Making Lab Quality Digital Photos?

photoFinished asks: How do most photo labs produce their digital prints? It seems to me that there should be a machine that uses an LCD to create a virtual negative to expose standard photo paper to, resulting in a standard-type photograph as the end result. However, since just about every CVS, Walgreens and other pharmacy advertises the ability to produce prints from your digital photos, I'm wondering if there's a quality difference between the various stores? I can produce a 4x6 on a $100 name-brand ink jet that appears virtually identical to a lab print when you look at it behind glass, the only difference is a light reduction in the smooth/glossiness you get from a regular print. Does anyone have information on the methods used by the various chain pharmacies produce their prints? I'd hate to think that the $0.40 I'm paying for each 4x6 is actually nothing more then the result of an expensive ink jet printer. Sorry if this is one of those 'you should try google' type of questions, but I couldn't find the answers I was looking for."

Comments

Yes

[Profane MuthaFucka]

The answer to your question is 'yes'. You might get ink-jet produced pictures, or optically produced and enlarged prints. It depends on what the lab has for equipment.

And quit spending so much for prints. Try someone else. I've had great results from Clark Color Labs, but they are not the only ones that do good quality cheap prints. Clark charges 11 cents when you get 50 or more 4x6 prints, or 12 cents for less than 50 prints. There's some others that are even cheaper. Check out your local grocery store, Target, etc to see what they charge. 40 cents is too much.

I did this years ago, to pay the bills.

[Neck_of_the_Woods]

I worked a photo shop at one point to pay the bills. Years ago they where already doing this in a Fuji photo machine. All the chemical baths are in one system about the size of a large xerox machine.

You could use a digital copy, which was rare at the time, scan a neg in, or scan a positive in. Did not matter, enlarge, reduce..etc..etc. to photo quality paper. That did and actual photo chemical bath process. It was rather revolutionary to have it in a mall at the time about 13 years ago.

Hell I did all my photo homework on it for 2 years. What took people 20 hours of lab work I could do in 45 seconds. I still think the director of photography might be confused to this day.....

Re:Why do we hang on to analog?

[cr0sh]

When you meet your friends in the pub after your holiday, do you want to drag along your laptop to show them the pics, or do you want to hand round a set of 6x4 prints and laugh about how drunk you all were at the restaurant when the waiter took your photo?

No - I want to whip out my high-resolution PDA and use the thumbwheel to scroll through the images.

Do you want to buy an expensive LCD virtual picture frame for every room in the house, or do you just want to stick a 10x8 print in a clip frame?

Actually, yes, I would love to have LCD frames or plasma screens instead of real pictures, all networked into my fileserver and the web with touchscreen and other capability. Unfortunately it isn't cheap to do this, but prices are dropping rapidly like rocks - someday soon it will be easily affordable.

Do you enjoy the tactile sense of flicking through an album as opposed to scrolling through thumbnails?

I would enjoy being able to call up any photo image I wanted to from any screen in my home (or at work, or at a web terminal in Fiji, wherever) via a quick and easy to use search interface, rather than having to hunt around for a particular image in a particular photo album on a particular page. Then I could forward the link or a copy to someone via email or IM...

There are as many reasons for wanting physical prints as there are for wanting paper books and magazines - although if you have a stack of photos next to the toilet, it's probably not for the same reason ;-)

If I could buy an e-ink "book", onto which I could upload and view any e-book I wanted to, all with a simple flick of button or scrollwheel, I would buy one in a heartbeat (I have given thought to a used rocketbook reader). Books have advantages for extended reading over current monitor display technology which make them easier on the eyes for extended periods of viewing time. One rarely stares at a picture for an extended period of time, which makes them a better suited for all-digital use. Even so, hopefully full color e-ink displays with high resolution and high refresh rates (and low power consumption) are created, as these types of display would be ideal for all sorts of digital media, and would eliminate a lot of eyestrain for all tasks.