This page contains entries from my general weblog that I deem to be in some way connected with photography, or the visual arts generally. I actually do think these things belong together. My pro photo lab episode at home in Munich ended in tears as a result of a defective usb stick mine, not the fault of the lab in any way , resulting in me urgently needing to get large, high quality digital prints done in London on a Saturday. Googling revealed no pro labs in central London that appeared to be open at weekends.
Not any more, apparently. So what to do? What to do, I figured out, was go to a pro camera shop and ask the people there what they would do. Calumet on Drummond Street is big, reasonably central and open on Saturdays, so off I went.
Indeed he is. It has The Smell. The price list prominently features the correct now becoming obscure items like medium format film and slide processing. She fires up the Mac — no Windows PCs here, another good sign — and helps me choose which of the various versions of my file are going to look best on their printer.
The prints, collected the next morning, are great. But you have to be willing to put in the time and effort, and I have other priorities at the moment. I was getting increasingly unhappy with my Epson R It only had one big flaw: murky green-tinged skin tones in shadows. But the vast majority of photos I want to print these days are pictures of grandchildren for grandmothers, so a major flaw in skin tones is a fatal flaw.
I downloaded different printer profiles, I spent hours staring at soft proofs in Photoshop. Problem not fixed. I stopped using the printer a year ago and switched to online print services; last month I finally sold the printer. But last week I wanted something bigger and fancier than a run of the mill online print as a birthday present for my mother. Admittedly still grandchildren. But a big, top notch print of the grandchildren. Quick googling revealed that the Munich pro lab I used to use back in the days of film is still going, albeit under a new name and at a new location that is less convenient than the old one, but nicer.
