Analogue Wonderland has launched a new ‘eco-friendly’ printing service for film photos. The aim of this service is to avoid the environmental waste of discarded film shots by allowing film photographers to print only the photos they want at a low cost.
There are a variety of sizes available for prints like 4×6, 5×7, 8×10, and square sizes like 5×5 and 6×6. The price for an individual print starts at less than a pound and a volume discount is available by which the more photos are printed, the lower the cost per individual print is.
To use the service, a photographer must order film and scans via Analogue Wonderland’s website. They can then view their scans and select the ones they’d like to print.
Image credit: Analogue Wonderland.
*If you order prints within a week of receiving the scans then they will be sent at no extra postage cost (via discount code). However your scans will remain in your Customer Account for easy re-order at any time, with a £2 delivery fee.
From Analogue Wonderland:
Most photographers would agree that seeing their photos on paper is the ultimate way to appreciate and enjoy the images. And ever since minilab computers allowed for prints to be created at the same time as development, collecting a small envelope of 6×4 prints from the lab has been a magical experience for film photographers all round the world.
But the unfortunate reality is that it’s unlikely all 36 exposures will be representative of your best photography… Mid-roll camera issues, mishaps with exposure or composition, or just not quite capturing the moment that you’d hoped for. We’re all familiar with the task of sifting through the prints to decide ‘keep or discard’.
When we asked our Twitter community how many photos they would honestly print from their latest roll of film (here) the vast majority (>80%) would have chosen fewer than half the photos to be printed, and 34% would prefer to have focused solely on the best 1 or 2 images from each roll.
This means that every time a film shooter ticks the box for a magical envelope of prints to come back with their negatives, it’s likely that between 50-80% of the prints will end up discarded. In the bin, in the recycling, or stashed away in a cupboard – never to be seen again.
This represents a huge environmental waste – every one of those prints takes paper, ink, electricity, and shipping – irrespective of the quality of the focus, colours and composition.
On the other extreme there are photographers who never choose prints, worried about the risk or lacking the confidence to bet that something magical will have been captured. This is an entirely different type of waste – artistic instead of environmental – but equally avoidable.
This led us to a big realisation: there have been so many advances in technology and processes since minilabs were first introduced… Why are we still using the systems we inherited from the 90s?
We thought that there must be a better way – and so we’ve built it!
How does it work?
- Order film and scans through Analogue Wonderland here
- You will receive a link to view your scans inside your secure Customer Account
- Review all your images, select which ones you’d like to be printed… and that’s it!
If you order prints within a week of receiving the scans then they will be sent at no extra postage cost (via discount code). However your scans will remain in your Customer Account for easy re-order at any time, with a flat £2 delivery fee. Perfect for gifts, or developing a photographic project over time!
What are the benefits of the new system?
- More eco-friendly. Only print the photos you want!
- Higher quality prints. The editing team have the opportunity to fine-tune the colour, contrast and crop of the image BEFORE sending it to the printer
- Just as convenient. No requirement to download, change, and reupload the images. Simply select your favourites directly from the online photo album!
And most importantly:
We hope that this change encourages photographers to generate more prints of the images that they’re proud of – spreading the joy of analogue image-making without unnecessary waste!
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