Sorry to go OT again, but I wish to consult the C&F Oracle.
Earlier in the week I went somewhere, and forgot to bring my digital camera which I love dearly. So when I arrived I bought a disposable Fuji with 400 speed film. The pictures I just picked up from the store are, in a word, crap. Even in decent lighting, they’re horribly dark and grainy, and ever so slightly out of focus. I’m never again going to make the mistake of forgetting my digital camera; it takes a much better picture and has already payed for itself through film I am not buying and developing.
Is there some place or a process that can take the negatives and work on them a bit, and make any improvement? Scanning and Photoshopping isn’t having very satisfactory results, and these pictures are special to more people than just me.
End of rant. Thank you.
I never trust disposable cameras myself, though that didn’t stop me from buying two last summer and getting lousy shots off them. That’s the last time I forget my SLR flash at home while travelling!
I would suggest checking into local camera shops / photo labs - not the Rite Aid or Walmart type of labs but the higher quality ones. Sometimes you can find one with a quality guarantee - if you don’t like the pics, you don’t pay for them. Find the manager, show them your prints and negs, and explain that they are important photos, and see what happens. IMO, the focus is probbaly a matter of the construction of the camera. If the camera had a flash and the graininess is more prevalent in the shots that used flash, that’s been the case with nearly all of my disposable pics too and I hate it.
Depending on how much you want to pay, though, and how bad the damage is, I’d imagine you should be able to get at least slightly better prints from your negs. Good luck!
Yeah, it all depends on how much of the problem was with the camera/exposure and hense the quality of the negative and how much was the actual processing.
If you hold the negatives up to bright light you might be able to get a feel for that and if a good processor might be able to help them.
You might also take them some place that can convert them to digital for you and then try post processing yourself.