A small film lab - sample concept

The picture already exists.

You did the hard part: you were there, and you pressed the shutter. We handle the chemistry, the scanning and the obsessive dust-spotting. Rolls in by noon, scans by Friday.

INTERACTIVE DESIGN DEMO. THE TANK IS A SIMULATION - NO FILM IS RECEIVED, PRICED OR RETURNED.

36 EXP / 400 / DX AUTO
The developing tank

Run a roll.

Pick a stock, start the tank, and watch a frame come up the way it does under a safelight: slowly, then all at once.

TANK IDLE - SELECT A STOCK00:00
Pre-soakDeveloperStop bathFixer

SIMULATED CHEMISTRY. STAGES RUN ABOUT NINE SECONDS; THE REAL ONES TAKE LONGER AND SMELL WORSE.

Pricing

Sample rate card.

Illustrative prices. Nothing is sold here.

Develop + scan
ServiceTurnaroundSample price
C-41 develop + standard scan3 days$14
C-41 develop + high-res scan3 days$22
B&W develop + scan4 days$18
E-6 slide develop + scan5 days$26
8x10 hand print, fiber paper1 week$45
Push/pull per stop-+$4
Turnaround

A roll's week.

What happens after the envelope drops through the slot. Sample schedule.

Tue 12:00

The drop

Rolls in by noon join the same day's batch. Later than noon, they sleep over and join tomorrow's.

Tue 15:00

The tank

Chemistry at temperature, timers with no snooze button. This part has not changed in fifty years.

Thu 10:00

The scan

Frame by frame, dust-spotted by a person who has opinions about your horizon lines.

Fri 09:00

The return

Scans in your inbox, negatives sleeved and filed. The good kind of Friday email.

Why film

Slow is a feature.

LATENT is a fictional lab with a real belief: thirty-six frames make you honest. When every frame costs something, you stop spraying and start seeing. The wait between shutter and scan is where anticipation lives - and we think a little anticipation is good for a person.

The lab, the stocks and the rate card on this page are invented for the template. The affection for the process is entirely genuine.

EST. NEVER - FICTIONAL LAB - 12 FIXTURE LANE (NOT A REAL PLACE)

Questions

From the counter.

Does the tank simulation develop my actual photos?

No. It replays an illustrated scene through simulated chemistry stages to show the lab's process. Nothing is uploaded, received, scanned or returned - LATENT is a fictional lab.

Are Harbor 400, Mono 3200 and Chrome 100 real film stocks?

No - they're affectionate stand-ins for the kinds of stocks a real lab handles every day. Any resemblance to beloved emulsions is intentional but unofficial.

Are the prices real?

They're a sample rate card, plausible but invented.