"lake erie"

Film and I have an on and off relationship. It’s been this way for years. I obsessively shoot film for months and then completely forget about it for an even longer period of time.

We’re back on now, as you probably gathered from my recent review of Psych Blue film but in the time that we were off my local film developing hook up went under. By ‘hook up’ I mean Discount Drug Mart. They were never all that knowledgeable to begin with and taking film to someone who really doesn’t know what they’re doing and doesn’t get too much practice is risky. They finally started shipping film off to be developed elsewhere instead of developing on-site and that was my cue to look for something better.

I researched for hours. Where in the world is there to get affordable film developing these days? I had a hard time choosing which mail-in service to use. It seemed like every site had at least a handful of negative reviews. People unhappy with price, scan quality, timing, etc. I finally committed to The Darkroom.

Taken with this disposable camera and then dipped into Lake Erie.

The Darkroom has a couple of different routes you can go. They offer the option to pay online or by mail and you can request a mailer if you don’t already have something to ship in on hand. They even give you a label to print out to slap on your package so you never have to step foot in a post office.

I chose to pay online because it seemed like it’d be the fastest route. I paid for my six rolls, printed the receipt & shipping label and sent it off the next morning.

My Darkroom film developing timeline looked like this –

• December 16th – checkout & pay for developing online
• December 17th – shipped my film
• December 19th – received an email stating my film had arrived
• December 21st – film was developed, scanned & uploaded for me to view in albums
• December 24th – received my negatives & a disk with the images on it in the mail

BAM! So speedy!

The only two negatives I can think of are price and scan quality.

So, price… what are you gonna do you about it? The Darkroom has competitive pricing. Their prices are basically the going price for mail in film developing services. Film, whether standard or instant, isn’t cheap. Its always going to be more expensive than digital.

As for scan quality, they offer three different options. I chose ‘standard scans’. I hate to gripe about it because I honestly don’t have a need for high-quality scans. The ones included are good enough for social media and the blog but if I were planning on getting prints made at a larger size, I’d definitely want a better resolution.

If you need better scans, you definitely have options though. You can pay for one of their two better options or you can scan them yourself. The Darkroom offers a ‘developing only’ option at a cheaper price for those wanting to scan themselves.

I would absolutely use The Darkroom again. The ease of use and speedy turnaround time has thrown me into a full on film obsession. The update emails throughout the process (when the film was received, scan, shipped) made me feel like my precious photos were safe and in good hands. I can’t recommend them enough!

Photos taken with a variety of different cameras & films. Some way out of date single-use cameras found at the thrift store, as well as shot on Fuji Superia X-TRA 400 with my favorite film camera, the Pentax K1000.

Earlier in the year, a person I follow on Instagram posted some incredible film photos that they had taken with rainbows light leaks across the frame. It was so cool looking! It’d been a while since I’d played around with film that wasn’t instant but this made me want to get back into traditional film immediately. Luckily, it was pretty easy to find out what she was using based on her hashtags. That’s how I discovered Psych Blue Film.

Psych Blues Film is a pre-exposed experimental film. There are different batches that are exposed to different things that you shoot over resulting in totally unique images. It’s a regular 35mm film so you can use it in any camera (…that takes 35mm film, of course) and it can be developed anywhere the processes film.

We were just about to leave on June’s epic roadtrip so I used that as my excuse to splurge. I bought two rolls, #3 and #4. Although all their films look really neat, I was most excited about #4. This film has been pre-exposed to holographic paper resulting in a wide array of colors that fade in and out between the frames. I could not wait to use it in the desert!

I’ve attached all the images from the roll that weren’t already included in this post so you can get a better idea of how it all turned out.

Overall, I feel a bit like the dinosaur below about the results. He looks super stoked to you, right!? I feel like he looks like he just saw his two best dino pals get engaged. I think they tuned out really fun. At first, I was a little underwhelmed with them, or perhaps, I was overwhelmed with how busy it made some of the frames. Now every time I look through them I like them more and more.

That being said, I’m glad that I shot this vacation with other cameras and didn’t rely solely on this roll of film to capture my memories because of course, it is an experimental film. If I had been counting on a certain shot to look a super specific way, I’d be disappointed. Nothing really turned out exactly how I pictured but that’s what’s so fun about it. It’s all a surprise! I love how unique they all are.

Would I purchase Psych Blues film again? Absolutely! I’m super excited to shoot another roll! It’s completely renewed my interest in traditional film so expect to see lots of film on the blog in 2020!

Shot with Pentax K1000 on Psych Blue film #4. Developed + scanned by The Darkroom.