Unpopular take: I think film actually looked better before the big digital scanning craze

Back in 2008 I was still getting my negs printed at a local lab in Portland and the colors had this warmth that I just haven't been able to match with any of the flatbed scanners or DSLR scans I've tried since. Am I the only one who misses that old-school optical print look, or did something change in the way labs process film around 2010?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_sam21d ago

Did the labs switch to cheaper chemicals around that time? I remember my buddy worked at a photo spot in Seattle and he said around 2009-2010 most places stopped using the old Kodak or Fuji chemistry and went with these generic bulk solutions to cut costs. That would explain the loss of warmth and depth you're talking about. The optical prints had a certain richness from the chemical process that digital just can't fake.

ivanross21d ago

Isn't it crazy how much that stuff matters though? It's like once they started cutting corners, the whole soul of those prints just vanished.