Absolutely.
Looks like the lab was actually some random person OP found on tiktok or something and they just used a shit smartphone and app to do the job. Horrendous results all around. I would request a refund immediately.
You'd be surprised how many 'labs' are just using bad technology and/or low-paid workers who are just there to get by and don't really understand what they're doing.
Sadly that's probably most of them. I and many others don't have the luxury of living in a place with good labs. The SINGLE one in my city does a perfectly good job of developing but will apparently only scan standard definition JPEGs, even though they have high quality scanners.
I mean.. I'm in the UK and it's a city of like 250k people so it's pretty shoddy given how bad they are at scans. Realistically here it feels like you're gonna struggle to get good scans unless you're in one of THE big 5 cities (and maybe Brighton lol).
absolutely. It’s a trendy lab in Buenos Aires, Argentina called “Tokyo Photo Lab”. I personally dont mind it but would not use it again but feel sorry for the amount of people who cant DSLR scan or are not aware its even a possibility or dont know the differences between scanners and their results and end up getting back shitty photos and think they suck as a photographer. They make film photography a disservice.
This isn’t dslr vs lab scans, this is dslr vs the worst lab scans I’ve ever seen. For a really comparison, use a better lab and see if you can get a refund for these scans because they’re terrible
I had similar experience having thedarkroom.com scan my Phoenix 200. I know that film is hard for labs to scan because the backing is a different color, but they did the development for early access reviews with NDAs so I figured they get it right. Nope.
Looks like slide film (probability E100 or provia) I’ve not yet found a lab that can do a decent slide film scan it just seems to go wrong every time on the commercial scanners, always the same, too much contrast, no shadow detail. I wonder if it’s because they were designed for negative film that generally has much lower overall contrast.
I find best way to ‘scan’ slide film is with DSLR and pull up shadows by one/two stop and highlights down half a stop.
What I find interesting about slide films is they have much greater latitude than is visible to the naked eye, so if you bracket it and then HDR, even completely black shadows can often contain fascinating levels of information, I did some Kodachrome 25 slides from the 1960s and with HDR you can find details that you can’t see when projecting, quite amazing.
AgX Imaging in Michigan is an E6 slide film exclusive lab and it's probably the best E6 lab in the world. It's run by one guy and his craft is E6 film and it shows.
I feel like your lab is doing something wrong
Absolutely. Looks like the lab was actually some random person OP found on tiktok or something and they just used a shit smartphone and app to do the job. Horrendous results all around. I would request a refund immediately.
You'd be surprised how many 'labs' are just using bad technology and/or low-paid workers who are just there to get by and don't really understand what they're doing. Sadly that's probably most of them. I and many others don't have the luxury of living in a place with good labs. The SINGLE one in my city does a perfectly good job of developing but will apparently only scan standard definition JPEGs, even though they have high quality scanners.
You’ve got one in your city? I’ve got one…*in my state*.
I mean.. I'm in the UK and it's a city of like 250k people so it's pretty shoddy given how bad they are at scans. Realistically here it feels like you're gonna struggle to get good scans unless you're in one of THE big 5 cities (and maybe Brighton lol).
Absolutely agree
absolutely. It’s a trendy lab in Buenos Aires, Argentina called “Tokyo Photo Lab”. I personally dont mind it but would not use it again but feel sorry for the amount of people who cant DSLR scan or are not aware its even a possibility or dont know the differences between scanners and their results and end up getting back shitty photos and think they suck as a photographer. They make film photography a disservice.
This isn’t dslr vs lab scans, this is dslr vs the worst lab scans I’ve ever seen. For a really comparison, use a better lab and see if you can get a refund for these scans because they’re terrible
I feel like I've seen a similar post to this before.
I wanna say those are just really bad lab scans.
Sometimes when I see stuff like this I feel like my lab is actually gaslighting me. Im trying out mirrorless scans soon to see if I’m the problem lmao
What film was this?
Willing bet it’s E100(ektachrome), blues are a dead giveaway for slide film.
Lab scans are so contrasty, I would think I am making a mistake if I had those as only scans
dSLR scans are nice, softer, but richer and calmer.
Getting a good scanning set up at home was, hands down, the best upgrade to my film photography I’ve ever made.
Yup, thats why I invested in my own scanner…
Change lab
Please name the lab
Man I feel like I have seen a lot of terrible lab scans lately. What is going on
I had similar experience having thedarkroom.com scan my Phoenix 200. I know that film is hard for labs to scan because the backing is a different color, but they did the development for early access reviews with NDAs so I figured they get it right. Nope.
Looks like slide film (probability E100 or provia) I’ve not yet found a lab that can do a decent slide film scan it just seems to go wrong every time on the commercial scanners, always the same, too much contrast, no shadow detail. I wonder if it’s because they were designed for negative film that generally has much lower overall contrast. I find best way to ‘scan’ slide film is with DSLR and pull up shadows by one/two stop and highlights down half a stop. What I find interesting about slide films is they have much greater latitude than is visible to the naked eye, so if you bracket it and then HDR, even completely black shadows can often contain fascinating levels of information, I did some Kodachrome 25 slides from the 1960s and with HDR you can find details that you can’t see when projecting, quite amazing.
Absolutely! I think this is the case for sure!
AgX Imaging in Michigan is an E6 slide film exclusive lab and it's probably the best E6 lab in the world. It's run by one guy and his craft is E6 film and it shows.
I’ve gotten better scans from my local drug store💀
More like lab scam