mat (01/25/83)
A rececnt article by systek!blk suggested that not only color printing machines but also color developing machines tinker with processing to substitute their judgement for yours. Can anyone confirm/deny this? Does this apply to color transparencies as well. Will Fotomat botch the g.dd..m exposures on my E6 Ektachrome slides? Scared hou5a!mat Mark Terribile
thomas (01/30/83)
All color printing machines have a certain amount of color balance correction built in. It is NOT the development time which is adjusted, but the exposure and color compensation during the printing which is changed. Slides should not be affected (for one thing, they can't tell what they look like until they have finished the development, at which point it is too late). I have had my pictures wrecked by some cheap photofinishers (e.g. Fotomat) because the chemicals were near exhaustion, though. =Spencer
bryan (02/02/83)
Yes, all photofinishers should process FILM to the same color balence. Kodak supplies preexposed test strips which are supposed to be run regularly then read with a densitomiter. There exists specs on contrast and how the curves track. If all photofinishers were as careful as Kodak there would be few problems. However, I also have had problems with low contrast and poor color balance apparently caused by exhausted chemicals. They either did not run their control strips or ignored the results. Moral: Find a quality photofinisher and avoid the temptation to save a few cents per print. Or -- Do it yourself. -Bryan Lyles