Mail in Film Developing & Scanning
by film people, for film people
We are ALMOST done moving and updating our site! We have re-opened some services and will re-open the rest with the new site <3 -emily 6/30/26
Darkslide Film Lab is a full service woman owned & operated boutique film lab. Established in 2021 and located in the historic east side of Bridgeport, Connecticut, we service the entirety of the United States & beyond!
We specialize in development and scanning of photographic film as well as traditional black and white darkroom printing.
Our goal is to modernize the way lab services are preformed by blending traditional techniques with todays technology.
We want to be a part of your story as a photographer.
A resource for you to grow, learn, and fall in love with film.
Film is delicate, and should be treated as so. At Darkslide we pride ourselves on the attentive care and precautions we take to ensure your film is handled and processed properly. We are a small team of two girls who love film, and want to keep the medium alive, accessible, and fun. Each and every order means the world to us!
Let’s connect <3
Currently Available Lab Services
Due to unexpected delays with our website updates & move, we are not quite ready to roll out 100% of our typical services.
We don’t want to keep you waiting forever!
We can currently accept 35mm & 120 film that is process type C-41 or B/W and provide Noritsu scans.
When our new website is ready to go - so will the rest of our services that you all know and love like DSLR scanning, E6 processing, & more! xo -Emily (6/30/26)
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A roll of 35mm film is roughly 6ft long. If you opt to get it Cut & Sleeved, we will white glove service cut the roll every 6 frames so that it fits in an archival sleeve designed for use in a 3 ring binder. This is the neatest way to store your negatives long term. If you do not get them cut, you will receive them as the full 6ft roll.
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A contact sheet is a direct positive copy of your negatives! Once your negatives are cut & Sleeved, a Contact Sheet is made by scanning the entire sleeve, then inverting it to reveal the posotive copy of each image. Standard practice is to store your negatives Cut & Sleeved, with the Contact Sheet on top. That way, as as you flip through your storage to find a certain image, you can reference the positive image rather than the negative.
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Flat = Low Contrast, muted color
Auto = Automatic scanner results with minimal correction for the whole roll rather than each image (additional correction recommended/encouraged)
Professional Color Balance = Frame by Frame color balance of the whole roll considering each color channel. No Additional Corrections needed.
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Dust is an inevidable evil when it comes to film. If you opt for removal, we will clone the majority of the dust out of your scans. We do our best to mitigate dust in the lab to provide as clean of film as we can, but, its impossible to 100% avoid.
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We have more testing to do in our new space before we can comfortably offer these again! We are hopeful to roll them back out before the end of summer.
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As soon as our new website is ready we will be set up to properly intake orders with scanner specifications! We can do dslr scanning right now, so, if you really can’t wait until our new site is done and really really really want those scans instead of Noritsu scans, email us!
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I REALLY HOPE SOON ITS ALOT WHEN YOU REFUSE TO USE AI. Realistically though, it will be sometime this summer. Im hopeful for July but we way need to push into august so we shall see!!! WE WANT TO RE OPEN FULLY SO BAD WE MISS YOU GUYS SO MUCH
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2-4 weeks as of July 2026 dependant on order size
“If one day all of the technology in the world stopped working… you would still have your negatives”
Testimonials
IG: @Bellnic9le Twitter: @Bell_lati
“Not only is Emily an expert in all things photography & film, she’s kind, thoughtful, and provides amazing service! I know she handles my film as her own, I highly recommend!” -Bella Latimer