For reasons of time and skill, I don't develop b&w film myself. I take it to a lab. I am wondering what I should look for in different labs? How do I go about evaluating the negatives the give back to me?

Also, any thoughts on how this choice differs for regular b&w film, vs. the T400CN variety, would be most appreciated. Thanks, tlh.

-- Thomas Hobbs (locke76@yahoo.com), July 03, 2000

Answers

The main factor in developing your own B&W film is control over the process to produce negatives to your specifications. The combination of in camera exposure and film development combine to govern what the negs come out like, so if you're going to get someone else to develop the film, your control of the process is reduced (not that this is necessarily bad). Since you would still have control of the in- camera exposure aspect, you can still run tests to get your shadow detail correct, but may need alterations to the development process to get the highlight contrast your after. So this would be the question I would be asking labs... Can they work with you to optimize development, or do they have a set procedure (ie. if you decide you need less or more development, can they do that).

As far as evaluating negatives, how do they print... can you produce the prints you want to? Using C41 process B&W films might be an option, have you tried any or these... and if so, how were the prints, were they how you wanted the result?

It keeps coming back to the 'look' you're after!

-- Nigel Smith (nlandgl@eisa.net.au), July 03, 2000.

Agreeing with Nigel I also expect absolute cleanliness. My lab even spots proofs. Cheers, Scott

-- Scott Walton (scotlynn@shore.net), July 07, 2000.