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'Something' scratching my film


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5 minutes ago, grahamc said:

they aren’t little scratches, they are deep scores that sometimes span the width of an image.   Granted they are probably harder to see on these small samples but no one would want this on their photographs. If you can’t see or understand this then sorry but I’m getting troll vibes. 

This is the frenzy that has been stirred up, mention 'scratch' now and everybody's an expert with an auto knee jerk reaction, or is it just the jerk bit?

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5 hours ago, grahamc said:

Sure, a small scratch that falls on sky or similar could be cloned.

 

That 'solution' is fine for hybrid shooters but not for those of us who use an all-analog workflow.

I was using a well-regarded film lab in LA for a while and would routinely find defects in the negatives they returned to me - scratches, water spots, etc. Whenever I pointed the issues out to them, I got the feeling that I was the only one of their customers who ever complained.  Very doubtful I was the only one with problems, but it's likely that most of their customers used a hybrid workflow and simply cloned out the defects without every bringing them to the lab's attention.  If the lab gauged the quality of its work on the number of complaints it received, it probably thought it was doing great - it wasn't. 

I think these labs are getting lazy/complacent because they know that most film shooters are only ever going to scan their film and edit their images in Lightroom/Photoshop.  Fixing defects is a few mouse clicks away.

In the end, the lab did me a favor because it forced me to start developing my own film at home - with much better results.  

Edited by logan2z
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20 minutes ago, logan2z said:

That 'solution' is fine for hybrid shooters but not for those of us who use an all-analog workflow.

I was using a well-regarded film lab in LA for a while and would routinely find defects in the negatives they returned to me - scratches, water spots, etc. Whenever I pointed the issues out to them, I got the feeling that I was the only one of their customers who ever complained.  Very doubtful I was the only one with problems, but it's likely that most of their customers used a hybrid workflow and simply cloned out the defects without every bringing them to the lab's attention.  If the lab gauged the quality of its work on the number of complaints it received, it probably thought it was doing great - it wasn't. 

I think these labs are getting lazy/complacent because they know that most film shooters are only ever going to scan their film and edit their images in Lightroom/Photoshop.  Fixing defects is a few mouse clicks away.

In the end, the lab did me a favor because it forced me to start developing my own film at home - with much better results.  

+1
I experienced this decline in quality already years ago. Brought in a couple of HP5 films and had them developed and scanned at the oldest shop in town.
When I got it back, the grain was so heavy it looked as if it was pushed to 3200 (and it was just 400)
I went back to complain but the young guy, I spoke there, did not even know what film is like. According to him it was normal. Maybe for some lomo enthousiast but not for me!
Turns out that due to the low volumes they sent out their films to some amateur lab...

Changed strategy and choose to go directly to the last remaining professional lab in the region.

Film just like vinyl is reviving, but a large part of customers seem to buy low end gear to use it and embrace the imperfections rather than fight them like in the old days.

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35 minutes ago, logan2z said:

That 'solution' is fine for hybrid shooters but not for those of us who use an all-analog workflow.

I was using a well-regarded film lab in LA for a while and would routinely find defects in the negatives they returned to me - scratches, water spots, etc. Whenever I pointed the issues out to them, I got the feeling that I was the only one of their customers who ever complained.  Very doubtful I was the only one with problems, but it's likely that most of their customers used a hybrid workflow and simply cloned out the defects without every bringing them to the lab's attention.  If the lab gauged the quality of its work on the number of complaints it received, it probably thought it was doing great - it wasn't. 

I think these labs are getting lazy/complacent because they know that most film shooters are only ever going to scan their film and edit their images in Lightroom/Photoshop.  Fixing defects is a few mouse clicks away.

In the end, the lab did me a favor because it forced me to start developing my own film at home - with much better results.  

Yes, agree.  I was being polite by saying it could be cloned. That would be a reluctant edit, and impossible on certain images - for example the portrait where the score runs along much of the neg.  Like you, I don't agree with the original comment that scratches of this nature are acceptable at all from the lab.   Despite having a analogue > Digital workflow I also don't like changing the image much ... cloning out a large run of it would bug me for sure.

Edited by grahamc
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44 minutes ago, logan2z said:

That 'solution' is fine for hybrid shooters but not for those of us who use an all-analog workflow.

I was using a well-regarded film lab in LA for a while and would routinely find defects in the negatives they returned to me - scratches, water spots, etc. Whenever I pointed the issues out to them, I got the feeling that I was the only one of their customers who ever complained.  Very doubtful I was the only one with problems, but it's likely that most of their customers used a hybrid workflow and simply cloned out the defects without every bringing them to the lab's attention.  If the lab gauged the quality of its work on the number of complaints it received, it probably thought it was doing great - it wasn't. 

I think these labs are getting lazy/complacent because they know that most film shooters are only ever going to scan their film and edit their images in Lightroom/Photoshop.  Fixing defects is a few mouse clicks away.

In the end, the lab did me a favor because it forced me to start developing my own film at home - with much better results.  

If that lab is one that I am thinking of, their quality of work depended on who they were doing it for.

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