Photography Resources in Ireland: A Comprehensive Guide

If you're into photography in Ireland, especially around Dublin, you need to know where to go for equipment, film development, and all the other bits and pieces that make up a photographer's life. I've been buying photography gear, getting film developed, and generally navigating the photography scene here for years, and I thought it might be helpful to share what I've learned.

Dublin's Photography Shops: The Only Three That Matter

In my opinion, there are three key photography shops in Dublin worth talking about: Gunns, Conn's, and Bermingham Cameras. They all serve slightly different niches, and I find myself using each of them depending on what I need.

Gunns on Wexford Street is a real gem - a small family-run business where you can tell they genuinely care about their customers. I've been buying stuff from them for a long time, and they always make you feel like your business is genuinely appreciated. They're especially great for film and analog photography. One thing that makes them particularly valuable is that they develop black and white film in-house, which is getting harder to find in Ireland. If you're interested in analog photography, it's a great place to go to pick up some film or get it developed.

Conn's on Clarendon Street is more of a generalist shop. They carry a lot of different brands and are usually quite busy. They develop C-41 color film and do a good job with it. They also stock a wide range of digital equipment and accessories. The staff are generally helpful, and I've bought quite a bit of gear there over the years. I believe they also offer a rental service, which can be really useful if you're visiting town and want to pick up a specific lens for a trip.

Bermingham Cameras seems to be more professionally oriented and has more of a Nikon bias, which suits me perfectly. For high-end, expensive gear, I think they really stand out. They've been good enough to do some favorable trading deals for me on a couple of occasions, which I appreciated.

Between these three places, if you're looking for anything in the mirrorless or DSLR world, you'll find what you need. I'd suggest trying all three to see which one fits best with what you're looking for.

There are also a number of high street retailers and generic electronics shops that sell cameras, but honestly, I'd give them a miss. The specialist knowledge and service you get from the dedicated photography shops is worth it.

Film Development Services in Ireland and Beyond

If you're shooting film (and I'd encourage you to try it), you'll need to know where to get it developed. For color C-41 film, I usually go to Conn's. If it's black and white, Gunns is great.

For more specialized development needs, I sometimes use mail-in services. AG Photo Lab in the UK is one I've used in the past - they'd develop pretty much anything, which was great. Their scans were high quality, and the whole service was reliable. I really liked using them.

Just keep in mind that it's getting expensive to get film developed, especially if you're shooting slide film or medium format. That's something to factor into your budget if you're getting into film photography.

Digitizing Your Film and Prints

After getting film developed, you'll probably want to digitize it. Some people do this themselves with a flatbed scanner, but for most of my basic stuff, I just get it scanned when I get the film developed.

For special prints where I wanted extremely high-quality digital files, I've had a few drum scanned. There's a drum scanning company in rural Scotland who were remarkably cost-effective and produced very high-quality scans. They're called Drum Scanning (drumscanning.co.uk), and I'd highly recommend them. They did a really great job with some of my images, and even a couple of years after I had a scan done, when I wanted to tone-match the resulting image to something else, they helped me for free by sending me a file using the original scan.

Something that's becoming really popular is scanning film at home using a DSLR with a macro lens, or a mirrorless camera with a macro lens. There's a bit of an art to doing it well. For slides, it's relatively straightforward - you can research various methods involving film holders and backlighting with high-quality lights. Nikon actually produces their own adapter for this purpose.

For color negative (C-41) film, it's trickier to digitize and get the colors right. There's a plugin for Lightroom called Negative Lab Pro that's highly regarded and has improved significantly over the years. If you've got a camera at home with 20-30 megapixels and a good macro lens, you can definitely surpass the quality and resolution you'd get from a flatbed scanner. But again, for color film, it can be tricky to get the colors right and to remain true to the film's characteristics. Black and white is much more straightforward.

Getting Your Photos Printed

There are numerous places and ways to get your photos printed. I generally prefer inkjet (Giclée) prints over prints made on photo paper using lasers. Inkjet prints, particularly with a matte or eggshell finish, can really bring out a lot in a photograph, especially on slightly textured paper.

When choosing a printing service, look for places that accept TIFF files or uncompressed files rather than just JPEGs, and that don't have arbitrary limits on file sizes. The ability to download drafts or digitally proof images with the right color profiles is also a good sign that the place takes printing seriously.

I'm currently looking at trying some larger online services, including White Wall, which I use for prints on this website. But local places can be great too, particularly framing companies. I have to plug my friend's framing company Fráma in Kildare here - they do incredibly high-quality framing work, and I've had the owner print some stuff for me that turned out spectacularly well.

The advantage of using a local place is that you can go in, see proofs, try different papers, and get a feel for how your images will turn out. Even if the per-print cost might be higher, that flexibility and quality control can be worth it. For larger batches, an online supplier might be more cost-effective.

In Summary

For photographers in Ireland, knowing where to go for equipment, film development, digitization, and printing is essential. Between Gunns, Conn's, and Bermingham in Dublin, you should be able to find all the gear you need. For film development, you've got local options as well as mail-in services for more specialized requirements.

Digitizing film and prints is becoming more accessible with modern digital cameras, and there are plenty of resources to help you do it right. And when it comes to printing your work - which I think is so important for really enjoying your photography - you've got options ranging from high-quality local framers to online services that can handle bulk orders.

Photography in Ireland has never been more accessible, regardless of whether you're shooting digital, film, or a mix of both. The resources are there - it's just a matter of knowing where to look.