B&L Lab Professional Editing Services
Preserving History Every Day!
The Value of Professional Editing and Printing Your Memories
In today’s world where everyone has a camera in their cell phone it’s a popular misconception that the photo is done after you hear the click of the shutter. This is far from the truth. Taking the photo is only the first step in creating a photograph. This first step is very important, without the first step the idea of the photo would not exist. But this raw image is not complete, because every raw image needs to be refined and defined. The next step in the creation of a photo is done by an experienced printer using the techniques found in Professional Editing and Printing.
Professional Editing & Printing is what makes the difference between a raw image and a photograph. Professional Editing & Printing is cropping the raw image so that the subject of the photo is apparent. Professional Editing & Printing gives the raw image its correct color, contrast and density. Professional Editing & Printing is the manipulation by burning-in and dodging of the raw image to balance shadows and highlights. And finally Professional Editing and printing makes sure that all elements of the image compliment the subject of the photo and make the subject the center of attention. Professional Editing & Printing is what is done to a raw image by a master printer like Bob at B&L Photo.
When Bob prints a photo from a negative in the darkroom, or works with a digital file on the computer, he applies his 50-plus years of experience in making other people’s raw images into display-worthy photos. Your display-worthy photo can be a wall size photo or a 3”x5” photo for your desk.
Work with Bob
Bob is happy to discuss your image with you and explain his editing plan as to what he will do to enhance your raw image. Bob’s passion is taking a raw camera image and producing a photograph to match what the photographer saw in her or his mind. If you want to take the second step in creating a photograph, please contact B&L Photo and speak to Bob. He’ll be glad to assist you.
Check out our work
To produce the best print possible, Bob will crop, dodge and burn your image to his own precise standards; or he invites you to submit detailed instructions or a proof print.
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Photo Editing Example
On your last family outing at the lake you took a picture of your sons sitting on a dock, feet in the water, looking serenely out over the water. It’s a moment you can never repeat. You love this photo; it touches you at your very core. Unfortunately there’s the mast of a boat growing out of Jimmy’s head, or there’s a neon purple towel drying on the fence behind Timmy, or there are any number of distractions that ruin this beautiful photo of your boys.
What do you do?
Slip it into the family album and forget about it? Or do you have the photo corrected or edited to remove the distraction. So you choose the latter, and now you need to find someplace where you can have the photo edited/retouched. The important thing about having a photo edited is to find the right person to do the alterations. Anyone can smudge out the mast on their cell phone or use a filter to blur-out the background. But to make a display-worthy photo, you need to find a person who understands photography and has experience using photo imaging programs.
The distractions must be removed by replacing them with an appropriate substitution. After this is accomplished it is time for additional photo manipulations. By simply darkening the corners of the photo you add a bit of a 3-D effect to the photo. By selectively darkening or lightening areas of the photo it is changed from a snapshot into a portrait.
This is a perfect example of where B&L Photo can help turn a snapshot into a lasting memory for your family. Bob and Lauren’s combined 90-plus years of photographic experience will be applied to changing a simple snapshot on your cell phone into a 20" x 24” portrait to hang on your wall.
How We Help
At B&L Photo you can sit down with Bob, view your photo on the computer monitor, talk over your concerns and desires for the photo and discuss any proposed edits. After the photo has been edited you will be invited to view an electronic proof on screen and approve the production of a final print. But you are not done yet. Now is the time to dress the print in a mat and frame. Lauren will be happy to guide you through this final step that will complete a photo that just needed a little help.
Adding People to Photos
Miss Mayo was your favorite teacher in grade school. You had the mumps so you missed picture day. But B&L Photo can add you to the group picture so you can be with your classmates and your favorite teacher.
Correcting Facial Flaws
The correction of facial flaws is perhaps the hardest thing that can be asked of an artist. The question for the artist is ‘how much correction is needed’? When is it too little, too much or just the right amount of correction? To be able to deal with these questions the artist needs to have learned the following: knowledge of lighting, (how & why highlights and shadows are formed), knowledge of optics, knowledge of anatomy and an understanding of the person you are doing the corrections for. The knowledge of a computer program and the physical ability to do the work are the smallest part of the equation. At B&L Photo there are two people that fit the above requirements.
Between Bob and Laruen there is 90-plus years of experience in photography and photo retouching. The aim of doing correction to someone’s face is to make them look better and in effect feel better about themselves. Bob & Lauren do this by bidding those pesky little lines or spots goodbye. Retouching is gently making changes that make you look as you would like, but not making you look like someone else.
Bob or Lauren will be pleased to meet with you to discuss the digital editing/retouching that you would like done to your photo or the photo of someone dear to you. When leaving our shop one of our customers once said, “Why can’t you come to my house and make me look like this every morning”? We’ll be happy to do the same for you.
Print Services
As a photographer and lab technician, Bob understands the importance of the lab in creating an excellent final image. B&L Photo’s job is to make the work of the serious fine art photographer and the thoughtful amateur look great.
