Colour film lab · two benches · by hand
@prismlane.studio
Developing, scanning and grading for people who still shoot rolls. Everything we keep up to date lives on this page.
Grading slots open for November
Prism Lane is a two-bench colour lab run by Mina and Osk. We develop in small batches, scan on a flatbed and a drum, and grade stills and short films on the same monitor we calibrate every Monday.
This page is written by us and edited whenever something changes — batch days, stock, open hours. If a link below opens a note rather than another site, that note is the whole answer.
Colour rolls go into the Tuesday and Friday batches. Black and white is hand-processed on Thursdays in smaller tanks.
Tell us if a roll was pushed or pulled and we sheet-test one frame before committing the full batch. Rolls can be dropped during any open hour.
You sit in. We start from flat scans, build the look in front of you, and keep every version rather than overwriting the one you liked an hour ago.
Bring a reference frame — a film still, a print, a page torn out of something. You leave with the graded set, a reusable LUT and written notes on what we changed and why.
Flatbed scans cover contact-sized proofs and anything headed for the web. The drum comes out for prints past A3 or when grain needs to stay honest.
Ask for grain-true scans if you intend to print large; ask for the softer profile if the set is going straight to a layout.
Mixed on the bench stereo while batches run, so it moves the way the evening did — slow through the first tank, livelier by the drying cabinet.
Ask at the counter for a dub on the next open day; we keep a few spares in the drawer.
It goes out when a new emulsion lands, a batch day moves, or a workshop seat opens — never on a calendar for its own sake.
The list is a clipboard by the drying cabinet. Nothing is collected on this page, so add your name next time you are in and we will read it back to you.
Mornings are quiet and best for talking through a tricky set; afternoons are batch time and noisier.
There is a step-free entrance at the side gate — ring the bell and someone comes through from the darkroom. Drop-offs are welcome in any open hour.
Colour theory for film shooters runs on first Wednesdays. Hand-printing runs on third Saturdays and always overruns a little.
A push-processing clinic opens whenever enough people ask for it. Seats are held at the bench, first come, and we would rather teach four people properly than twelve badly.
Spectrum No. 4
Each spread holds the flat scan, the decisions in order, and the finished frame — including the two we got wrong first. Printed in a short run on uncoated stock, so the blacks sit soft rather than glossy.
Copies stay on the counter while they last. The list for No. 5 is kept on paper at the bench, next to the clipboard.
Open studio
Bring a roll, a frame that keeps going wrong, or nothing at all. We put scans on the big screen, argue about skin tones, and run a demo batch around mid-afternoon so you can watch a film come off the reel wet.
Colour notes
Why a scan drifts green, how a west-facing window warms a whole roll, which emulsions forgive underexposure and which quietly punish it. Roughly fortnightly, written at the bench rather than at a desk.
Every entry is printed and pinned by the door, so you can read the back catalogue standing up.
On the bench
A wedding set shot on expired portrait stock, two short films that need matched grades across three cameras, and a long test of warm-tone paper that has taken over the second bench.
Batch days are running on time and grading slots are open for November.