Help! :(

[Dominic Case]

I was trying to give an understandable and broad explanation

OK, your help is of course appreciated, and the generality of what you said is correct. Thanks for that. But it's misleading.

 

It's just that I can't count how many times I have had to correct people who attempt to phone in grading corrections, and express it in a confusing way because they have half an idea of how the printer works.

 

The sense that you need MORE light to make a print darker, and LESS green light to make it greener, is obvious if you understand that photography works on a negative- positive system. Outside the lab it;s probably not that important - but it is fundamental and vital if you want to understand the printer lights that you might be supplied with.

 

Thinking about TSM's test - suppose the lab had provided him with their attempt at a "corrected" print, and advised that the printer light was 23R 48G 21B. And it looked much too green. What can you conclude from those numbers? Has the lab over-corrected the negative or not gone far enough? Will he have to reshoot with a different filter?