Negative Pickup
First, the big question:
"Should I keep my negatives?"
This decision is entirely up to you, the customer! Photographers keep their negatives for a variety of reasons, but the biggest thing is for archival purposes.
Negatives are able to be rescanned, so if you ever lose your digital files, or want to see how a different film scanner processes your images, having your negatives on hand is a great way to ensure that your photos last longer.
If you'd like to keep your negatives, read our Negative Pickup Policy below, and please be sure that you will pick them up!
The Policy:
‣ We only discard negatives upon request. If you select "discard negatives" on your order form, your negatives will not be returned to you.
‣ If you would like your negatives back, we charge a $1 negative pickup fee per order to ensure that negatives are picked up. This $1 also covers the labor and costs involved in cutting and sleeving negatives.
‣ For every 2 weeks that your negatives are still at the lab, we will add a $1 to your negative fee until you come pick them up. We will charge that fee when you come pick them up.
‣ We will email you when your negatives are ready for pickup. You will receive an email the Monday after you receive your files with negative pickup information. "Develop only" customers will be contacted when negatives are ready for pickup.
‣ All negatives are stored inside the Reel Quick Lab. Negatives from "develop only" orders are left in the outdoor dropbox for pickup when completed.
‣ You can pick up your negatives during visiting hours (11-6pm on Mondays and Fridays), or request for them to be set outside in the dropbox. Just reply to the negative pickup email and let us know!
A caveat:
Once in a while, we do a "negatives purge" where we discard negatives that have been at our lab for too long.
We really do hate to throw away customers' negatives, so before we do our purges, we put out an announcement on Instagram two months in advance and email reminders to all customers whose old negatives we have here at the lab.