optical enlargement of color neg 6x7

Im searching for a lab in eu or us that still does old school enlargments of color negs. I would like to skip the digital

scan of my color neg and do the enlargement straight from neg to paper. anyone ?

Hello, if you haven't already, it might be helpful for you to post your question on photrio or the large format site. There are a considerable number of people with deep experience in all things analog photographic, particularly color enlarging and printing.

If you find a lab expect to pay top dollar per print. I found a lab about 5 years ago that wanted $50 per 8x10. I am very satisfied scanning my 6x7 negatives (Nikon scanner) then having them printed. The advantage is I can remove any dust and scratches without paying for air brush work.

I'm not sure if it still possible to acquire the necessary color chemistry to process your own. I did so years ago using Besseler RA4 chemicals, but I think because of environment issues it's no longer sold or your not able to easily dispose of waste. It was rewarding but not cheap.

Best of luck, I'm sure you'll find labs in major cities (eg. NY & LA).

Rick

A few commercial movies are sot on film, but the processing is always the same - digitized, edited, then digitally printed on film for distribution. That has been going on for nearly 20 years, which should tell you what the weak link is (film). Even the reprinting part is past-tense now that most theaters use digital projectors.

 

It is still easy to get photographic prints (i.e., wet process) which are digitally exposed, rater than optically, or to an inkjet printer. Just because it's harder and more expensive doesn't make a process better.

I believe there is a lab in Santa Clarita California called Richard photo lab I believe they still print off of negatives and supposedly doing excellent job Google and look them up.

This lab in Italy, near Lecco (wich is near Milano) still do optical enlargment from all the film format.

 

(senza titolo)

 

It allora you to be there during the work so you can choose how you want the print.

I suppose that you can call them and ask how to send the film, or you can take a trip to Lecco, stay a week end there, take some picture around there (wonderfull places). The offer rooms and guest-house for film photographer that come for a couple of days to have theyr film printed.

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A darkroom print is the way to go w/ B&W. For colour work, a high resolution scanned neg should give you a nice print, assuming the right film and lens are used. Edited April 5, 2018 by steve_mareno|1

You lose a lot of the nuances when scanning neg film including issues with the scanner including noise, mismatched profiles, etc. Commercial labs that use scan to print workflows are injecting their profiles, mandatory sharpening algorithms, etc into your image. Remember that a film scanner is a digital camera.

 

Provided you have properly exposed negs and a good lab optical prints do the best job of reproducing the nuances of why you are shooting film. Scanning yourself is the next best option. If we were talking about transparencies it's an entirely different argument.