Shitty Photo Labs
Lesson learnt for me.. dont waste time with cheap and shitty photo labs.
All of this happened to me about a week or two ago, but i’ve only got around to writing about it now.
I shot a few new rolls and thought i’d try out a little photo lab just a few hundred metres from me. I thought “Wouldnt it be great if i can get photos developed at a place less than a minutes walk form me”
HOW WRONG I WAS…
I dropped the film off, told them not to rush as i’d pick it up the next day. All seemed fine. Went in the next day to pay and receive my photos. As i was walking home i opened the packet up and started looking at my photos. ** First mistake – must always check photos before leaving store!
Looking at the photos i could tell immediately that thing just werent right.
With one of the rolls in particular i made a special note that i was experimenting with a few lighting effects etc, so asked them not to adjust low/high key photos for example. If something is dark, leave it dark. They said this was fine, no problem at all…
I dont know, maybe i was speaking in another language and they were just saying yes to whatever i asked them, because they totally ignored what i asked. When i got my photos back the machine they used must of automatically tried to compensate, so most of the prints are completely off – they look terrible. It looks like they’ve just pumped up the exposure compensation setting, and most of the photos are overly grainy, and hazy like theres been a light leak (of which my camera has none).
If they couldnt do it, why didn’t they just say “No, im sorry we cant do that for you. Everything is automated and we have no control how they turn out.” I would of had no problem with that.
Ok, not the end of the world right? I still have the negatives yeah?
Yes and No.
Yes as in, i do have the negatives. But no as in, they arent exactly complete.
You see, to go along with the terrible prints, i have some negatives that have been cut up collage style. The photo below is an example of what i mean.
You can see that the top negative has pretty much had 2/3 cut off, and bottom negative has had some of the side cut off, not much, but still noticeable. These are just two example of three rolls that have been effected. About 60% are effected.
WTF? Did they get the blind work experience kid to cut them up!?
I dont know what else to say beside i’m never going back to this place again. Im just glad i didnt have anything particularly important on the film.
It’s safe to say i wont be going back to this place again!
Dont make the same mistake as me…
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