for that one shot, really.

Most labs these days are using fully automated equipment - meaning fully automated analysis and adjustment, unless the operator overrides the system. Few these days know how to - and even fewer care.

[another view]

If you're doing something like studio work, putting a MacBeth color checker and/or a grey card in the frame of the first shot is a pretty common way of making sure the lab prints correctly - they set up their equiment so that the first shot looks good, and then since all the others are under the same lighting, they'll print correctly.

But - like Clemmie says - you'd have to do this for every situation, and go to a lab that understands how to do this (as in a pro lab). To tell you the truth, this is why I only use color neg film for certain situations. Most of the time if it's not digital or b&w, it's chrome (slide). As long as the slide is shot correctly (exposure, filtering for color balance, etc) then scanning will give you a good print - this way you're in control of the whole process. I don't do my own printing, but haven't had a problem since I started calibrating my monitor.