Codes on the print back

[FPjohn]

Hello:

Have I missed this on these fora? Is there a table to decode the codes on the back of machine prints from Frontier etc? I assume my prints are routinely 'improved' for me.

yours
Frank

 

[peterc]

I think the codes are the colour adjustments. I don't know the decode, but I can ask my local photofinisher ... he's always looking at the backs as he sorts out nasty printing jobs.

Peter

 

[FPjohn]

thanks! look forward to it.

 

[T_om]

Those codes are just units of color correction applied. They probably would not tell you a thing that would be useful at all.

I do know that on a Fiji 390, the code "N,N,N,N" means all internal corrections have been turned off. When I was using color profiled Fuji Frontier processing, I always made sure to request "Turn Off ALL Automatic Corrections", else the unskilled operators always tuned on the "Bozo The Clown" correction set used for the great unwashed and their weekend snapshots. The one that makes everyone look like they are dressed in circus garb and gives all fair skinned people a 'Fuji Sunburn'.

Go here if you want to bother with profiling your local Frontier. http://www.drycreekphoto.com/

I gave up because the pre-pubescent, nose-picking young idiots hired by all the local labs never bothered to take their fingers out and turn off the damn corrections the first time no matter WHAT instructions I left. I ALWAYS had to have everything re-printed. Then I found a new pro lab (my old one went out of business 🙁 ) and have not bothered with Frontier labs again.

Tom

PS: It is not the machine at fault. A correctly profiled Frontier using Fuji Pro paper is capable of wonderful output. The crap Fuji Crystal Archive paper that all the Big Box and One Hour Photo stores use is, IMHO, not worth bothering with.

 

[FPjohn]

Hello:

My local Jean Coutu is giving me more than acceptable prints - I've seen poor processing elsewhere and in the dim past printed cibachrome myself. They apparently care. I wonder if the codes might tell me how much of a tweak, if any, a given print has been given.

yours
Frank

 

[T_om]

Hello:

My local Jean Coutu is giving me more than acceptable prints - I've seen poor processing elsewhere and in the dim past printed cibachrome myself. They apparently care. I wonder if the codes might tell me how much of a tweak, if any, a given print has been given.

yours
Frank

Last ime I went searching, Fuji had the software guide to Frontier operations posted on the web somewhere. I do not have a link, but if it is really something you want to know, you should be able to find it pretty easily.

Tom

 

[FPjohn]

will look

will look

thanks, I'll look.

 

[peterc]

The answer is that knowing what the codes are won't really help you that much.
The first bit <No.XXX>XXX denotes the machine and registered owner.
The next block of numbers XX+XX represents the film maker/film speed and density.
The next block NNNNN is the cyan/magenta/yellow and two user settable parameters.
The next block XXX is auto correction.
The last three numbers have nothing to do with how your photo looks.
However, machine users can create their own profiles for various films or use a variation of a profile for one manufacturer's film for another manufacturer's film. So, unless you know what profiles the lab has loaded in the machine and what custom changes they may have made, the numbers are pretty much useless.
For example, one lab might set the cyan/magenta/yellow at 80/80/80. This would then show as NNN (normal) while another lab (or even another operator using a different profile for the same film) might use 70/70/70 as normal. Thus NNN has no real meaning unless you know the machine's software version and the specifics of the loaded profiles.

Hope this helps,
Peter

 

[FPjohn]

Opaque

Opaque

Hello:

Then I cannot know what has been done. Thanks all for the imput.

yours
Frank