Any black-and-white printer will tell you it`s no easy task to print a black-and-white photograph. It is, rather, an art, involving infinite shades of tones and contrasts.
”From any given negative,” says Ron Gordon, owner of Ron Gordon Photographic Services, ”you can make 25 prints, all different, and they`re all good. It`s subjective.”
All the more reason for photographers who work in black and white-and yet can`t print all (or any) of their own work-to search out a custom lab that can and will do it their way.
In most parts of the country, that`s easier said than done. With color photography enjoying a near monopoly in the amateur market and taking a great chunk of the pie in the commercial arena, black-and-white photo labs have become an endangered species. Often the only nod commercial labs give to the needs of black-and-white photographers is machine printing, one of the least successful developments in photography.
But photographers who live and work in the Chicago area are in the right place, because in custom black-and-white lab competitions, Chicago is right there at the top.
Following is a look at the best-known of these labs. Many of their services overlap, and we have not listed every process that the different labs perform. Please call the lab to ascertain whether it does a process not mentioned under its name here. (Most of the labs also offer color service.)
Astra Photo Service
Astra opened its doors in 1955, the first black-and-white custom lab in Chicago. All film at Astra is processed by hand. Photographers can also request special developers, including T-Max. About 16 printers keep the flow of 400 to 1,000 prints a day moving. All prints are done by hand, and the lab keeps a wide selection of photographic papers available for special requests. The same dodging and burning-in skills taught in photography classes are practiced by the printers. An 8-by-10 print at Astra is $8. (All prices quoted for 8-by-10s in this story are for double-weight black-and-white fiber prints.)
Donna Zwirek, manager of Astra, encourages photographers to ask for any special effects they want. Astra will flop negatives, sandwich one with another or tone or hand-color a print. ”The really important thing that we do,” says Zwirek, ”is that we`re willing to solve customers` problems. We`re geared to people who want something special. We offer such a range of services that we can be versatile.”
Astra will keep customers` negatives on file indefinitely and free of charge. ”Some of our negatives go back 20 years,” says Zwirek. The negative file makes it possible for a photographer to order a print by phone and keeps the negatives accessible to the photographer`s clients, with the photographer`s permission, when the photographer is out of town.
Zwirek stresses that the lab is careful to tear up any leftover prints
(”Nobody could go through our trash and get a print”) and to always
”check out” copyrights. If there is a copyright notice on a slide or on the back of a print to be copied, the lab calls the customer. ”We won`t do a job if the client can`t get permission to print the image,” she says.
Astra recently acquired a fax machine, and Zwirek reports that lots of photographers are faxing their orders and sometimes special cropping information to the lab.
Gamma Photo Labs
Gamma Photo Labs is the city`s largest, daily processing between 300 and 500 rolls of film (both roll and sheet) and printing 400 to 600 proof/contact sheets and 800 to 1,000 photographs ranging in size from 5 by 7 to 20 by 24.
Gamma does all the processing and printing by hand, and it`s the only lab in the city that routinely develops film by inspection. This allows Serope Azizian, who develops most of the film, to compensate for a photographer`s unintentional exposure error during development. A wide range of special developers is available; one photographer used many of them to test the effects of different developers on a new film.
Gamma employs about 20 printers. Eight of them have their own darkrooms, while the others share three large darkrooms. The lab uses fiber-based paper for all its prints (RC or resin coated paper is used only for proof sheets and some murals) and keeps an unusually large variety of papers on hand. An 8-by- 10 print at Gamma costs $8.
Jack Leblebijian, who oversees the black-and-white lab, has been at Gamma since it opened 29 years ago. His 40-plus years of experience in processing and printing black-and-white film makes him a fund of information for photographers with special problems. One technique Leblebijian uses often (at the request of the photographer) is bleaching a print to make the whites of the eyes stand out (he keeps cotton swabs and a small bowl of potassium ferracyanide mixture next to the hypo and water-rinse trays).
Gamma offers an extensive range of services, from unusual toning (besides the tradition sepia and selenium, it offers any number of colors, including gold and rose) to solarizing (both negative and print) to posterizing, bleaching and hand-coloring. It also keeps a negative file where customers may store their negatives at no charge.
The lab also makes murals, working from any negative 35 mm. or larger. Murals are printed on fiber paper or on Ilford RC paper and range to any size, with panels going from 20 by 30 to 50 by 100 inches. Mounting is available for all sizes of photographs.
