Artists who are riding the wave of new technology are discovering it gives them greater control over their art, more options, finer quality and a host of new conveniences. Artist Marc Weinstein, President of Color Group, a full service photo and imaging lab in Hawthorne, is most excited about how new technologies are enabling artists to duplicate their work. “In the old days we worked with artists to reproduce their work,” says Weinstein. “Now the quality of printing and imaging is so improved, that we have gone beyond just reproducing to nearly replicating art work. And, in many cases, incorporating the process as part of the original work.”

Weinstein, a graduate of the Pratt Institute in New York, was trained as a photographer and printmaker. His business — helping artists and businesses produce their work give him little time for his own art. “Shoemakers don’t have shoes,” he says.

According to Weinstein, the new accessibility of digital technology is the major factor in providing artist with more control and more options. Typically the use of digital involves scanning a print into the computer or sending it to the computer directly with a digital camera. Artists are using these new tools in many ways. Some are creating images directly on the computer, whereas others are scanning in their original photography or prints and altering them digitally. Many artist make prints from digital work and then hand draw or paint over the computer image to complete the work.“

Because of the new software like PhotoShop, customers can now do filters, blurs, retouching and lighting themselves,” he says. “Few of them could do it in the old days and those who did had to do it by hand. The possibilities with PhotoShop are almost endless. you could spend years perfecting the use of all the tools on that program,” says Weinstein.

A visit behind the scenes at Color Group provides an education in the imaging business. There are separate spaces for photo labs, computers, printers and various work stations. One room the size of a small gymnasium is used just for photographing large objects such as cars. Special fluorescent lighting throughout the building is set to replicate daylight between the hours of 11 A.M. to 1 P.M., the standard for the photography industry.

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When Marc Weinstein went to work for his father more than 20 years ago, he could not have predicted how different their family-run photo lab would become in time. Back then, Color Group Inc. of Hawthorne, NY, made its profit–as photo labs everywhere did at the time–on film processing and enlargement. Bulky, clunky, equipment lined the place, and the concept of an all-digital photo lab that worked without film seemed a crazy idea to anyone of sound mind.

Color Group traces its roots back to 1946, when the original owner built a three person lab in his basement. “My dad bought it from another fellow who started it after WWll,” recalls Weinstein. “My dad was a photographer after the war, and he bought the lab in 1969. Then I came along in 1982. I was a photographer in New York City for 10 or 12 years, and I decided to try working with my dad, which worked out okay”.

These days, Weinstein is Color Group’s President, leading a digital lab that handles all phases of the visual, photographic, and graphic arts. The company contains a drive-in photo/video studio available for rental on a per-diem basis, which spans 2,000 square feet, has 22′ high ceilings and incorporates a corner cyclorama measuring 29′ L x 25′ W x 17′ H. Recently, Weinstein completed a renovation on the entire lab, installing two new Mediaphot/Colenta processors and two ZBE 50-inch printers to his cache of equipment.

Throughout its existence, Color Group has provided a variety of services. “We did all kinds of work over the years, stuff that doesn’t exist anymore, like slide shows,” says Weinstein. “Now, we’re into outdoor graphics and digital C-prints.” Their major clients include large corporations, trade shows, department store, chains, malls, restaurant franchises, clothing retailers and the cosmetics industry. In addition, they also cater to what Weinstein deems “quite an active street trade.”

When It’s Time To Change
Unfortunately, the 1990’s proved very difficult for Weinstein and his staff, threatening the survival of the second generation family business. As film development and enlargement gave way to the digital arena–with personal computers eliminating even more business by promoting an “I can do it myself” approach–many labs exposed their last frames. In the end, Color Group was one of the lucky ones to make it through the dry times.

Weinsein attributes Color Group’s survival to his staff’s determination to adapt to changing times by learning new skills and purchasing new equipment. “We decided it was time to renovate the business and get everything up to snuff,” he explains. Since the minilab had been slowly going digital for years anyway, it was a feasible task. “We had enough work in different parts of the business, so we decided to clean up the mess.”

Before the renovation, Weinstein owned one digital ZBE Chromira photo printer and a Kreonite model. Recognizing that the digital C-print business was getting very busy, he bought another Chromira and two processors, which proved to be a great boon to the business. “Scheduling was always a problem, he says, “but the second machine alleviated the whole issue.”

