Any hope for my pictures?

[mary_b5]

I just got back my photos from being developed, and almost all of them look

really bad- they are very grainy, the colors are not bright, sort of washed out

looking. I am trying to figure out if the problem was in the developing process.

 

I took the pictures with a camera that I have used many times before with good

results. It is a Cannon eos rebel G film camera (not digital). I had seven

rolls of film that I had developed, and a few were kodak, and a few were fuji.

 

I will try to post a picture

 

I am wondering if the problem was with the developing or something else. Can

the photos be redone from the negitives with any better results, or are the

negitives now messed up as well?

 

I hate to think that all of the photos of some important are messed up.

 

Any help would be great.<div></div>

[phule]

The problem is that the prints are being over-exposed by an automatic process because the machine or machine opperator thinks the negatives are under-exposed (which they might be).

 

Go back and have them print a couple of these without corrections or find a lab that knows how to do it.

[john_pavlakis]

Also try to evaluate the negative itself: if it's dark, it will be light in the negative and you should be able to match up the streaky artifacts with the negative. It's not a direct test: if you see something clearly wrong in the picture and cannot see the match in the neg, then the problem is definitely in the print. If you see the problem in the negative, the print could be making it worse or the problem was in processing or the original exposure (or something happened to the film in the meantime). As suggested, go somewhere else.

[Fotohuis RoVo]

It seems to be that your film is a bit under exposed and the lab tried to compensate that a lot too much.

Result: very grainy, not bright colors.

 

If your negatives are dense enough it will not be any problem to reprint them much better, maybe done by somebody else.

 

Best regards,

 

Robert

[pico_digoliardi]

It would help to see more examples. The picture you showed has evidence of being terribly overexposed. Look at the trees to the left - you will see image doubling caused by camera movement.

 

When you hold a negative to the light, can you see a picture, or is it too dark?

[a._t.2]

Underexposed negs, and a terrible print. It can be made better, but you'll most likely still see the large grains due to the underexposure.

[charles_stobbs3]

Or was one or more of the processing chemicals too warm? If the negatives look like this there is not much hope.

[manjo]

Looks like expired high speed print film, you might not be able to avoid most of the grain you see on the negative but certainly you can improve the print if you take it to a pro shop.Try scanning the negative and see if you have color shift there.

[mad1]

it looks like x-ray damage... Had you go under X-ray somewhere?

[photo_smith]

What you see here are two things:

 

1: Underexposed neg showing no detail in the shadows, some flare. was the camera set to

auto or program?

 

2 The minilab has printed the thin neg for average values, coupled with poor exposure the

machine has tried to over compensate.

 

The massive grain and weird colours are due to the exposure value being set in the toe

area of the films response curve, where the colours are no longer linear.

 

Cure: tripod and longer exposure, sometimes sunsets need seconds of exposure and con

have reciprocity failure.

 

Get the lab to print for maximum black, ask the operator to print any sunsets at +2 to +3

density.

 

Mark

[josphy]

Wow everybody is coming up with some farfetched theories on this one. Very simple explanation. You have an underexposed (for the foreground) negative, that the machine is trying to lighten up resulting in a big grainy mess. What you need to do is have it reprinted and tell them to print for the sunset and just let the foreground go black. There is absolutely no detail in the foreground, so trying to get any detail out of it will only result in the grainy mess you have now.

[25asa]

I've seen Xray damage that produces similar problems here. Bands on the neg and washed out pictures that look under exposed. If the neg itself is quite dark compared to lighter normal negs, then its most likely Xray damage from the airports. The extra dark neg causes the film to lose contrast and hence look underexposed. If this is the case not much can be done other then jack up the contrast on the resulting pictures. As for your pic above darkenning it would help, but the banding is permanent.

[photo_smith]

All the X-Ray Damage I've seen is parrallel (like venitian blinds) just plain 'ol camera

shake (look at the lights in the dark area and also the tree) and gross underexposure/

printing too light.

here is my go at just darkening in PS

[photo_smith]

try again!<div></div>

[terence_spross1]

The simple fact that you have had seven rolls come back makes it less likely than it is a negative processing mistake, especially if they were developed in different batches, or with other peoples film between them. You can sometimes determine this by looking at the number they stick on the trailer remnant usually included with the negatives. If the rolls were developed one after another then the numbers will be sequential.

 

Compare good negatives to these negatives and look at the edges of the film. If they are fooged too then damage was done before you took them in for processing. Especially, does the banding go all the way to the the edge of the film? Unfortunatly, not much can be done either way with the negatives. The experiment of re-printing some at another lab will probably result in finding they were printed near the best way in the first place.

 

My guess is several things are going on here simultaneously, the film was exposed wrong, the film is fogged by a light-leak (or x-rays), maybe heat damage and/or expired film. And the example photo should have been taken with the camera mounted on a tripod.

 

The thing to figure is how this can be avoided again:

Use fresh film, don't overheat it (watch black camera bags in teh sun), if film is stored in the car for a few days and it will get hot in the car - put the film under the car seat - not the trunk or dash glove box. Process the film quickly, a few weeks after expposure maximum, if pro-film keep the film cold and process faster.

Possible camera problem, does the camera read the DX code on the film canister OK? Compare correct manual settings using the sunny 16 rule or a separate light meter (or another camera) with the settings chosen by the automatic function of the camera.

[A post I read recently, lamented ruined vacation photos because he put the address label on the film cartridge he usually puts on cartriges for processing BEFORE he put them in the camera, disabling the automatic film speed sensing.]

 

Were there other rolls that recently came out OK?