B&L Photo’s Black & White prints are made on Silver Gelatin Fiber Paper (from either Black & White or Color negatives). B&L Photo’s Silver Gelatin Fiber Prints are produced with stringent archival processing techniques. B&L Photo’s Silver Gelatin Fiber prints are printed by enlarger and processed through trays in the traditional manner. All Black & White Silver Gelatin Fiber prints are made with ¼ inch white borders. Black & White prints are available in standard size or in odd size prints. Black & White prints are available up to 16x20 inches in size.
B&L Photo’s color prints are composed and manipulated on the computer screen just as they would be if printed under the enlarger. They are then printed on an Epson printer using archival metallic inks. All color prints are made on luster surface paper. (This is the only paper B&L Photo stocks.) All color prints are made borderless.
- Color negatives 35mm through 8x10”
- Color transparencies 35mm through 8x10”
- Color slides
- Color stereo slides
- Glass mounted slides and transparencies
- Lantern slides
- Digital files
- Autochromes
- Color photographs—any size
- Hand oiled photographs—any size
- Flat artwork—any size
- Documents
- Maps
- Even crayon drawings
Silver gelatin fiber paper is the only photographic material which can claim a true archival life; archival means 100 years or more. Silver gelatin fiber paper is made by coating a sheet of fiber paper with an emulsion of silver halide salts. Silver gelatin fiber prints made with B&L Photo's rigid processing procedures will have a life of 150 years or more. See B&L Photo Lab's Archival Black and White Print Process below. Other photo labs only provide black and white prints made as inkjet prints. These materials have a much shorter useful life.
- Digital files
- Black and white or color negatives 35mm through 8x10”
- Black and white or color transparencies 35mm through 8x10”
- Black and white or color slides
- Black and white or color stereo slides
- Glass mounted slides and transparencies
- Lantern slides
- Autochromes
- Color photographs—any size
- Hand oiled photographs—any size
- Flat artwork—any size
- Brown Tone: A warm red-brown tone that lends a rich look
- Selenium Tone: A cool purple-brown colored tone
What we can do
B&L Photo Lab’s Archival Black and White Print Process—Technical Data
B&L Photo’s black and white prints are hand printed
These prints are fully manipulated, i.e. cropped, dodged and burned-in. Our stock paper is Ilford Multigrade FB Warmtone Semi-matte. Prints can be made with white borders, black borders, traditional sizes or odd sizes. Add 20% to the prices below for prints made from color or chromogenic film. If a different paper stock is requested, the customer will be required to pay for the box of paper as well as the prints made.
Black and white silver gelatin fiber archival prints
| Print Size | First Print | Additional Prints |
|---|---|---|
| 20" Long | $195 | $160 |
| 14" Long | $120 | $100 |
| 10" Long | $75 | $65 |
| 7" and smaller | $60 | $50 |
| Wallets (set of 8) | $75 | $65 |
Black & White Print Toning
Brown or Selenium Tone
$35/print
| Brown Tone |
|---|
| $35/print |
| Selenium Tone |
|---|
| $35/print |
Epson Color Ultrachrome Ink Jet Prints
B&L Photo will produce either Color or Black & White Archival Ink Jet Prints for our customers. (Please remember that B&W ink jet prints have a much shorter life than Silver Gelatin Fiber prints). B&L Photo's ink jet prints are given the same handling on the computer monitor as if they were being printed in the darkroom under the enlarger. B&L Photo's ink jet prints are made on luster surface paper. Prints are made borderless, but can be printed with a white border if requested. (Borders greater than 1/4 inch may place the print in a larger print size and increase the cost.) Ink jet prints are available in standard size or in odd size prints. Ink jet prints are available up to 24-inches in width.
| Print Size | First Print | Additional Prints |
|---|---|---|
| 36" Long | $275 | $210 |
| 24" Long | $250 | $190 |
| 20" Long | $175 | $120 |
| 14" Long | $100 | $75 |
| 10" Long | $65 | $55 |
| 7" and smaller | $55 | $45 |
| Wallets (set of 8) | $65 | $55 |
Digital Retouching
$125.00 per Hour
Digital retouching can be used to soften or remove bags & circles under eyes, crows feet, laugh lines, lines around the mouth, on the neck, acne and minor hair correction. Digital retouching can also be used to correct glass glare, red eye, sagging jowls, tuffs of hair and gaps in hair etc. Digital Retouching can also move heads, remove or add people to groups, change backgrounds and open shadows or brighten dark faces etc.
Print Mounting
Silver fiber prints are mounted on 2-ply rag fiber board. Epson prints are mounted on 3/16” foam core.
| Print Size | Mounting Costs |
|---|---|
| 36" Long | $80 |
| 30" Long | $65 |
| 24" Long | $50 |
| 20" Long | $40 |
| 14" Long or Smaller | $30 |