[Japan][Film] Do film developing labs try to adjust under-/overexposed negatives?

<p>I shoot on film, mostly I use Kodak Super Gold, 400 ISO, a color negative film. I let the film develop in various labs, mostly Yodobashi Camera (I live in Japan), who in turn send it out to either Kodak or Fuji labs, most of the time I choose the Fuji lab because it's faster. I always ask for only developing and scans, no prints.<br /> I am worried about how much of the exposure is what I did during shooting and how much the lab did.<br /> One reason is, I want to experiment a bit with film and HDR/tonemapping of the scans. Taking bracketed exposures and processing the scans in Luminance HDR. But if the lab technician or the computer in the lab thinks that the pictures are under- or overexposed, and manipulates accordingly, that would be pointless. The point is that my negatives are under-/overexposed intentionally.<br /> I wonder if labs try to fix photos during developing and/or during scanning? Is there any way how I can find out if they do that, and also if there is something I can say to them (but my Japanese is not so good) when ordering the developing so that they do not do that?<br /> I want my film to be developed so that under-/overexposed negatives stay under-/overexposed, i.e. I want the negatives and scans to be as un-processed, un-meddled with as possible, but I don't know how to express that (especially not in Japanese).<br /> Thanks.<br /> --<br /> Camras I use: Canon EOS 620, Canon EOS Rebel Ti</p>

<p>With a very few exceptions, color negatives are always developed the same. But virtually all labs will correct for under/overexposure and also color balance when making prints. That's what most of their customers want.<br />If you want to be able to see the results of your intentional under/overexposing, the best way is to shoot slide film. Since there is no printing involved where the lab could adjust anything, what you shoot is what you get.<br />You can, of course, look at your developed negatives and it should be apparent to the eye which were under or overexposed. But you need to make a print or scan in order to see the final results. If you have a film scanner, you could set all of its controls on manual, then scan all the negatives at the same settings and see what they look like on the screen.<br />If you deal with a professional lab, you could also get contact sheets made of color negatives, and you would be able to see differences from shot to shot since a contract sheet is done with the same exposure and settings for the entire roll. You might also be able to get a pro lab to make prints of an entire roll all at the same settings. But shooting slide film is still the easiest way to get what you're asking for and the traditional way.</p>

<p>There's no way the lab would know how the film was exposed unless you told them. They're pretty much all developed the same and wouldn't change it even if you did tell them. Prints are a different matter.</p>

<p>The negative must be developed with a standard process and thus it will reveal if the in camera exposure was over or under. As many have said the lab will correct for exposure when making print but also when making scan. So if you have the lab scanning your negative they will try to get a normal looking scan within the capability of the film. For what you want to do it's best to do it yourself and because the negative has a lot of dynamic range you could do the HDR/tonemapping with a single exposure but scan the same negative twice.</p>

<p>Ask them to scan flat without color correction. I can't help you with the Japanese translation</p>

I worked in photo labs for many years and

c41film can't be push or pulled like b+w

You can try but it's not designed for it. If

my memory is correct the development time

is 2.25mins or something like that, that

doesn't give you much leeway. Also c41 has

more latitude to be overexposed compared

to underexposed.