We offer personalized service.  All black and white films are custom processed (developed) by hand, as we feel that automatic machine processors can not provide the kind of control we prefer, in addition to the risk of damage to the film from the rollers or uneven development from dip and dunk processors.  We use stainless steel reels and tanks for 35mm/120/220 roll film, and Jobo Expert Drums for sheet film from 4x5 through 8x10 which yields superb evenness of development.  Each different type of film is processed as per the requirement of that particular emulsion.  We can provide custom processing/developing to your specifications if needed, such as push/pull processing, different time, temperature, or agitation requirements and/or different developers.

Labwork can handle odd sized films, as many of the older cameras dating back to the first half of the 20th century  and earlier used a variety of different formats, including glass plates, which is something we print from fairly often for clients.

Related to this is old, undevelpoed film that you discover in a shoe box, or in a camera that your mother used to use, that has not been processed.  We can process this old film and you may be surrprised at what you see!  Depending on storage conditions of the camera/film, the prints we make from them can look like they were shot yesterday.  In 2011 we  processed 16mm film from a Minolta16 camera that revealed images from the Vietnam War, quite a surprising find for the client, who bought the camera online that included cartridges with film still in them.  Early in 2012 we developed some 116 and 127 film for clients to find family vacations that were a very distant glimmer in their memories until they saw the contact sheets we made for them.  Look in  your attics and the back of closets for those treasures!

All photographs are custom printed by hand on real silver gelatin black and white photographic paper, both resin coated (RC) and fiber base.  Silver gelatin papers produce a look that is unmatched by most other processes, with a depth to the image that is very satisfying, both to the eye and to the feel of the paper itself.

  As we do not offer automatic machine prints, every print is given our full attention.  We use traditional enlargers only, with the ability to print from all film sizes up to 8x10 for projection printing, and up to 16x20 for contact printing.  Ilford Multigrade IV black & white papers in RC and Fiber Base are offered for the finest quality prints.  Custom printing is our specialty, all prints are cropped and sized to your specifications, and burned and dodged to get the most from your negatives, to produce the best that is possible for you.

Labwork is proud that we produce work that is accepted by the National Park Service and conforms to the HABS/HAER standards of quality. Historical consultants, archivists, libraries, museums and other organizations that require negatives and prints to be truly archival depend on Labwork to produce the highest quality processing that meets their standards of acceptability.

This follows through in our copy work for the above mentioned institutions, and also for anyone who has a treasured family photograph, for example, who wants to share it with family members but do not have the original negative.  Labwork makes 4x5 copy negatives to ensure the highest quality copy will be made of those valuable fragments of history.

With popularity of  those plastic, cheap, fun cameras that everyone is using to get back to photography of the '50s and '60s, we can make you quality enlargements from those film negatives, you do not have to stay with one-hour type machine prints!  Give us call or just send the negatives in and we can advise you as to how large they could go, depending on your desires.

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1591 East 22nd Street   Cleveland, Ohio    44114
216/621-7567
labwork@sbcglobal.net