What do you do after you develop your film?

travellingcello

travellingcello

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Newbie question here: I recently developed my first film at home and am very pleased with the results.

I scanned them using my V500, and am now wondering - if I want them some of the shots printed, I suppose it is cheaper to just print my scanned files, but better quality to get a camera shop to scan and print it themselves? Or will it not really matter if I am only talking about small size prints?

Am I right to assume that that if I ask a camera shop to print most will simply just be scanning it rather than actually printing it by hand?
 
So from memory, if you take the negs into a highstreet shop to get printed, they will scan them and print them from the scan. The quality will be adequate for the print size and they will scan at the appropriate resolution for the print size requested.

The resolution of the scan you'll get from your V500 will no doubt surpass the resolution they will scan them at. As for whether it's cheaper for you or the shop to print them, I'm not sure - something I never looked into. In any case though, unless the shop is particularly specialist, I'd take the files you have scanned rather than the negs.

I believe it is possible to have prints made directly from the negative, though I'm not sure where. Someone else on here will almost certainly know.
 
Jonathan is right that these days almost anywhere will scan and print rather than "wet print". There are a few places that do the latter, but I'm not sure which; definitely a send-away job (mind you, the best printing is always likely to be a specialist place rather than high street). If it's the first film you've developed at home, I'm guessing it's traditional black and white (colour being that bit more complicated). This is worth mentioning only because it's a little harder to get good black and white prints from your everyday Canon/Epson consumer printer. You often end up with a slight colour cast. But you likely know this from your digital work anyway.

Best bet for modern printing: do a decent scan at 2400 ppi or higher on your V500, then send the files off to a printer you trust (or print yourself if you're used to printing B&W). For wet printing... someone will be along shortly to advise!
 
For 'Forum Use' I scan with my old ( but FREE!) Epson 1650 flatbed at 1600 dpi + Vuescan Pro I won on the 'AP' magazine site then adjust if necessary and downsize a bit to 1000 pixels across longest side but when I want PRINTS I just do the best ones up to 16x12" Exibition Size in my Darkroom easy !
 
I have used this service once and the results were excellent. I did have the negative printed onto archival paper which was more expensive but it was for a commission and cost wasn't the issue.

http://www.dscolourlabs.co.uk/reprints-enlargements.cfm

I use DSCL a lot and I have always been very happy with the results, postage is a bit expensive but the actual printing costs are very reasonable and for normal printing if you order before 2 pm (I think) they are usually next day.

Andy
 
A lot would depend on where you go. I have no experience of getting prints made for me except for some contact prints for colour films I had processed for me, and for that I used a "proper" processing lab which does produce conventional black and white prints if required. It's convenient as the bus from outside my house stops outside their premises. If I had no other means of developing and printing, I'd trust them to do a good job. I suspect that most places would produce standard scans and standard prints, and if you've scanned to get the best possible scan, your scans would be superior. Printing is another matter - I don't know whether a colour cast is to be expected, as I haven't had black and white prints made. If I want a conventional black and white print, I can do it myself in my darkroom.

I think that if you have your scans on a stick, various dealers have "print your own" facilities. I've never used them, but Jessops seem to be set up for this, as is another dealer near me.
 
I guess the beauty of going in to somewhere like Jessops with files on a stick, is that if the print comes out with too bad a colour cast you can moan and get them to try again...
 
This thread from two years ago has some suggestions for wet printing that might be worth following up.
 
Agree with the advice given so far. I'm sure there will be similar places in Sweden to the ones mentioned above.

You should definitely get some of your Svarlbard pics printed!
 
I've used these twice because I couldn't resist their special offers :- http://www.aldiphotos.co.uk/index.php?id=home&enter=1

Most of my negs are scanned by Tesco or Asda so what I did the first time was to home scan to the highest quality (selected negs) made sure they were corrected for colours, spots, crops etc and uploaded the files and was pleased with the 6X4s sent back. The 2nd time I didn't bother and and just sent the Asda etc JPGs and the results were VG as well. Check the price list and they are cheap.
 
Thanks all for your replies - I might have a look into doing some high quality scans and printing them myself, which means doing some research into B/W printers! Off I go! :D
 
I was seriously bitten by the film bug about 18 months ago. Actually, bitten is an understatement. I've lost a couple of limbs. If you do find yourself really smitten and want to make good prints, I'd urge you to give serious thought to doing some wet printing. Darkroom equipment is dirt cheap, and if you have a small room (I use a 6 by 7 foot bathroom) you can be up and running very easily. It's been a revelation for me and completely changed my attitude to photography all over again. Give it a go: B&W printing is great fun.
 
Unless things have changed, the best advice I can give is that if a printer has only one black ink, it won't give a good black and white print. Unlike the darkroom, where black and white id easy and colour jolly difficult, with inkjet printers the position is reversed! I personally use an Epson printer with the Ultrachrome ink sets; but I've also used an equally good Canon Pro 9500 printer.
 
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