Rangefinder Magazine
June 2005

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Lab Profile by Lou Jacobs Jr.
American Color Imaging

The first contact that customers have with many color labs may be the labs’ web sites. Here is part of the way American Color Imaging in Cedar Falls, Iowa, introduces itself on its site:

“We are dedicated to delivering fine print quality and exceptional service at a fair price. Through personal attention and strict attention to detail, we strive to develop and maintain professional partnerships. Our consistent efforts in identifying customer needs, expectations, and perceptions result in service excellence… When they succeed, we succeed.”

Here is brief description of the lab from an interview with ACI marketing manager Craig Monson:

Rangefinder: How did your company start?

American Color Imaging: We opened in 1967 as a color lab with five people. We currently employ 134 people, down from 230 because digital processing requires fewer people. We’ve been in our current location since 1977, and in 1992 the lab was totally renovated and expanded to 35,000 square feet.

Don Lohnes, then owner, added school and senior departments to our portrait and wedding business. His daughter Lisa and her husband, Mark Lane, worked at the lab for years, and they took over when Don retired.

RF: What are some of your services?

ACI: We went to C-41 about 1973, and we still do it. We make prints from slides by digitizing them, and we have a Scitex Eversmart Pro II flatbed scanner for negatives, transparencies and prints up to 11x17. We do panoramic negatives in sections and our digital retouching artists put them together. We also have five Kodak HR500 negative scanners.

RF: How has the advent of digital photography helped increase your services?

ACI: We began servicing digital photographers in 1993, and the business took off. At the core is our WEB Ordering program that allows photographers to crop, rotate, etc., and send orders over the Internet, or on CD. The system is designed to be quick and easy. All print sizes and options appear in one pane. No other lab has a similar system, though some have tried to copy ours.

Certified Print Partner is our fastest-growing program because photographers take responsibility for their own color. American Color was one of the first to invest in digital retouching, and we have introduced digital items such as buttons, magnets, trader and occasion cards and graduation announcements. Our Ultra-Pics multi-image digital templates are also popular, and the lab’s systems include great black and whites from color images.

E-Special Events is WEB ordering for sports and special-events shooters. They can choose from the à la carte menu or predefined packages. We offer color-corrected or non-color-corrected proofs and proof books with options clients can choose. Senior Volume—for those who shoot 1000 or more seniors a year—is an area for proofing, print sizes and combinations, yearbook strips and retouching options. Images can also be printed on Kodak Metallic Paper.

RF: I understand you also offer training and advice.

ACI: Yes, American Color University provides instruction in such areas as Photoshop, digital techniques and basic sports and special-event shooting. Staffer Gil Lea, a long-time pro, answers questions about digital cameras. Gil also fields questions about Photoshop. Frank Jonte, former pro, is our Portrait/Wedding Custom Service manager, and other technically proficient sales reps help studios with shooting problems. Sales rep Pat Cahill still runs a full-time studio with his wife and daughter). They currently shoot about 20,000 underclass and 10,000 sports photos a year.

RF: In what category are the majority of your clients?

ACI: The biggest percentage is in portraits and weddings. About 77 percent do digital in some form. Some of the work of film shooters is still printed optically.

Craig Monson gave me an impressive list of developing, printing and other equipment the lab uses. Image files are kept on four terabytes of storage space. Other statistics are equally notable for this very qualified lab.

Lou Jacobs Jr. is the author of 28 how-to photography books, the latest of which is Studio Lighting (Amherst Media). He has taught at UCLA and Brooks, and his photographs and stories have been published in numerous magazines. He is a longtime member of ASMP and enjoys shooting stock during his travels.