This strange period has brought unexpected challenges and unusual ups and downs.
We have produced work for several memorial services with very short turnaround times, our condolences to all of the familes concerned and we will continue to provide support as best we can.
On the subject of expectation well this week we dealt with an old and rather poor condition 110 negative. We also dealt with very old large format negatives that had been lying in a box for years and showed evidence of damage.
The difference between them was that the large format negatives yielded fantastic results. Black and white, finely detailed, way beyond the expectation of the customer. The 110 reproduced poorly, the film was grainy and the colour had deteriorated. We do our best to restore the poorer images but sometimes we have to hold our hands up and say ‘Sorry, thats the best we can do!’ In this case our customer was disappointed but there was little we could do, fortunately he was pleased with the accompanying 35mm slides which were wonderful capturing the spirit of a byegone era and bringing back many happy memories.
When you send us your pictures you have an idea what you want back but the results are dependent on the picture quality. As a rule the larger the image, the better the reproduction. We reproduced some medium format wedding photographs recently that looked very good at standard size, they were scanned at 2400 dpi, close examination revealed some unwelcome artefacts in the finer detail something we are looking into.
One customer who appreciated our work certainly lifted our spirits during this miserable period of lockdown. Our client presented us with some 35mm slides from his honeymoon, from many years ago, the pictures had faded and discoloured. The film stock was similar to Agfa and was a little grainy, possibly 400ASA. We did ‘our bit’ and I am using his feedback with his permission.
“David,
Good Morning!
My slides and the USB arrived yesterday.
Brilliant. Just brilliant.
Thank you very much for your superb work!
Best Regards,
Mike.”
We will always do our best to reproduce your slides, negatives and photos to provide the best possible results. We will always rescan or re-edit if you ask us to. We like happy, satisfied customers because you are the ones who recommend us and come back. Remarkably most of our work is from returning customers and from recommendation – so far this month 60% of our work has been from returning customers. This is great, it keeps our advertising costs down and means we can remain competitive.
So this is a thank you to all of our customers for appreciating the work we do, for understanding that what you start with dictates what you get back and to the ‘Mikes’ out there who give us the feedback that makes our job worthwhile.
David Cwmgwrach 27th June 2020 – still under lockdown.