Darkroom experience is time consuming.Darkrooms areexpensive to construct, equipand maintain.The user-proce-ssing of photographic materials may be more expensive thancommercial processing.Thusalternative strategies neee:to be considered.
The first method requires that the students film beprocessed by an outside vendor. These outside vendors fallinto two categories:Custom Laboratory and Photofinisher.The differences between the two are usually in the range ofservices offered;The custom lab will do anything neededat a price.This is the place that the professional photog-raphers send their work,Processing is done with extra careand to the customer's specifications.Technicians arespecialists in their area and the resultsare the bestobtainable.A full range of services is available.
The photofinisher on the other hand is a volume processorusually offering a limited range of services.This is notto say that the quality is lessbut only that automatedequipment is frequently usech limiting the range of custom
-;services available.The photofin...sher is able to offer these
services at a reduced cost through automation andmass production.
The studonts need instruction in how to seek out thoseservices, how to evaluate the services and how to placeorders (communicate) to receive the services desired;Evenif the photographer has access to a darkroom; the use ofoutside vendors is warranted when the desired results are
beyond the scope or expertise of the photographer.advantages of using the custom lab or the photofinisher are:a wider range of services are available; costs may be lessthan doing-it-yourself; quality may be better; as prints aretolerant of exposure and compositional errors which can becorrected in the printing process; time is available forother aspects of photography.Depending upon the servicerequested, the disadvantages may be in cost, time (turn-around),and a loss of direct control over the end result;However,some custom labs permit the photographer to monitor theentire process;Most custom labs follow instructions forcorrections for the final print as given by the photographer.
The number of vendors are many.They conduct businesson both a walk-in basis and by mail.Most advertise, eitherin the Yellow Pages or in the classified and display advert-isements of photographic magazines.It is a matter of choosingone, contacting the business and obtaining information on therange of services available.The final choice of a processordepends upon an There is a second method available to preserve the do-it-yourself impulse;This second method again dispenses withthe darkroom; In fact, no special facilities are needed.Onlyaccess to hot and cold running water.It is true "kitchensink" photography.Color slide film -- reversal film -- canbe user-processes with a minimum of equipment and no darkroom.Kodak Ektachrome film and other E-6 compatable process filmscan be processed using only the appropriate chemistry . and adaylight film tank.The entire process is only slightly morecomplicated than processing black and white film.The resultis color transparencies (slides) whiCh can then be viewed
-;using either a hand-held viewer or by projecting them on a
acreen.The advantages are:
some darkroom