PhotoWorks - review

Film and Image Processing

PhotoWorks (Seattle Filmworks) - 3.5 stars

Most of us still have and use film cameras. Yours may be a high-end 35mm with detachable lenses, or a favorite Brownie that always took good pictures, or just photos for those occasions where digital cameras do not yet shine (such as action shots). For most consumers who do not have home film scanners, if you are looking for reliable film processing for casual snapshots, we're happy with PhotoWorks.

We'll concede that most home photography consists of "snapshots", impromptu casual photography. Image quality, composition, lighting and subject matter may not be "exhibition quality" (in the thinking of the hardcore 35mm enthusiast). What counts here is decent processing and service, and discounted extra jumbo prints of Mom or Baby to share with friends and family. Here, PhotoWorks excels.

35mm enthusiasts who put a great deal of time and effort into each and every shot may want to retain Kodak processing for better prints, better negatives and and more natural color.

We generally do our own slide scanning here, but we're also lazy. It takes a long time to scan a roll of slides or print film. So we took advantage of the photo CD, PhotoWorks "Pictures on Disc". Images extract to decent-sized 4.6MB images (1536x1024). Why then might we want to scan?

We found that our better quality home slide and film scanner (Nikon CoolScan) produces images that are quite superior even at first glance. Image quality and resolution, color balance and RBG levels easily surpass the bulk high-speed scanners used at this or most commercial processors.

We also detected film graininess at higher magnifications (300%) that we simply don't expect from Kodak ASA 100 color print film, and we don't see it in Kodak processing, either. We haven't located a store that sells Kodak Prepaid processing mailers, but we're sure going to. Purists and serious amateurs will still see a big difference with Kodak processing.

Next we'll look at image samples and image quality issues. Concerns discussed below generally will not affect the average home consumer. If you order blowups and enlargements, or do digital image editing, the following could be of special interest to you.

Resolution and Quality: Enlargements and Digital Image Editing

We'll look at blowups of the three thumbnail images below. We'll draw some generalized conclusions. We're not concerned with subject matter in the images themselves at all, so these thumbnails serve only to orient you to the blowups that follow.

1. PhotoWorks processing, PhotoWorks scan, "High Resolution" ,1536x1024, saved as JPG, 260K	2. PhotoWorks processing, Nikon CoolScan IV scan, high resolution, reduced to 2582x1721 JPG, 12.7MB. Ignore color differences for now.	3. Kodak processing, Nikon CoolScan IV scan, high resolution, reduced to 2582x1721 JPG, 12.7MB

Notes for above:

• images 1 and 2 were processed from the same 35mm film negative. PhotoWorks has applied color and contrast balancing to image 1. Color balance is a "feature" and is much more pleasing, but has no real bearing on this particular discussion.
• Image 2 has not been color balanced yet. We will be comparing the background skies for graininess. It is unfair to compare graininess in a 260K image with that in a 12.7MB image, which is why we need image 3.
• Image 3 has been balanced for color, but the important thing is that image size, resolution and scanning is "apples to apples". What differs here is who processed the film negative (and it only matters at high enlargements). Yes, the dot in the thumbnail is the Moon.
• All images were shot with ISO 200 or 100 film, presumably being more or less equally fine-grained. Images 1 and 2 were shot with PhotoWorks standard print film; image 3 was shot with Kodak 100 Gold. All images shown here were shot with the same Nikon N70 35mm camera (illustrated at the top of the article).

Blowup detail of the three images (Adobe PhotoShop):

Images 1 and 2 are blowups of a hummingbird at its feeder. Image 3 is of a palm tree and a daytime moon. Image 1 is blown up more than image 2 because it was smaller to begin with. Remember, all three blowups are radically enlarged.

The point of images 1 and 2 is to demonstrate that the "sky" is pixilated and grainy almost equally in each image. Both are poor. You have to ignore the fuzziness of image 1 because of its smaller size and greater magnification. This eliminates the much smaller 260K size of the PhotoWorks JPG, and it eliminates the quality of the scanner, as being a factor in the graininess. The film and developing was the same.

The "proof of the pudding" is Image 3. It shows no graininess of sky at the same magnification as image 2. This eliminates the scanner and the amount of magnification as a source of quality issues. That leaves the film brand, film speed, or processing, or all three. I've inspected Kodak 100 Gold film processed by PhotoWorks and found the same graininess, so I suspect the processing.

Conclusions:

Pros: PhotoWorks is fast, reliable, consistently adequate film processing. You need do nothing more than walk to the mailbox to use this service. Processing packaging is superior, with photo thumbnail index, good handling of negatives, mailers, and free house brand film. You can download medium-low-resolution scans of any processing, or higher resolution scans when the optional photo CD is ordered ($5). We really like being able to preview and download our photo images on the web, and, if you ordered the Pictures on Disk, modem dialup users will appreciate the fact that you can choose between three low and medium size download formats. And we really like Customer Service's friendly responsiveness when we have a question.

Digital camera users can upload images if they want high quality prints to share for special occasions. We haven't used the service, as we're trying to get away from storing shoe boxes of prints. It's decades too late to talk about starting the old photo album route! We're committed to digital imaging, backups and storage. We display with slide shows or share on the web.

We've used PhotoWorks (formerly "Seattle Film Works") for about ten years now. We've also used just about every other commercial film processor, at one time or another, who's been in business for any real length of time. We've read reviews in which PhotoWorks pricing was described as high. You know, we've had it with budget processing labs. PhotoWorks never surprises or disappoints. They're reliable and consistent.

Mixed Bags: PhotoWorks protects film negatives with clear plastic overlays and a paper border. We were able to verify from defects in a couple of images that the clear plastic overlay is attached before the PhotoWorks slide scanning. The adhesive band "crops" the top 1/16 inch of the image (which usually gets cropped anyway), and this is one of the few serious efforts we've seen to protect negatives from fingerprints, scratching and crinkling during handling and storage. But, these must all be peeled off carefully before use in the home scanner, and we have to suspect that removal of two layers of clear plastic improves image clarity, too.

Photoworks digital images do display attractively on a 17" monitor, especially if there are lots of bright primary colors, which there are, because they use lots of color and contrast enhancement. But, a home scanner on these same film emulsions can produce a dramatically more interesting and realistic desktop picture or slide show with most indoor or outdoor photography. When the very best results are critical on each and every shot, we're staying with Kodak processing.

If you must have prints right away and the subject matter isn't a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Europe, take it to a 24-hour shop. The U.S. Postal Service takes several days to a week to deliver your processing once it leaves Seattle.

Cons: For more serious photography, there are still several distinct technical reasons to go with one of the many available Kodak film-processing services.

Alex Forbes ©August 29, 2002