Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
How a minilab works
Hello folks, Fellipe Carneiro here
and together with www.queimandofilme.com
I'll show you how this minilab works
a small photographic lab.
I also want to thanks
to the "Foto Brasil" lab
in Santos city
that kindly help, showing us their machine.
The machine we'll show today it's a Fuji Frontier 340
But the basic principles are the same to any minilab
The machine, basically
have to perform two tasks
as show on screen
first is expose the photographic paper
with the image you want to print
and then submit the paper to a chemical develop process
as a digital minilab, this machine also
have a filmstrip scanner
that make digital files from films
Ok? Let's see it!
Here we have a module
that scans the filmstrip
It's this gray tray here
Inside we can find the gears
that pull the filmstrip inside the scanner
it starts on left
and here on right
it spools the filmstrip
here we have the hole
for 35mm film
and this smaller hole
on top part of your screen
it's used to scan APS films (Advantix)
This big white square you can see it's a diffuser
and below it you find the LED light source
the very strong light will shine through the diffuser
and enters into this big green part, the scanner
Inside it there are the sensors that scan the image
Again, the film will be pulled through this tray
no matter 35mm or APS
The LEDs will shine and this equipment
this green part of the machine
will scan the film to a digital file
that will be stored in a computer attached to it
Ok? It's easy!
Now the filmstrip is being loaded inside the machine
It is placed in the front of film scanner
The technician, Gabriel, is now scanning our film
The clicking sound you can hear
is the sound of that tray spooling the filmstrip
one frame at time.
Once the film was spooled inside, the machine start to roll out the film
in a slower pace, because now each frame is really scanned to the computer
Each frame stops while being scanned
The image now needs to be checked
A basic image processing needs to be done
with the help of this computer screen installed on top of the machine
The controls that Grabriel is adjusting now can fix some exposure error that we could have done.
This is very important when you shot with toy cameras without a photometer
so exposure errors are common
This is not a big deal, your technician will fix it for you
We have a digital minilab here
So our pictures are scanned, they become digital JPEG files
the same kind made by a digital camera
So on this machine, here from now
the process is the same, no matter if digital or film photos
In analog minilabs the film is not scanned, it's projected direct over the photographic paper
And speaking of paper, it's inside this black magazine that Grabriel just removed from machine
This is one roll, sealed from light
because it's photographic paper, so if light can reach it
will be exposed and nothing will be printed on it anymore
This part it's the path that paper will travel
It will exit from it's magazine, and will pass through this little rolls
while the machine prints text on back of paper
some information like date and time, filename and so on
thanks to a little printer inside the machine
then the paper goes up, where it will be exposed
with the image of our photo, over the paper
Freeze the video!
Here it's possible to see better those steps
Here, the paper it's inside its lightproof magazine
the paper exit through the bottom and go to here
the back printer, that prints the information on backside of the paper
the paper then goes upwards inside this little box with a warning label
where the photo will be exposed on paper
I can't show what is inside, but imagine 3 lasers, one green, one red and one blue
that will project the photograph over the paper surface
then the paper exits though a conveyor belt
until it reach the other side of the machine, where the chemical process begin
This conveyor belt we can see running will bring the paper
There is it!
It just have been exposed
inside that little box on the right, let's see it again
Inside this little box there are the lasers that project the photo over the paper
and then it travels in the conveyor belt
Here there are the chemical tanks. Gabriel will remove one so we can see inside
Now Gabriel just removed the cover from the fixer tank
While he removes the tank you can see it's wet with the chemical fixer that was inside the tank
There are some rolls that we can see better now
where the paper will travel
And in the bottom we can see the tank with liquid, in a color not much beautyful, but is ok
This is the fixer liquid
The other tanks looks the same, so we will not open all they
We have here in this part three main thanks, those black rectangles
The first one on left is the developer
It will react with silver salts in the paper
so the image that was exposed with the lasers
can appear on paper
Then on the second tank we got the fixer and bleach chemical
This makes the developed image became permanent on paper
The third thank contains the rinse, to finish the chemical process
The last two tanks have chemicals that do the finishing touch
to the paper, giving improved conservation
After this it will go to the dryer
Gabriel is showing us that the paper makes a folded path, up and down through the tanks
until it reaches the exit of the third thank, when it goes straight to the end
where the path goes upwards into the dryer, the next step
This is the dryer unit. The paper pass through here
wet with the chemicals, and hot air blow from the holes will dry it
then finally it goes to the last conveyor belt where we can sort the photos
There are our finished photos. They look weird because we keep the machine open
and light ruined the paper
Here we can see the chemical filters
they remove any debris that maybe present in the liquids
They need to be cleaned and changed
You can also see thermometers from each tank
and also the heater, used to keep the right temperature
This big funnel we just open it's used to refill rinse water
It's filtered water, very clean to rinse the paper
Behind the machine we can see the main chemical thanks
they are inside this cardboard box, ready to use
The machine throw away the used chemicals in this bottle though that hose
This is how a minilab works.
We learned all the steps, from the film scanner
then the paper is exposed with lasers
and developed with the chemicals
I hope you have enjoyed the video and don't forget to visit the site
www.queimandofilme.com
Bye bye!