Black and white processing in London

[steve kessel]

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I've just started black and white film photography. Does anyone have recommendations as to processors in the London area, particularly somewhere willing to advise on how to get the best from their service.

[Nick De Marco]

I use Snappy Snaps in Fleet Street for my normal b&w. They have a guy there who used to work in a professional lab and they do a very good service. I think so anyway.

 

Neopan 400 developed by Snappy Snaps and scanned on my home Nikon Cool scan:

 

 

I use Metro in Clerkenwell for developing infrared. No complaints there either:

 

 

Nick

 

Nick De Marco's Photo Galleries at pbase.com

[topoxforddoc]

Steve,

 

Have you thought about DIY processing? It really is easy. The materials you need to develop B/W film won't cost you any more than say £30 and then each film cost about 50p, if that, to process. You can then scan and print off your inkjet.

 

You'll need a changing bag, a daylight tank, thermometer, measuring flasks (graduates), can opener (to open the film cassettes), scissors and a few bulldog clips to hang the film (I hang mine from my shower curtain rail). For chemicals just try something easily available like ilford ilfosol (works fine on slow and fast films) with some stop and fixer (whatever you can get your hands on). The trickiest bit is loading the film onto the reel (but that's not really hard) and the rest my six year old can do in the kitchen. If you ty it, you'll never go back to a lab again.

 

If you want a read, try Michael Langford's Darkroom Handbook, which is widely available. Ilford did a cracking thin booklet, which is now sadly out of print.

 

Charlie

[andybarton]

Here's a great place to start if you want to DIY

 

ILFORD PHOTO Website - Applications

[wattsy]

Danny Pope (Matchless Prints) in Lamb's Conduit Street has a reputation for doing a fine job with black and white.

[steve kessel]

Nick, Charlie, Andy, Ian

 

Thank you all.

 

Each of your suggestions seems worth following up. I fancy the convenience of all-in-one processing first off, especially as I don't have a scanner. I did a first roll at Colorama which was miserable - I'll put that down to exposure inexperience.

 

The bag is tempting too as a first half-step to trying darkroom printing. Feels good to have options.

 

Best wishes.

 

Steve.

[topoxforddoc]

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Problem with most minilabs is that they just machine print and even out the prints exposures over the roll. That probably explains your disappointment with colorama.

 

Charlie