True or False

"The most important thing with color prints is who does the printing, not who develops the negative." What about it? True or false? I have been getting my color film developed at Wal-Mart, then taking the "good ones" to a photo finisher. Am I making a mistake? Am I overlooking some good photos because the Wal-Mart printing isn't doing them justice?
Comments?

IMO, processing and printing are equally important aspects of film photography...

The bottom line is, Walmart probably does an "adequate" job of processing your film. In that respect, they should be able to provide you with good enough negatives to have quality prints made at a photofinisher.

I'm not sure what you mean when you say "Wal-Mart printing isn't doing them justice...". Do you mean you have Walmart print everything, then use those prints to judge which are the best shots?

If so, then again I think you're ok. Even with machine printing, I doubt they will botch your pics up so bad that you wouldn't be able to tell which are the good ones...

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Originally Posted by Paul in OKC

"The most important thing with color prints is who does the printing, not who develops the negative." What about it? True or false? I have been getting my color film developed at Wal-Mart, then taking the "good ones" to a photo finisher. Am I making a mistake? Am I overlooking some good photos because the Wal-Mart printing isn't doing them justice?
Comments?

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I think that the idea behind that comes from the fact that color negative film is C41 process. Follow the process and you get negatives. Truth is, there are differences in the way it's done.

One custom lab I've dealt with sent me a price sheet a couple of months ago. Their C41 is fairly expensive (about $16 with 36 proofs IIRC) and they claim that the film itself requires a 40 minute development time - so one hour just isn't possible without some compromises. They claim that the one-hour places raise the temperature of the developer to get it to a 20 minute development time, and you'll be left with more grain. I don't know if this is true, but they're a good lab so I don't think they would put it in print without some kind of proof. I've seen some one hour places that handle film pretty carelessly and without gloves - in front of customers. Machines with rollers can scratch film if there's something on a roller. Dip & dunk used at some custom places can eliminate that.

Bottom line, I'd say the differences are pretty minor but depends on the circumstances. Snapshots, trying out a new lens? I wouldn't worry too much. Important shots you might want to enlarge some day? Then I'd go somewhere else.

The prints you get at Wal-Mart etc should be fine. Maybe the colors aren't right, but that can easily be corrected by a custom lab during printing.

I've only done a little black and white, but I believe you can buy archival quality developer and fixer and negative holders, or not, right? Somehow I doubt that Wal-Mart uses archival quality stuff. . .it might not matter to some people, but I'm one of those anal ones that wants my grandkids to be able to print from my negs if they want to (right now I'm only 24. . .)
Christopher

Any fool can make another print.
If you bugger the negatives!!! What have you got???

StillMrFitz

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Originally Posted by christopher_platt

I've only done a little black and white, but I believe you can buy archival quality developer and fixer and negative holders, or not, right? Somehow I doubt that Wal-Mart uses archival quality stuff. . .it might not matter to some people, but I'm one of those anal ones that wants my grandkids to be able to print from my negs if they want to (right now I'm only 24. . .)
Christopher

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