Hmm, I would imagine they would do regular tests with the machine using materials made for testing, I cant remember what their called, the strips you buy to test chemical condition.. I suppose as a result of this digital dominating time period that perhaps these tests aren't caries out as often as they should be!
Expose two sheets exactly the same and send to two labs.
Zak Baker
zakbaker.photo
"Sometimes I do get to places just when God's ready to have somebody click the shutter."
Ansel Adams
Why is doing E6 your self ridiculous????
It is most likely easier, cheaper, and for the most part will offer much better results if you do it yourself.
+1Originally Posted by koh303
Not hard. Perhaps not as top-quality as a (good) lab but I haven't had any problems with C-41 or E-6 films I've developed staying good for a few years. If they only last 25 instead of 50 I'll be okay.
Have a similar problem. 1 Lab with always good results, 1 Lab with sometimes underexposed results. But no colour casts. Now on 1 120 Film I got back from the second Lab I recognized the black parts arround the pictures to be not completely black but very deep red/black AND the writing on the edges of the film (Fuji Provia and so on) to be considerable darker orange. From the Lab with the good results the writing is the normal yellow colour I know from the past. Films were from the same 5x package. Perhaps you can compare that?
Are they closeups? Dont forget about bellows factor for exposure
To be honest the only way to go with E6 is to self process, it is no more difficult than B&W you just need to invest in a expert tank and processor. The problem labs have is having the amount of throughput to keep the line consistent , as far as I am aware there is only one lab in London still processing E6 and other labs offering the service are subbing it to them, so in the long run there is little choice but to do it yourself,
Right.... I will look into it then, I had always been told that processing anything colour by yourself produced inadequate results.. But anything I do couldn't be worse than the results I got back from the lab!
Thank you everyone for your advice!
If nothing else, one thing that developing E6 yourself avails you is feedback within 30 minutes of loading the tank with film. If you can find true 8-step E6 chemistry yet, there are variety of adjustments that can be made in processing to correct color shifts and you can even do clip tests and push/pull. Have not done my own E6 in several years, but ran a lot of it through a Jobo CPP including 4x5. Almost always got visibly brighter and cleaner colors than commercial labs because I was using chemistry as one-shot while they were all replenishing. Today, E6 has become so hard to find anyone competent to process--let alone the local guys I could walk in and hand it off and be back for my film in a couple of hours, those guys are all long shuttered-- I find there's little to no incentive to shoot it over C41. I can understand the aesthetics of looking at a transparency but for a reality check I might ask, what subjects in 4x5 can't be done better with C41 now-- particularly if scanning?
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