 James |
How Are They Developing Slides These Days? I really know nothing of photography, but I have taken a lifelong love of the art and started a very small home-based business selling vintage photographs over the web. Most of my photographs are original prints, BUT I also buy old slides and negatives, reprint the good images and sell them (as reprints of course). The question - People who buy photogrpahs do NOT want ink jet or laser created images. They want PHOTOGRAPHS created using the process that best suits the image. I have two photography labs in mind for creating my images for the future. WHAT questions should I be asking the people there that will be creating my prints off of these OLD slides? I want an above-average end product (finished prints) to sell to my customer and want to advertise it as such. I don't want to have my slides scanned and then printed out, BUT is this the best way nowadays?? Is the "old-fashioned" process the BEST way to process these OLD slides? I guess the main question would be "What would be the BEST way to process these old images"? Thank you for putting up with a photography inept newbie. I really know NOTHING about the development and print process. But I do LOVE old photography. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thank you.
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- Gregory LaGrange Contact Gregory LaGrange Gregory LaGrange's Gallery |
You'll have to find a place that does printing straight from slides, may call it cibachrome prints. The common way, if places are still doing it, is to make an inter-negative of the slide. Which is a picture of the slide because so few places made prints directly from slides. Nowadays the printing from scanned media is very good, so people probably would be happy with a digital print from a company that does it well, especially if they weren't told ahead of time that it was a digital print. But truth in advertising, so you have to do some leg work to find a printer and pass on the cost of shipping the slide somewhere to the buyers.
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Mark Feldstein |
Internegs are a great way to go but pretty pricey. Then, you need a color lab that still prints C-41 negatives. As Greg mentioned, scans of E-6 materials (and even Kodachromes) can be just excellent. I just had one done for a client from a 120 transparency blown up to 48x60" with magnificient clarity. Yep, this can be a very expensive process depending on the quality of prints, the quality of the original transparency, how much fixing it might need, the size of the print, whether you get them mounted and on what type of board, and certainly the quality of the lab you use. There are various grades of professional labs. If I were you, I'd start with one that still process transparency film (like in the E-6 process) and ask to see examples of their work. I highly recommend four of them: Greg might know some in his neck of the woods too.
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James |
The one place I have (my first choice) is charging me about 1.50 per slide printed to 4x6. This is a shop that ONLY deals with photography, NOT some supermarket photo stop. They are also one of the ONLY places in the city (Winnipeg, CANADA) I've found that will make prints off of old 126 negatives for me. I am heading over there Tuesday to see them, and I'll ask a few questions. Maybe I'm wrong...maybe the way to go IS printing from the scanned slide? I just hate the thought of selling people "scans". However, maybe I have to get my head around the fact that IF done properly, the scans look great. Yes?? I have a few places in town that will print off the slides (4x6) for as low as 0.59. Are these scanned?? That is unbelievably cheap. I took in a few (just to see) and they came back looking pretty good, but I probably wouldn't be able to tell if they were scanned or what. The 0.59 price tag per print is VERY attractive, but I just have the feeling I'm not getting a "real" photograph here. Maybe I'm being too fussy here regarding the "processing" part of this; I'm just aware that people who collect vintage reprints DON'T want inkjet scans, etc. They want a photograph. I think I'll be able to find out a bit more when I see the gents at the lab on Tuesday. And thanks to you two gentlemen I'll have a few questions I can ask them and come to a decision on how to do this. Thank you so much for the quick response and the advice Mark and Greg! I'll let you know what the 'photo guys' tell me.
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- Gregory LaGrange Contact Gregory LaGrange Gregory LaGrange's Gallery |
$1.50 for 4x6 from a slide is actually the same as what it was several years ago. The 59 cent ones probably were scanned. And the $1.50 may have been too since the price hasn't changed. One hour labs used to charge $1.50 just for a 4x6 print and you got only your print and your slide back. But if you got an enlargement, then you got charged and extra $4.50 but they gave you the inter-negative.
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James |
Thanks Gregory. I may just have to accept the fact that THAT'S the way things are done now. As long as the prints look really good, and the fact that I'm just not mass printing them at home, maybe that's good enough. But, like I mentioned, at least I have a few questions I can ask the guy tomorrow, THANKS entirely to you two gentlemen. BTW, is there a particular type of paper I should insist on for prints? I got some prints back last week (from slides - the 0.59 place) and they were on 'FUJI Premium Archive'. I imagine that that is a standard photo paper. I don't mind spending a little bit extra for really good quality photo paper. think if you can convince the customer that it is a better product because of the better paper, I'm sure most wouldn't mind the little extra expense.
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- Gregory LaGrange Contact Gregory LaGrange Gregory LaGrange's Gallery |
Fuji Pre. Archive has a reputation of being a good paper. It's not standard as in regular quality, but it's used by many places. Paper choices usually involve a different look or texture to the print. Like some upload places offer a metallic paper, that I've never seen in person, that can give a picture a different appearance and add something based on the subject.
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James |
I spoke with the developing guys - apparently these slides are printed using a 'Light Jet' printer. From what I could understand, this is some sort of laser. And the photo paper "goes through the standard photographic process involving chemicals". That sound right? Those were the guys that charge 1.59 per print off of slide. I ended up getting some prints off slides from them, and the prints came back on Kinoca Minolta 100 paper. I'm taking it that that is a GOOD paper. The prints looked good, BUT other than a couple of examples, they didn't look much different from the 0.59 guys...maybe a touch darker. Not sure how the 0.59 guys develop their slides, but I'll have to ask. I understand that these Light Jet printers are quite expensive, so not sure how you could charge .59 using this process. So, bottom line is, I take it that the 1.59 guys are scanning the slides, printing them with the Light Jet, and then some sort of chemical/photographic process at the end. Forgive my ignorance of the process gents, but I'm a newbie to this kind of thing. I guess I COULD tell a customer that my reprints are PROFESSIONALLY PROCESSED AT A PHOTO LAB using the best equipment available and I probably wouldn't be lying, yes? Actually that's all I'm really concerned about - giving the customer a really good product (photo) and being honest about how it was "born".
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