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A professional color lab can help you get the most from your photography. While it may take a little extra effort to work with a one... learning the services and properly preparing your order, the results are superior compared to consumer and mass photo-processors.

Remarkable things can be achieved from your images. The key to consistent satisfaction is knowing the capabilities and limitations of the various services, films and papers used in modern photography.

The care you use in shooting and selecting your images is just as important as the lab work that follows. Read this guide and see us with your ideas. We will help you complete the "Circle of Quality" from exposure to print.

The Lab is your partner
Always ask the lab to help identify potential problems that may be encountered when reproducing your original slide or negative. We suggest you bring several originals so that comparisons can be made. If you have proof prints or previous enlargements, bring those along as well. These materials help to identify what you like, and allow us to help you select originals that will make the best possible reproductions.

Good originals make good prints
If you own quality stereo equipment you know that a bad recording results in poor sound, even though your equipment may be capable of superb reproductions. This offers a good analogy for photography; your original is the recording, the lab is the electronics, and when combined they'll produce either music or noise.

Factors that affect the quality of your originals and subsequent quality of reproductions are:
1. Correct exposure
2. Even lighting/low contrast
3. Good Highlight Detail
4. Critically sharp focus
5. Proper selection of film
6. Quality film processing

But it looked great in the viewfinder
We often say that "everything looks great in the viewfinder". One key to successful photography begins before you click the shutter, in a process we call "translation". Translation means "seeing" the image not as it looks in the viewfinder, but as it will look when reproduced. Several changes take place that alter the character of the image seen in the viewfinder. Professional Photographers are well paid for their ability to translate. Common translations are:

1. Lost dimension. 3D becomes 2D. Compensate with aperture adjustments (depth of field).

2. Added contrast. Highlights become lighter, shadows darker. Reduce contrast by using a "flash fill", otherwise it is almost always better to expose for highlight detail, allowing shadow areas to "fall".

3. Grain/Pixels. The actual structure of the image becomes evident when enlarged. The slower the film speed (ISO), the finer the structure. Always use the slowest ISO speed possible.

4. Stopped motion. Compensate with panning or longer exposures to simulate motion.

5. Cropping. The minimum crop taken when making standard size enlargements. Digital and 35mm originals are not proportional to many print sizes, and must be cropped in order to fit.


"Saving it in the lab"
Manipulating an image in the lab usually involves correcting an imperfection which, ideally, would not be present in the original. While manipulation may completely correct many imperfections, some involve making sacrifices to overall image quality. Common imperfections helped by manipulation are:

1. Under/over exposure. With or with out correction, grain, color, color saturation, and contrast may be affected. Underexposure is usually preferable to over exposure; Humans are more sensitive to highlight detail than shadow detail.

2. High contrast. Highlights and shadows that lack good detail can be improved by dodging and burning. Grain, color saturation and contrast may be affected.

3. Color shifts. Correction of color involves adding or subtracting color in the printing process. This adds or subtracts specific colors from the entire scene, thus affecting all colors in some way (no longer an issue using digital tools that pinpoint discrete colors for correction).

4. Severe cropping. If severe cropping is needed to achieve good composition, grain is increased, sharpness, color saturation, and contrast are reduced.

5. Wrong film speed setting. Compensated with "push/pull" processing. Although this procedure can save an important roll, color, contrast and grain are affected.

6. Wrong film used. Daylight film used indoors without a flash, and indoor film (tungsten) used outdoors without filtration produces severe color shifts. Printing corrections can be made but overall color suffers.

Digital technology
Computerized manipulation of an image is an effective and extremely precise way in which to to alter, enhance or correct some aspect of the original film.

With the help of super fast computers and imaging software like Adobe Photoshop, we can make alterations to an image that go far beyond what's possible using traditional darkroom techniques.

Cost versus quality
Most professional labs offer many different reproduction services, designed to satisfy various cost/quality requirements. Every increase in quality requires additional time and materials, thus increased cost.

"Under Ordering", in hopes of reducing costs, will frustrate both you and your lab. Always order the service that best suits the quality you require. Inexpensive machine-made prints are not suitable for display, just as custom prints are not needed for a family snap-shot album.

Material characteristics
Present day photographic films and papers are truly exceptional in their ability to capture color, tone and texture. As good as they are, however, limitations do exist. The more you know about how film and paper work, the better equipped you are to plan, capture, manipulate, and produce successful photographic images.

An image captured on film never truly looks "exactly" like the original scene, regardless of the film you use, or how "good" the slide may look (in many cases, slides actually look 'better' than the original scene due to an increase in color saturation and contrast).

Likewise, a print made from a slide may look great standing alone, however, an exact match to an original slide is technically impossible. Contrast, luminescence, color and resolution are all altered in the process of transferring an image from one material to another. Just as we accept the original slide as an "interpretation" of the actual scene, we must also acknowledge that a print is an "interpretation" of the original slide, not an exact replication.

Understanding the procedures involved in capturing and reproducing photographic images, and having  realistic expectations, will go a long way toward increasing your enjoyment of photography, and satisfaction with your lab.