Bad Photo Labs
Lesson learnt. Don’t waste time with cheap and nasty 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 where I live. I thought “Wouldn’t it be nice to have a local photo lab”.
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 weren’t right.
With one of the rolls in particular I made a special note that I was experimenting with a few lighting effects etc and largely testing the camera. 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… Maybe I was speaking in another language because they totally ignored what I asked. When I got my photos back it seems as though the machine has tried to compensate automatically as a bunch of prints were completely off, like they’ve just pumped up the exposure compensation setting. Anyway, I don’t want to go in to any more detail, but basically I just wish if people couldn’t do something they just say it. I have absolutely 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 aren’t exactly “intact”.
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 this one shot has been cut so about 1/4 is missing. Obviously I’m not going to pretend they’re ruined an amazing image but this is just one image out of a few I’ve noticed so far and I’m not happy. Honestly, I don’t know how they did this. maybe they asked the blind work experience kid to cut the negatives that day. Even still…
I don’t know what else to say beside the fact I’m never going back to this place again. I’m just glad I didn’t have anything particularly important on the film. A cautionary tale. Don’t make the same mistake as me!