Photoworks no longer does film

[Wolfeye]

Just read this today... ironic, really, in that I haven't been to their website in years, and picked today to go see what they were up to!

http://www.photoworks.com/photo-film/

[tiberiustibz]

wa wa waaah

[nickrapak]

Photoworks developing == Qualex developing.

'Nuff said

[Ektagraphic]

The Kodak Gallery just stopped too....

[Jeff Kubach]

I hate to see that happening. I geuss that they are not making enough profit on film processing.

Jeff

[tiberiustibz]

Amateurs don't want to use film. It's the hypnotoad brainwaves. We just need more people like my grandma, or maybe some people to convince budding amateur photographers that film is cool. Granted nobody is ever going to use film for snapshooting of family pics (except me) but there are people who could be persuaded to use film.

[clayne]

Amateurs don't want to use film. It's the hypnotoad brainwaves. We just need more people like my grandma, or maybe some people to convince budding amateur photographers that film is cool. Granted nobody is ever going to use film for snapshooting of family pics (except me) but there are people who could be persuaded to use film.

I couldn't agree more.

That sad thing is that consumers have typically always had their head up their collective ass as far as quality and approach in photography. I guess that's why we have photographers. Additionally, people are led to believe they can do many things on their own - but 99% of them don't want to take the time to actually learn a craft. They go around shooting color everything when color just gets in the way, don't get close enough, compose in horribly bad ways, and/or just execute all wrong without taking the time to reflect on mistakes or error. I'd like to think a simple photography class could help immensely but honestly I don't think if it's important to them they'll care enough.

I find family "snaps" on film, done right, to come out quite full of life and withstanding the effects of age better than any digital medium out there. Linear curves (digital) just don't do it for us.

I personally have never taken a single course in photography (then again I can rebuild an engine and haven't taken a course in that either). The one thing I did do is open my eyes and spend a lot of time looking at other great work and learning how to see.

[cmacd123]

from a usability standposint it is not a great loss, Photoworks was not known for their outstanding work, but it will reinforce the "they don't do film anymore" mindset.

[Lukas Werth]

Just for the uninitiated: what sort of company is photoworks anyway? (was not obvious on the website)

[srs5694]

PhotoWorks started life as Seattle FilmWorks. Originally, they bought short ends of motion picture (process ECN-2) film, loaded it into 35mm still camera cartridges, and sold it to consumers for use as a still film. Actually, that's not quite accurate, since their economic model was one of "free" film returned with each roll of film sent for processing. This had the advantage (for them) of a product lock-in -- few other photofinishers would process ECN-2 film, so once you started using the stuff, you either had to throw or give it away or keep using their services.

In the 1990s, they switched from ECN-2 film to C-41 film, but they initially tried to hide that fact by giving their film some other process name ("process SFW" or some such). Thus, they became just another mail-order film photofinisher. At some point they changed their name and, like most photofinishers, began an increasing emphasis on digital imaging rather than film photography. Discontinuing film processing is just the latest step along that road.