2263 Fifth St. Berkeley, CA 94710 (510) 649-8111 rob@lightrumors.com See Contact Us link for map
Hours currently are 10-3 weekdays.
Fine Art Printing For Photographers And Other Artists
Film scanning at The LightRoom is done on an Imacon Flextight Precision 848 scanner, for 35mm to 4x5 formats. We can outsource scans to a local bureau offering Primescan drumscans at a higher price and longer turnaround time, but we feel the Flextight offers excellent results and our customers concur. If we do think the Primescan will make an appreciable difference, we'll call you and discuss it before scanning.
Our scanning falls into two basic services, the Raw scan and the Master Image File.
The Raw Scan
The Raw scans, if you choose to do the file prep yourself, will have only minimal color/exposure adjustment done to them and will be scanned slightly "flat" so that you can adjust the black and white points to your tastes.
Our Flextight 848 scans different film formats in fixed resolutions that vary depending on film size and we offer two choices, high resolution, which is the maximum for that film size, and medium resolution, which will be half of the maximum resolution (one quarter the file size.) Actual resolutions are indicated on the Prices page.
All scans are 16 bit unless otherwise requested. Black and white scans will be one third the file size of color pictures. A medium resolution scan is $15 and high resolution is $25, except for 6x17 scans, which are $40 for high resolution, because of their great size.
The Master Image
The Master Image File starts with a high resolution 16 bit scan of your film. We will adjust color, exposure and contrast to create a file that will result in a pigment (giclée) print that best represents your image. Normally, this will be as close a reproduction of the film as we can achieve, but we can also work with you to help create your own interpretation of your work, just as we would do if printing in the darkroom. The expanded adjustments that digital printing gives us allows much finer control over all aspects of the printing process. Normal spotting of dust and minor scratches is included in the preparation, but correction of more serious damage to the film, as well as extraordinary work of any kind on the image file may entail extra charges to be billed at our standard rate of $90/hour. We will discuss this with you before any work is begun.
When the work is done we will archive the Master Image File here. We will also return a copy of the Master Image File with your print order, if you request it, at no extra cost. Copies can be ordered later for $5 per image, minimum $10. We highly recommend that you keep a copy as a back up for our archived copy.
Unless requested otherwise, we will keep a copy of your Master file on hand for printing so you can order reprints with a simple phone call. We do not necessarily keep notes on print sizes we may have done for you previously, so be sure to supply us with that information when you re-order, as well as any other information such as paper type. Please give each image a unique name or number for future reprint orders.
All of our Master Image Files kept at the LightRoom are archived to the best CD-R or DVD disks we can find, or to multiple hard disks. While we believe these to be highly stable, we do not warrant against any failure, whether from their manufacture or our storing of them. You are advised to consider making a secondary copy of them for your own archival storage-and make another copy of those when you receive them!