Why Do It Yourself?
Why Do It Yourself?
Maybe your film has just come back from the chemist with brown streaks, or maybe you've done a little B+W, or perhaps you want to actually save money... (or maybe you're just interested...)
Whatever, I am not here to convince you to develop your own prints, I am going to tell you that it is not a very difficult thing to do. The purpose of these pages is to show how many (if not all) so called professional tasks can be done by anyone. Of course you will need to have some equipment, and maybe a few books, but the important thing to remember is that you can do it, and quite simply too, just take care where care is due, and then cut corners on the rest!
Hmmm, you do need some convincing eh?Try these reasons:
The film labs recently ruined 4 of my mothers holiday films. Having fished the negatives from their bin, I was able to save 70 out of 90 them.
In my work as a computer graphic designer I need a cost effective way of importing images into the computer. With a negative scanner (now available at very low prices) I can scan images, bypassing the printing stage, at a very high quality indeed, and by processing the films myself, I can save money, and have the images on-line within an hour of shooting them.
Colour photography is not a perfect science, between when the light from the subject enters the lens of the camera, to when the light from the print enters your eye, there are many factors which lead to alteration of the colour balance. If you do decide to process your own colour prints, you will at least have control over the colour balance of your prints, (in fact you'll have to have). This control gives you quality and allows you to express yourself in all sorts of arty type ways which I will not bother to go into here :)
It is really satisfying to say, "I did that, ALL of it!"
It's an interesting process, and Hey! ..its worth trying to do new things, just so your brain doesn't seize up!
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A page from James David Chapman's website.
Located at: http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~jchap/ Site mirrored here at: http://www.j.chap.btinternet.co.uk |
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