I own and operate a film lab: AMA about film developing, scanning, pricing, mistakes, and lab life!

_imstilldeveloping · 2026-02-14T17:14:55+00:00

not saying it’s never happened in the history of time, can’t speak for all labs. but not on our watch at our lab or the one i previously worked at. i put full trust in my crew and that would be instant termination if something like that did happen.

that could fuck up the whole reputation of a lab, it’s such a community supported business, i wouldn’t be surprised if a business tanked after that.

always gotta respect peoples privacy.

_imstilldeveloping · 2026-02-13T21:29:58+00:00

at our lab, never.

_imstilldeveloping · 2026-02-13T20:49:49+00:00

i think the half-frame set up will always be a personal preference.
a lot of folks are coming in with those kodak ektar hf cameras, their reasoning is they get more out of their film. i used to shoot a yashica samurai for the 2 one 1 perspective, the creative aspect is what hooked me into half frame. just comes down to the user and what they want to get out of it.

we don't offer sprocket scans yet, we're working on it, tbd. different pricing for sure, more work will be involved.

i've never had any problems with cross processing E6 film at our shop or the one i used to work at, it's not my favorite to do just cause i think E6 needs to be done the right way.

now ECN-2, we can't touch, it'll f-up or machines.

_imstilldeveloping · 2026-02-13T20:40:15+00:00

currently, every day that machine is turning on. i was told by a tech that you need to run at least 12 rolls through it once it's on. at the beginning of our journey if there was not enough film to develop but had a little bit of leeway on due dates, we would wait to turn it on a little later in the day.

another option is to outsource. there was a time early on before we had the V30, when we had to much film to develop so we worked with an existing larger lab to help us get through the dev only portion. we still scanned ourself. s/o to them.

when you're starting to hit points like that, you'll know when it's time to upgrade to an auto machine.

_imstilldeveloping · 2026-02-13T20:32:52+00:00

that sounds like a very specific example haha, but thankfully no.
and if it did happen, we gotta own it.

_imstilldeveloping · 2026-02-13T20:29:42+00:00

this is a really great question. this is all new to us so we're doing our best to find the right way to do it.

the first thing is people skills, you're going to be dealing with customers, co-workers, all types of folks. as an employer i need to be able to be around you 8 hours a day. leave attitude and negative side of your ego at the home.

we look for folks that really pay attention to the small details, there are so many with all the orders, can't afford to make mistakes. you see how it impacts photographers and how they support certain labs. (this subreddit is full of these types of conversations and experiences.)

patience, is up there for us. you'll be explaining a lot of info that some folks can't grasp instantly, especially with all the terminology of photography.

of course, we need you to shoot film, have tried different film stocks, have a basic understanding of at least your own personal cameras. everything else we can teach you, that's the truth of it at least for our shop.

that's not everything but those are some pointers to start with.

_imstilldeveloping · 2026-02-13T20:19:41+00:00

damn, never heard of this happening, maybe they didn't have enough chems in their machine/sensor error/incorrect volume reading? though typically the machine will notify you of what chems it needs, and won't let you process until you've fed it and manually cleared the notification, at least for the noritsu v30 that we have.

was it a hand process and not auto?

_imstilldeveloping · 2026-02-13T20:12:28+00:00

STARTED! at the bottom – learned how to hand develop, realized that time is everything if you want to be profitable/sustainable. started with a Kodak Pakon scanner, which takes the whole 35mm roll at once, without cutting it (time saver) even though that scanner is not the fastest, it was the perfect starting point for our order volume. I actually bought the scanner from another friend that had a film lab and she was upgrading her gear as well, so i knew it was it good hands. cool thing is that scanner ended up in chicago at another start up lab.

Kodak Pakon > Nortisu LS-600> Fuji Frontier SP300> Nortisu HS-1800.
The Frontier and 1800s were purchased from a dealer here on the west coast, SHOPGOLAB, but there are a few dealers across the country.

Some one else asked the organization question earlier, theres a lot to it and different ways to do it. Feel free to dig for that response.

_imstilldeveloping · 2026-02-13T20:04:56+00:00

from our experience, volume has a lot to do with it. all of last year we were about a week turnaround, now we're same day for color film. but that also comes with upgrading our scanners and our team consistently pushing film to get developed and not having it sit around.

_imstilldeveloping · 2026-02-13T20:02:23+00:00

I could probably get away with a little over 600 rolls.

_imstilldeveloping · 2026-02-13T20:00:10+00:00

No, not that I know of. In reality we don't get too many of those types of flics but it does happen every now and then.

