Detroit Area Lab Recommendations for Wedding Photos

Greetings, All. I've been asked to shoot a friend's wedding this

August and would like to know if anyone can recommend or advise on a

reputable lab in the Detroit area. I'll be shooting NPH (both 160

and 400) and probably some good old Tri-X 400 (bride's request based

on some other photos she'd seen of mine). Some of my favorite labs

(gk in Troy and Color Detroit in Ferndale) are now long gone and now

I see that even the dreaded Meteor (boo! hiss!) has changed their

name, but I don't know if they've changed management or their

wretched service. I noticed Tricolor Photo opened up in Royal Oak,

but haven't been there. Any and all offerings are very much

appreciated.

I do some work with Tri-Color. They are decent I'd say. Just make sure you give them SPECIFIC instructions on what to do. B+W film they can process for $5. Color negative for $5, E6 $9.

 

The negatives come back on a small roll I believe they are a dip & dunk process.

 

Prints are kind of hit and miss, color prints I'd go somewhere else but B&W you are kind of limited. They have printed some 4x6 and 5x7 for me ok but nothing larger.

 

The good thing is even though they are expensive for prints if you are not happy you will get what you want eventually. Just takes some time.

Master Photolab is one of the few that will still give you machine black and white

proofs on black and white paper. They also do nice black and white

enlargements. They are my choice for black and white. Their website URL is: http://

www.masterphotolab.com/

 

For the NPH you are best off finding a lab with a Fuji Frontier. They are all over the

place but finding a "pro" lab as opposed to a one hour photo place is hard. Adray

Camera opened a new store here in Ann Arbor and they have given me good results

on their Frontier. They have other branches as well.

Thanks, guys, for your advice. Keep it coming! I did stop over at Adray in Troy yesterday and they said they can process and proof the NPH/NPZ (am shooting some test rolls and seeing how Adray does) but I'll still need to find someplace for the B+W. I'm starting to think that maybe I should consider one of the new C41 films, but there seems to be some question about their archival stability. I also don't like the color tint that results from printing on the color papers. Steve, thank you--I will check out Master right away. Ryan, maybe I will take a test roll over to TriColor and see how they do. Gee, I'm glad the wedding is still a month and a half away...I sure seem to have my homework cut out for me!

Oops--I see that in my haste to post, I mistakenly referred to NPH as both 160 and 400; then later added NPZ. I really do know the difference. I promise.

 

-Hasty Jacki

Check out North American Photo in Livonia or their website at www.naphoto.com. They print everything on Kodak Pro Paper. Their roll processing is pricey, but reprints are a steal! Best of luck!