David Ball wrote:
On 21 Jul 2005 17:53:38 -0700, "
wrote:

As I recall, only negatives were returned to the press, not the film.

snip

When you have your pictures developed at the local photo shop, the
negatives you get back with your pictures are the same physical film
you gave them, but it's been through a chemical process.

That doesn't hold true when you submit a request for a few photos from
the middle of a 100-foot-long reel of positive film. In that case,
negatives must be developed and handled separately. This process is not
inexpensive.

snip

Whether NASA returned the original film as negatives or kept the
original negatives and returned copies or something that had been
produced by manipulating the originals is a separate issue and one
that I know nothing about, not being involved in the aerospace
industry.

It's my understanding that NASA returned copied negatives, not
originals. Whether said copies had been creatively altered from the
originals is to some extent TBD.

Challenger's Ghost