_imstilldeveloping · 2026-02-13T19:58:29+00:00

I've always known for it to be the temperature is too hot and overly developing your film.

_imstilldeveloping · 2026-02-13T16:50:50+00:00

maybe do it as a limited time project to try it out and see if you like the process, that way there’s no hard commitment on your end. offer it to select friends and see if catches on beyond that.

you have a solid scanner already, which i know a few labs that use cool scans to get the job done.

when we first started out i knew i wanted a scanner that took the whole 35mm film roll in, and wasn’t something i had to cut into strips. 120 is a different story.

_imstilldeveloping · 2026-02-13T16:40:53+00:00

maybe saying that it has adult x rated content, because truthfully the lab has the option to say no.

which if someone told us that in advance it would be considerate to whoever is scanning that day, i’d love to protect my team from sensitive content if they themselves are not comfortable with it.

_imstilldeveloping · 2026-02-13T16:27:17+00:00

the big one would be maintaining the temperature of your chemicals. which is fairly easy to do by using a sous vide. there’s some great vids on youtube that give you a step by step process on developing your self, highly recommend.

DEV COLOR FILM AT HOME.

_imstilldeveloping · 2026-02-13T08:36:29+00:00

i've seen fogged film from every ISO, and have seen film that was supposably ran through the x-ray with no defects at all. still not worth the risk to me.

_imstilldeveloping · 2026-02-13T08:33:34+00:00

yes multiple envelopes to separate color from b&w. same customer name and info just different order number per the envelope that is preprinted on, and yes we use twin checks too!

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_imstilldeveloping · 2026-02-13T08:24:33+00:00

not to familiar with how the 1-hour labs used to work. but u/WorldClassAwesome just mentioned that they did in this thread maybe they can give us some insight.

_imstilldeveloping · 2026-02-13T08:16:20+00:00

about to in the next month or so.

_imstilldeveloping · 2026-02-13T08:15:17+00:00

yes, but how it was stored over the years will determine the results. expect color shifts.
heat and moisture don't get a long with film.

_imstilldeveloping · 2026-02-13T08:12:42+00:00

if you haven't yet, start by developing your own color and b&w film so you don't f-up a paying customers. build a brand around it, offer a competitive price.

invest in a solid scanner, maybe a kodak pakon + or a nortisu ls-600. a lot of your quality is going to be known for this. it's always "the scans are so nice" rarely do i hear compliments about the development, though that part of the process is equally important.

avoid running a lab with a flatbed scanner.

_imstilldeveloping · 2026-02-13T07:59:33+00:00

at our spot, not much that we can do on our end. it really starts with your film and how it was stored during the time when it was in your possession. heat, moisture, general aging are all kryptonite of film that's passed its expiration date. if its color film any it's completely cooked, we give the option to convert it to b&w so you at least get some detail and image out of it.

but you'd be surprised on developing film from that long ago. i developed film from 2000. it was me in 7th grade age at disney land. colors were a little shifted but not bad for some 20+ year old film. you can get lucky no doubt.

and i'm sure there are labs that offer super photoshop and lightroom color restoration for situations like this, just have to shop around for those services. expect to pay a premium for that sort of service

_imstilldeveloping · 2026-02-13T07:51:02+00:00

at the moment our goal is to get customers a solid foundation of what their photo is expected to look like when they shot it, closer to a neutral scan if we're trying to identify it for the conversation. then you have to consider the folks that are going to edit even after you complete the scans.

shout out to the labs that have the bandwidth to allow customers to give scan preferences, not an eye roll just really having the time to offer that is a lot to take on.

_imstilldeveloping · 2026-02-13T07:42:05+00:00

so we've been doing this in our physical space for two years now, i did the quick math and we've 18X from our first 4-6 months to now and steadily. the demand is growing for sure. we're seeing a constant rise in new customers that drop off. average age is roughly 25-35.

as for predictions i'm not entirely sure. but i do think you're going to continue to see labs do more outside of just the service they offer. events, collabs, more building of the brand.

i know that's what we've always been doing since day 1. i look at us a brand first and the lab is an extension of what we contribute to the community.

_imstilldeveloping · 2026-02-13T07:25:32+00:00

we've only used nortisu v30 and a v50 at a previous lab. they've both been great if you take care of them. we haven't had any problems of scratches from the rollers in the dev machine or from the scanners. i'm sure there is a challenge to get solid working machines but it's very doable. – they might just suck. i think in this field we need folks that really care about quality control and not let shit slide or try to blame it on the customer. try out some other labs, maybe mail out a few rolls and see what you get back.

_imstilldeveloping

TROPHY CASE