Hey Folks!

Here are a couple of my test prints from slides- I only made three from the batch to see how they would turn out. In general, the color rendition is pretty nice but I found the images to be remarkably fuzzy. These exposures were made on Provia 100 and then 5x7 prints were made and scanned.


This shot was made from right across the street south of the light. The sky was a nice shade of purple as the sun just began to sneak over the horizon so I used this shot to test color rendition:



This exposure was taken from North Beach about 1/2 hour after sunrise. I was using it to test for sharpness using a small aperture. I timed it for when there was not much of a breeze:



Looking at both of these slides projected and through a 10x loupe, I know they should be a lot sharper. They obviously aren't custom made. What are the various options for making prints from slides? I believe in this case a negative was made from the slide and then processed- I could do this myself at home, probably with better results. Someone else mentioned that pictures can be scanned and then laser printed onto photo paper. What should I ask for?

Chris

Here's the final shot- it didn't scan too well:



[This message has been edited by Hanifich (edited 06-18-2002).]

[This message has been edited by Hanifich (edited 06-18-2002).]

Sorry folks, it looks like I am running into the same wall Jake ran into. If you right click photos that have successfully posted from Dotphoto and then on the Dotphoto logos above you will note a radical change in the web address format. I guess I can't complain about a free service too much. But it also looks like I'm headed to Clubphoto. This seems to be a rapidly growing trend among these sites, though.

If you are dying to see pictures from Dotphoto it looks like you can right click the logo to get the address of the photo and then cut and paste it into your browser address bar. I'll get the pics up here as soon as I can.

Chris




[This message has been edited by Hanifich (edited 06-18-2002).]

Without seeing the images, if they are 'fuzzy' or the color isn't perfect, I'd take them right back to the place that made them for you. No excuse for the color being off or the image to be fuzzy when they have a perfect image to what it actually looks like.

I think you're right John- these prints should be going back. I think I am going to first get identical prints made with a little more individual attention for comparison. What do I ask the lab? If their images are hand printed instead of machine? It seems to me that if they are simply making a negative of the image to print from, slide film really doesn't have that much of an advantage- it would require making a copy of a copy which must degrade the image tremendously.

Chris,
There's no excuse for fuzzy or off-color prints. John is absolutely right. They've got a slide there for a color guide! A good photo lab also won't have to make an internegative and, even if they did, there is no reason for it not to be sharp enough for you not to see a difference without considerable magnification! Take 'em back and complain.... LOUDLY!

Gary

Chris, I get my slides processed, select the ones I like,(the keepers), if I want prints I take the slides to the lab, there is never a problem with quality. Since I'm a "newbie" with computer stuff and have no scanner, I let the lab scan a few to a disc for me, again never a problem. Seems you should scan from the slide and not from the print from the slide, my un-learned opinion.

Bud (nice pictures, though)

Most what I would call "quickie" photo processing operations aren't set up well to deal with the slides -> prints operation. Scanning the slides to disk and then working from the digitized version is probably the easiest way to go if you don't personally have a slide scanner or access to a professional photo lab. A good professional lab can take your slide and go straight to a print via what would probably best be called a digital "capture" of the slide image by their equipment. That is they make a digital copy in their printer and then generate the print for you directly from that digital version of the slide. The investment in one of this pieces of hardware is pretty stiff so you won't find them at most walk-up photo ops in stores like WalMart or whatever your local equivalent is. I've had large prints, up to 16x20 done directly from slides that way and the quality is superb, with no loss of resolution and absolutely zero loss of color accuracy. Hope that this helps some.

Gary

For my 2 cents worth, I prefer having the control over my slides that I do scanning my own, printing what I want and the quantities I want from 4x6 up to 8x10. If I want larger than that (which I did as a Christmas present for a special someone last year), I put a larger size file on a cd, and had a professional photo lab print what I wanted. For 3-12x18's laser jet printed and laminated, the cost was very inexpensive.



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Terry (Only my mother, brothers & sisters call me Teresa) Forrest