In the far distant past (sixties) you could get connected to the tech who actually printed your photos. After a while he knew what your style was and could produce pretty much what you would have produced. This was how pro-labs operated back then.
Then they put a pretty airhead at the front desk, so not to waste the tech's time talking to customers. Then they discovered that since the tech didn't have to follow instructions they could replace him with another airhead. That is when it all went to hell.
Now here is the $64 question. Why go digital if you are not going to do it yourself?
graywolf http://www.graywolfphoto.com "Idiot Proof" <==> "Expert Proof" -----------------------------------
William Robb wrote:
----- Original Message ----- From: "Markus Maurer" Subject: RE: Leica digital back no longer vapourware
Even when I explicitly state that I do not want any corrections or crops on
my photos and even when
the online service seems to guaranty that,
I still **never** receive what I ordered nowadays :-(
They can not even tell me the *exact dimensions* (only only estimates on
the website) of
the enlargement, so 30 centimeters length could be as well 27 centimeters on
the print!
If you are shooting digital, make sure you have a calibration on your system that matches the calibration on the lab. Make sure your files are tagged for the same DPI as the lab, and then size the file to what you want.
Make sure the colour space you send to the lab is one they recognize.
If you are shooting film, remember that you are working with a human being, not a faceless automaton.
Don't be condescending to the lab tech, they deal with fools all day long. A bombastic fool is worse than the regular sort.
I spend so much of my time fixing peoples screw ups that I tend to do it automatically. This means that I am second guessing the photographer out of habit. If I guess wrong, I appreciate being thanked for trying but....., rather than being told off by some jerk that figures his picture is something special (most of em are just another bride with a scared chicken expression or a baby with Chef Boy R Dee on his face, and your pretty sunset is something I have seen a dozen times before, probably done better 11 of those times.
In all cases, deal with real people at the lab. The online web service that they foisted on me gives me the willies.
And not the regular kind, either.
William Robb
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