Realizing the same scheduling problems would would exist for the lab’s Kodak Duratrans, and for regular paper, Color Group pulled out its entire black-and-white department and put in a second Mediaphot/Colenta for processing 50-inch material. The difference was immediately noticeable. “Now, when doing a couple hundred or a thousand Duratrans, it doesn’t get in the way of our glossy and matte C-print work, because the C-print work goes on one processor and the Duratrans, at a different speed, on the other procesor.”

This alllowed Weinstein, an artist who attended RIT and the Pratt Institute to transform Color Group into what he calls “a kind of art-related business.” The company now provides fine-art printing, giclee printing, book production and prepress work, something that would not have been viable during his father’s time at the helm.

“In the past ten years or so, we’ve done about, I quess, five to eight full-blown-out books–we have printers print them, then binding and publishing.” The last book Color Group produced–and certainly one of the most fascinating-was Michael Stadther’s A Treasure Trove (www.atreasuretrove.com).

This gentleman wrote a book, illustrated it, had a million dollars worth of jewels commissioned, then hid tokens around the country,” Weinstein explains. “The book had all these clues in it. You’d figure out the clues in the book, you’d go to the location, you’d find the tokens and you’d get the treasure. The book got a lot of publicity from media all around the country.”

The digital revolution has been kind to Weinstein’s Color Group, reducing equipment needs, labor costs and job completion times. “The first itme I got into digital was 1984,” he recalls, “when the slide imaging business went digital. That worked well for quite a long time.” Still, for every clichéd silver lining, there’s a proverbial cloud, and digital imaging has had its own share of downpours.

The biggest problem for Weinstein was the obsolescence of 20 years’ worth of existing film equipment. “All those years, you’re on the cutting edge of stuff where you don’t know if it’s going to work or not work, and you try it out the hard way. By the time you start making money with it, the price drops and what you have is worthless and you’re on to the next piece of equipment, which you have to buy again.” When Color Group made the transition from totally film-based to primarily digital, he says, the hardest thing to do was figuring out what to do with all his old enlargers. Weinstein called several colleges, hoping one might want his obsolete equipment. Eventually, a client who was processing 8″x10″ film and attending Hunter College in New York City happily arranged for Hunter to accept much of the machinery for it’s students. “Whatever they didn’t take,” Weinstein says, “I gave to my kids’ high school.” Although he ultimately threw out half a million dollars’ worth of computer equipment–enough to fill two dumpsters–he was glad someone was getting to use and learn from the film enlargers he’d used thoughout his career.

Weinstein says he has always considered digital imaging a positve step in the evolution of printing and photography, waving off nay-sayers who thought it would be the death of film. “To this day, we still process film,” he points out, estimating that film now takes up less than 10 percent of his business. We don’t do as much as we did, but I have a feeling that there will always be some film processing as long as there is film to process.” Most of his lab’s work these days is for cosmetics firms, or for archiving purposes for individuals, companies and libraries. Scanning, he says, is still a very big business, despite the high level of attrition.

“Frozen food didn’t kill home cooking, and restaurants aren’t going out of business,” he jokes, “and video did not kill the radio star. As long as you’re a good shop and have a service to sell and there’s value to what you do, people will want to pay for it. Those are the people you’re there for.” The secret to Color Group’s success when so many others have failed to make the transition? “We’ve survived because we’re smart and have worked hard at it. You have to adapt–you have to keep figuring out what’s the next thing over the horizon.”

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The company reproduced 3 1/2-by-7-foot, double-panel displays of paintings from the late 1600’s to the early 1700’s from 4-by-5-inch transparencies for the exhibition called ”Cross Roads and Cross Rivers: Diversity in Colonial New York.”

Marc Weinstein, president of Color Group, said museum curators are especially sensitive to color, light and form. ”They require a lot of very painstaking work, but, coming from a fine arts background, I get a lot of satisfaction when I see a museum project of ours on display,” he said.

Kate Johnson, curator for Historic Hudson Valley, which operates six landmark properties, including Philipsburg Manor, said: ”We have worked with Color Group for many years. They are very experienced in using state-of-the-art equipment. Their high-resolution-scanning, 4-by-5 color transparencies and slides of the paintings have helped make this an exceptional exhibition, which has drawn attention from historians and archaeologists around the country.”

