This is a photo that came out much nicer than I expected it might, which is always a nice thing to happen. Taken a short while after yesterday’s image of the church at Thorpe Salvin, this was maybe a quarter mile away. Luckily I’d brought my Sigma 105mm lens with me which gave me just enough reach to make the picture. I don’t think it would have worked with the 28-80mm as the tree would have been too small in the photo and other distractions would have crept in at the sides.
I like the minimalism and the colours (although they’re probably a little warmer than they were in reality – I tried a re-scan of this shot on my Plustek too, but it looked much worse than the lab’s Nortisu scan).
Nikon F80, Sigma 105mm f/2.8 OS HSM & Kodak Gold 200.
Taken on 31 May 2020
Steel City Snapper photography 
Nice photo
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Beautiful photo — I love the warmth and grain of Kodak Gold (and ColorPlus). Sadly, most labs in my part of the world frequently ruin it by cranking saturation and sharpening up to the max in their scan settings, to the point basically nothing is redeemable in post, especially since most won’t supply anything but JPEGs. It would seem you’ve found a lab that actually knows what they’re doing. They’re few and far between over here.
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Thanks P.
The lab I use do a pretty good job. They’re very competitively priced too. I’ve not tried any other lab’s services (for scanning at least) and it would be interesting to see how they compare. The higher prices many of them charge dissuades me from experimenting though.
I also find it frustrating that most labs don’t provide sample scans on their websites. I might be persuaded to pay for a higher cost scan if I could see a clear difference in quality before commiting.
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Agreed, any lab worth their salt should provide sample scans, either on their site or upon request, graciously and without hesitation, but very few do. Just like they should be providing TIFFs by default, at no extra cost (because it’s no extra time/effort/cost for them), and not garbage JPEGs. Just like they shouldn’t be charging an arm and a leg for a service (scanning) that only takes them a few minutes to perform and has no real material costs involved. Just like they should have lab operators that actually know what they’re doing. And so on… But alas, all these things are becoming increasingly rare. I just don’t get it. It’s ridiculous if you ask me, and I don’t know why more film shooters don’t demand better. I can only assume most doing business with these types of labs are clueless, and those who aren’t clueless gave up on labs long ago and do everything themselves with their own equipment at home. The problem with this is that for those like myself who don’t have the means to invest in a good quality scanner, the labs have us between a rock and a hard place. They know it, and wrongfully exploit us. I’m glad you have a lab that hasn’t gone down that path, and who is doing quality work at a fair price. You’re very lucky. I can tell you from my personal experiences with a tremendous number of labs in my part of the world that very few could care less about the customer at all, or about the quality of their work.
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The pro labs I’ve used here in the UK have all been pretty good. I have had problems with some of the high street chains in the past though, where the quality was poor (the reason that I started paying extra to use pro labs in fact).
I think the problem with these stores is that film is no longer their core business. Now it’s mostly around printing digital images from memory cards or smart phones, so the the experience and expertise has probably been lost to some degree where film processing is concerned, and the quality of service will have declines alongside it.
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A wonderful sense of calm in this image. I was just wondering, if you did’n have the zoom lens, is there a possibility to walk closer to the tree? It looks like a beautiful location to explore further.
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Thanks Yuri.
I don’t think it’s possible in this case to get closer. There are no footpaths across the field where it stands unfortunately.
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What lovely color, and what a wonderful gradient across that sky. Well done.
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Thanks Jim. It was a lovely morning. Cool and crisp. I think, had I gotten out of my bed earlier, there might have been some mist too.
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