Snapping Up the Best in Photo Processors : Consumers: You can test laboratories yourself or get tips from professionals. Experts say an indicator of how they'll treat your film is how they treat you.

By LYNN SIMROSS

July 10, 1991 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Like all amateur photographers, Hollywood real estate broker Arnold Carlson wants his pictures clear and sharp. But Carlson has an additional need for detail: He paints still lifes from those photos.

“I take 20 to 30 rolls a year, more lately since I got my new camera,” Carlson says. “I need to get really good close-ups of things.”

He asked a friend who is a professional photographer to recommend a good one-hour photo processing shop where he could get high-quality prints. “They do fine work, and they’re as reasonable as anybody,” Carlson says. “And I like the service because the same people are always there and they remember you.”

Locating a one-hour mini-lab in Southern California to process your film isn’t difficult: Los Angeles and Orange counties have the largest concentration of them in the world, followed by Sydney, Australia. Of the 14,750 one-hour labs in the United States, 2,100 are in California.

But finding a processing lab with the best combination of quality, price and service can be a time-consuming process of trial and error.

When searching for a film processor, professional photographers recommend shooting several 12-exposure rolls of film of the same subjects--both close-ups and landscapes--then taking them to different processing labs so you can compare their work. If you don’t want to engage in such an involved search, ask a friend who takes many pictures to recommend a lab.

The experts also stress that the quality of work is only as good as the people running the lab.

“If you go to the (mini-lab) counter and somebody looks you in the eye and is glad you’re there, they’ve passed your first test,” says Roger McManus Jr., executive director of the International Minilab Assn., a trade group headquartered in Greensboro, N.C.

“A lot of the little (labs) do excellent work,” says John Albright, who has owned Fromex Photo Lab, a full-service lab in Long Beach, for 10 years. “A lot don’t. There’s probably a dozen to choose from within a mile of your house. Normally, the processing is pretty accurate. It’s the printing that is much more difficult. There’s a wide range of error.

“More than half of the time, if the prints are bad, it’s the photo finisher’s fault. The cameras and the film quality are excellent. But there are a lot of terrible places out there with people running them who don’t have the knowledge.”

Barry Harrand, director of marketing research for the Photo Marketing Assn. International in Jackson, Mich., counsels photo finishers to assist their customers in taking better photographs.

“A good processor will always take the time to help the consumer improve his or her film taking and technique,” he says. “Pictures people take are real emotional experiences to them. The processor can help improve their skills so they get the best picture possible.”

In a recent study done for Fuji Photo Film USA by the research firm of Yankelovich Clancy Shulman, 80% of America’s amateur photographers indicated that cost was “somewhat important” in choosing a photo finisher; shutterbugs cited location (78%) and speed of processing (75%) as “important” considerations.

Although the same survey found that 40% of consumers reported that they take more pictures than they did five years ago, more than half of those polled admitted they knew “little or nothing” about photography. Seventy-one percent said they’d take more pictures if photo finishers examined their photos and explained what they could do to improve the images.

Regardless of their photographic knowledge, Americans spend about $5.6 billion yearly in taking pictures. In 10 years, still photographs taken by amateurs have increased from 9.8 billion to almost 16 billion annually; 20 years ago, that figure was only 3 billion per year.

Last year, according to Kodak’s Michael Sullivan, 60 billion photo exposures were taken worldwide.

Sullivan and other industry experts attribute the increased popularity of amateur photography to three things: high-quality 35-millimeter film, accuracy of the many new point-and-shoot cameras and new chemicals used in processing.

“Consumers have distinct advantages in photography today,” says Harrand. “The quality of photography in the last 10 years has improved tremendously. The cameras allow for more operator error, the film is improved and the new processing equipment has resulted in very high-quality output. Consumers expect that, as well they should.”

Harrand adds that amateurs have increased their use of 35mm film dramatically in the last decade: “In the last three or four years, amateur photographers have learned the high quality of the 35mm negative. In the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, one out of three rolls they used was 35mm. Today it’s four out of five.”

The cheapest prices usually are available from mail-order processors and those at drug and discount stores or groceries, where you can get a roll of 24 exposures developed and printed for from $6 to $8. Usually, however, you’ll have to wait a day or two to get your film back.

The one-hour mini-labs, where film is processed on the premises, range in price from about $9 to $13 for 24 prints. They can develop and print a roll of film in 15 to 25 minutes and usually offer more personal service. Some mini-labs have a tiered-pricing policy, charging the most for prints finished in an hour.

Some photo-processing chains offer discounts during the year if you join a photo club and pay an annual membership fee, usually about $15 to $25. Others have special promotions and senior-citizen discounts, so it pays to ask what’s available.

Photo labs are busy during the summer, which is the second most popular time for photography after Christmas. Almost one-third of all film in the United States is processed in June, July and August.

“There are promotions of various kinds all during the year,” says Kodak’s Sullivan. “But the biggest ones you’ll see precede the most active picture-taking times, the holidays and summer.” When looking for discount promotions, be sure to note what size prints are offered: the standard 3 1/2 by 5 inch or the 4 by 6 inch.

“You pay a 40% premium for going to a one-hour lab rather than a mail-order place,” adds McManus, of International Minilab Assn. “But the difference is significant. It’s like the difference between going to a custom framing shop and going to the drugstore and buying a frame. With the mini-labs, the people handling your film never leave the building, and neither does your film. So you have peace of mind. And there are not huge price differences. The difference is how they treat you, and how they treat your film.”

If you aren’t satisfied with your prints, ask the photo processor to redo them. Don’t assume the photos are too pink or too green because you made a mistake; it’s entirely possible the error was in the printing. It takes only about 10 minutes to redo prints at a mini-lab.

“If people don’t like their prints, they should definitely bring them back,” says Peter Youn, owner of Hikari 1 Hr. Photo in Little Tokyo. “They blame themselves (if the prints are bad). A lot of people just don’t realize that the film place will redo them.”