Ron Gordon Photographic Services
His lab may be small-it processes only 50 to 150 rolls of film a week-but the quality is tops, says Ron Gordon. In fact, Gordon refers to his lab as
”like having your own darkroom.”
Gordon`s lab develops all film by hand. Though the lab will use any developer a photographer requests, Gordon prefers a standard developer, tailored to how he likes to print. ”It`s slightly soft,” he says, ”so the negatives aren`t blocked up and can be printed on a higher contrast paper.”
The lab`s five or six printers (depending on how busy the lab is) will print on ”anything photographers want,” but the standard fare is Oriental or Agfa papers. ”It may take an hour to make one print,” says Gordon.
”Essentially, we`re trying to figure out the mood and feeling of the photograph, and we interpret that.” Photographers often talk directly to the printer, and in some cases stand by while the print is made. Customers pay for the time and care given to their work: one 8-by-10 print costs $17.50.
(However, the lab always gives the customer two prints, Gordon says, so the cost-unless you don`t want two-averages $8.75.)
One area Gordon is emphasizing now is multiple printing, a combination of masking, printing and retouching. ”We find it challenging and fun,” he says. Multiple printing can solve technical problems, correct mistakes or combine different images for unexpected effects. Gordon cites an antismoking poster printed for a customer where he placed a teenager`s face inside a cigarette butt. (The caption read, ”Don`t be a butt head.”)
When multiple printing is done expertly, Gordon claims it`s practically impossible to tell that an image has been altered. He recalls a group photograph where six people looked fine and the seventh had his eyes closed. The printer was able to ”drop in” an open-eyed image from another negative, and no one was the wiser. ”Multiple-printing three or four images on a page is easy for us,” he says. ”More than four is more difficult.”
Gordon says the lab can print, archivally process and air-dry exhibition- quality prints. It will also selenium-tone the prints.
Gordon does not keep a negative file system for his customers; there is no space. ”We`re not trying to compete with the larger labs,” he says. ”We give personal care and attention. With us, it`s the overall system that counts. We`ll work with the photographer on how to choose and expose the film. It`s all one experience. We see what the photographer is doing and what we`re doing as all one job.”
Pallas Photo
Pallas Photo processes almost all its film by a ”dip and dunk” machine, though developing by hand is available on request. All printing is done by hand; the lab employs seven printers. Only 10 percent of the lab`s prints are on fiber paper. The remaining 90 percent are printed on RC paper.
Pallas keeps a negative file at no charge to its customers and offers spotting, retouching and toning (mainly sepia). The lab also makes murals, ranging in size up to 50 inches by 12 feet. An 8-by-10 print at Pallas costs $9.37.
Rusty Pallas, the lab`s owner, says Pallas caters to professional photogaphers and advanced amateurs. ”We`re not suited for the instamatic shooter,” he says.
Like other professionals involved with black-and-white images, Rusty Pallas streesses that ”printing for the pros is very subjective. Everyone interprets it differently,” he says.
”Sometimes it takes a while for the photographer and the lab to build a rapport. We ask to see a sample of the way the photographer wants the work printed.”
Ross-Ehlert Photo Labs
Ross-Ehlert offers both machine and hand film developing. David Ross, one of the lab owners, is proud of the lab`s Refrema developing machine. Made in Denmark, he says it`s the ”finest in the world.”
The Refrema is a ”dip and dunk” machine, meaning that the film is transported through the processor by lifting it from one chemical to another. Thus, nothing touches the film but the chemistry.
Ross urges photographers to make sure that any machine processing is
”dip and dunk” as opposed to roller transport, where tiny rollers come in direct contact with the film surfaces.
Ross-Ehlert has 21 different film developers available, though Ross notes that T-Max film, and thus T-Max developer, is used by more than 60 percent of his customers.
The lab has seven printers and a wide variety of printing papers. It does toning, spotting, retouching, texturizing and hand-coloring; it makes murals to any size; and it does intricate photo composition projects.
Photographers can have their negatives kept on file at no extra charge. An 8-by-10 print costs $12.
”We have all our photographers bring us samples of how they like prints done,” says Ross. ”We keep them on file. Everyone likes things different:
open and airy versus printed for the highlights or printed contrasty.” Ross says that the lab can do ”absolutely anything photographically in black and white.”
