
Topic
Film Developing Massachusetts — What Keeps a Film Developing Lab Alive: The Real Economics of a Niche Business
Margins are thin, chemistry is unforgiving, and the customers who keep a lab open are not who you think.

Margins are thin, chemistry is unforgiving, and the customers who keep a lab open are not who you think.

Portraits sort into three documented stocks: Kodak Portra 400 for color work it was built for in 1998, Kodak Tri-X at ISO 400 for grain with a temper, and Ilford HP5 Plus on a line dating to 1931.

Stop bath and a plain water rinse are not the same step. One halts the developer with acid, the other dilutes and slows it. Here is what each one does.