Terms of Service
Plain English, because you should be able to read this in one go and know where you stand. Where it says "we" that's the lab; "you" is you.
Using the lab means you're OK with what's below.
1. What we do
You send us exposed film. We develop it, scan it, and put the scans in a private online gallery for you. What you ordered and what it costs is whatever the checkout page said when you ordered it.
2. The honest part about film
Film development is irreversible, and things occasionally go wrong. Equipment fails, chemistry misbehaves, a roll turns out to have been fogged, mis-loaded, or never actually exposed. We are careful — it's our craft — but we can't promise a perfect result on every roll, and nobody honest can.
If we damage or lose your film through our mistake, we will replace it with an equivalent roll of unexposed film and refund what you paid us to process it. That is the industry standard and it is our limit.
We say this plainly because it's the thing people are most upset to discover afterwards: we cannot compensate you for the pictures themselves. A wedding, a funeral, a trip you'll never take again — the images on a damaged roll have a value we can't put a number on and can't insure. If a roll is truly irreplaceable, tell us before you send it and we'll talk about how to handle it. Consider whether to send irreplaceable film at all, to us or to anyone.
Push/pull, expired stock, unusual formats and experimental souping carry extra risk that is yours, not ours, when you ask us for them.
3. Your negatives
After scanning, you tell us what to do with the physical film — we'll send it back on its own, send it with your prints, or destroy it if you ask. You pick at checkout.
If you've asked for film back and we can't reach you, we'll hold it for 90 days and try to contact you. After that we may dispose of it. We'll have tried first.
4. Your gallery, and how long it lasts
Your order includes a 90-day gallery. You can extend it to one year or lifetime at checkout or any time afterwards — just ask us.
- A paid year runs from the day you buy it, not from when your order was delivered. Buy it late in your free window and you still get a full year.
- "Lifetime" means the lifetime of the lab, honestly stated. If we ever shut down, we'll give you a meaningful window and a way to download everything. It does not mean "forever" in a way no small business can promise.
Download your files. The gallery is a convenience, not a backup. Keep your own copy — please.
When a gallery ends
Whatever ends it — the window running out, or you deleting it — your files stay recoverable for 14 days. Ask us inside that window and we'll put them back, no argument and no charge.
After 14 days the files are deleted for real. We won't have them. This is not us being unhelpful; they're genuinely gone.
Deleting a gallery also immediately invalidates any share links you made for it.
5. Sharing
You can turn any gallery into a public link. Two things worth knowing:
- Anyone with the link can see it. There's no password. That's the point, and it's also the risk — treat the link like a key.
- You can turn it off at any time, which permanently kills that link. If you turn sharing on again you get a brand new link; the old one stays dead.
6. Who owns what
Your photographs are yours. Full stop. We claim no ownership and no licence to them.
We won't publish, share, or use your images for anything — no marketing, no portfolio, no training any machine-learning model — unless you specifically tell us we can, for specific images. Silence isn't permission.
We do keep the right to hold and process your files to the extent we need to in order to actually run the service you asked for (scan them, store them, show them to you, print them).
The lab's own software, site, and branding remain ours.
7. Using the service sensibly
Don't use the lab to store or share anything unlawful, and don't send us material that is illegal to possess or process. Don't attack the service, scrape it, hammer the API, or try to reach other customers' galleries. We'll suspend accounts that do, and involve the authorities where we have to.
8. Paying
Prices are shown at checkout. Processing usually starts once payment clears.
If you cancel before we've started work, you get a full refund. Once film is in chemistry we can't undo it, so refunds after that point cover only work not yet done.
Storage upgrades are for a fixed term and aren't pro-rated if you change your mind partway through — though if something has genuinely gone wrong, talk to us. We'd rather sort it out than win an argument.
9. The lawyer-shaped part
We provide the service with reasonable skill and care. We can't promise the site is never down or that every scan is flawless.
Except where the law says otherwise, our total liability to you for anything connected to your order is capped at what you paid us for that order, plus a replacement roll of film where section 2 applies. We're not liable for indirect or consequential losses.
Nothing here limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud, or for anything else the law doesn't allow us to limit. If you're a consumer, your statutory rights are unaffected — this document doesn't take them away.
10. Changes, and ending things
We may update these terms; the date at the top changes when we do, and we'll tell you about anything significant. Changes don't apply retroactively to work already in progress.
You can stop using the lab whenever you like. We can end service if these terms are being broken — and if we do, you'll get a reasonable chance to download your files first unless the reason makes that impossible.
11. Contact
The software behind the lab includes open source components. See Open Source Notices.