The exhibition, the largest ever displayed at Philipsburg, Ms. Johnson said, not only depicts the early commercial history of the United States but also the cultural diversity of the people brought together by various business ventures of the Philipse family.

”It’s the double stamp of commerce and cultural diversity that has marked New York from the very beginning,” Ms. Johnson said. ”We borrowed paintings and prints showing various groups in pursuit of trade from collections throughout the United States and Canada.”

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And in the spirit of the Philipse family, Ms. Johnson observed that the task of reproducing the paintings for the exhibition was given to a local concern. ”In its day the Manor of Philipsburg was an important commercial center.” she continued. ”According to historians, both Frederick Philipse and his son Adolph made a point of using local suppliers and artisans in their business ventures.”

Mr. Weinstein said museum clients are only part of the mix of his business. ”Our customers run the gamut from professional photographers, artists and illustrators to teenagers who want larger-than-life posters on the spot,” he said, ”to companies with names like International Business Machines, Philip Morris, Reader’s Digest and Lillian Vernon. Walk-in trade is tremendous. At least 200 people a day use the equipment we have in our ‘while you wait’ lobby.”

The lobby lab, staffed by four technicians who offer advice and guidance to customers for making things like view graphs, laser copies, photographic prints from negatives or transparencies up to 8 by 10 inches or as large as 2 by 3 feet. Additional equipment in the lobby allows customers to enlarge, reduce and crop their images on the computer. Customers create stylized prints, calendar layouts, magazine covers and prints to fit wallets, either 3 by 5 inches or 5 by 7 inches.

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Color Group, which Mr. Weinstein said is the largest concern of its kind in Westchester, dates back to 1946 when it was called Reuben’s Studio of Color, a two-man photo studio in Brooklyn. In 1969 it was bought by Mr. Weinstein’s father, Sam Weinstein, a commercial photographer, who moved his company to Hawthorne.

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”I bought my dad out in 1988 when he retired,” Mr. Weinstein said. ”He flunked retirement and now is back into business. He owns a one-hour photo studio. I learned the business from him, working in the lab during high school and college. I still remember listening to the Watergate hearings in the dark room.”

Mr. Weinstein, 47, a graduate of Pratt Institute with a degree in fine arts, began his career as a freelance photographer. ”Basically, we’re still doing the same thing: providing a broad base of clients with processing, custom printing in color and black and white, enlargements and photographic services, but the electronic equipment we use is vastly different from my dad’s tools of the trade,” he said.

Digital photography now accounts for 50 percent of the company’s business. ”Our rapid growth over the last 10 years depended a lot on digital imaging,” Mr. Weinstein said. ”That is the use of computers to scan photos and create large reproductions with amazing fidelity.” With the IRIS system, which Color Group uses, art reproductions can be checked for accuracy before going to press, resulting in a saving of time and money in the production of art books and limited editions.

”Digital has now taken over all commercial jobs such as trade show work and design compositions,” Mr. Weinstein said, adding that he expects strong growth in the digital imaging sector of his business, which is expected to post sales of $2.3 million this year.

State-of-the-art electronic equipment requires a large capital investment. A giant color copier, for instance, costs $250,000, and Mr. Weinstein’s rule of thumb is that each new piece of equipment must return its purchase price within a year.

”If it doesn’t pan out that way, we’ve made a bad buy,” he said, adding that the industry has changed so much and so rapidly that ”old-timers wouldn’t recognize it.”

”In their day,” he said, ”they depended on chemistry, placing pictures in the developer, hanging them out to dry, maybe retouching with an airbrush. The airbrush is extinct. The only thing that remains the same is the styling. The shot is always set up to show the subject to the best advantage. Everything else in the industry has changed, but the quality is higher than ever.”

The ability to clone pictures and paintings has expanded the consumer market. ”We can now faithfully reproduce and restore treasured family portraits,” Mr. Weinstein said. ”We can even reproduce on canvas so that every member of the family can have a copy of what looks like the original painting. For example, at Christmas we did a 1960’s pastel of a little boy. The son’s wife always admired it so his parents gave her the copy.”

The company still occupies its site in Hawthorne, but the space has tripled to accommodate the expanding business. ”We have 24 people, a very good group,” Mr. Weinstein said. ”What’s hard is finding people for the dark room. Everybody wants to work on computers.”

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