Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/07/29
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]In my experience all high street labs I have tried produce prints, colour and black and white, that have too much contrast. I wonder if it's an attempt to make the prints appear to have more 'punch'. Steve - -----Original Message----- From: owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us [mailto:owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us]On Behalf Of Mxsmanic Sent: 29 July 2001 20:31 To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us Subject: Re: [Leica] Re: B&W Scanning Rei writes: > i recently began processing my own B&W negs again > and the difference in scratches and spots is > amazing. The quality overall is better, too. I'm far from meticulous in developing my own black-and-white, but I _still_ get far better results than the lab gets. I think it is because they use a very aggressive, high-speed Ilford chemistry that agitates a lot and develops in like 30 seconds. They get more contrast and grain than I do. In fact, I almost gave up B&W after having them develop some stuff, because it looked so coarse and contrasty. I finally did it myself because I wanted to use Tech Pan a bit, and lo! Tri-X came out beautifully when I did it myself, as did everything else. And like I said, I'm not exactly meticulous about development; I imagine that a really careful photographer must get even better results.