洗得还不错 meaning

[Tulee]

Hi guys, I was wondering what this phrase means when used in the context of photographs. Someone said: 洗得还不错 when looking at their photograph.

Can anyone help explain this to me?

[rezaf]

洗 here means to print a photo

[creamyhorror]

Heh, or 'washing' (developing) traditional photos on film.

[jasoninchina]

Yeah, 洗 in this context means print or develop. So it seems like they were saying that the photo's came out well.

[xiaocai]

People would sometimes say 冲洗照片 back in the old days.

[skylee]

沖曬 and 沖印 are also used.

PS - could we say that 沖洗照片, 沖印照片 and 沖曬照片 are the same thing?

[rezaf]

Is 沖曬 a common word in mainland?

[roddy]

Never heard it.

(and we're all assuming it wasn't a photo of his newly cleaned car ;-) )

[Silent]

PS - could we say that 沖洗照片, 沖印照片 and 沖曬照片 are the same thing?

I don't know the chinese, but if I see the translation of my pop up dictionary and combine it with the little I know about photograhy I would they're not the same. It may however all be used to refer to the end result.

沖洗照片 (wash) I would say is the traditional way of developing a photo. You take the negative or photo through some baths to develop it.

沖印照片 (print) would be printing the photo i.e. transfer it to paper. This may be traditional with photosenstive paper or modern with a printer.

沖曬照片 (finishing) I'm less sure about what this exactly would be from a photographic point of view. Traditionally it may be a finishing bath, essentially stopping the photosensitivity. But it may also refer the a literal finishing, basicly adding a transparant layer to improve the look and durability of the photo. Maybe it may also refer to the finishing touch, (digitally or traditionally) enhancing of the pricture by removing all kind of artefacts.

[abcdefg]

洗得还不错 meaning

It means "It came out OK" or "It came out pretty good."

I came across this verb a couple years ago in one of the Hanyu Jiaocheng textbooks. 汉语教程。Last year I tried it out in a streetside photo printing shop with reference to obtaining a few prints from my digital camera's SD card. Selected the photos I wanted printed, showed the shop assistant, and she transferred them to the store computer. Returned later the same day and asked “我的照片洗好了吗？” She said yes and gave them to me. Did the same thing once earlier this year.

So the word had been "field tested" and appeared to work at least in Yunnan, Kunming, 2010 and 2011. I filed it away in the "useful things" part of my brain. Will check it again in 2012.

[knickherboots]

My 30-something Chinese colleague thinks that 洗，冲洗，and 打印 all work to describe having digital photos processed, though younger people are more likely than older people to favor 打印.

abcdefg: Based on your method of checking the meaning of a term, how do you know that someone replying in the affirmative means that you are using the appropriate term? If the assistant repeated your usage, you're probably (though not necessarily) okay. But foreigners, including me, have been stumbling through Chinese for years because native speakers can figure out our meaning and see absolutely no reason to point out mistakes of either large or small magnitude. That's why I tend to seek active confirmation of terms I'm shaky using by asking my dialogue partners to tell me if I'm using something the correct way. Though most Chinese are very hesitant to correct the Chinese of a non-native, they are fairly willing to explain terms when asked. (Though, to avoid becoming a language pest, it's good to spread your questions around. Luckily, there are so many Chinese in China who are positively disposed to engaging with a foreigner, this is a rich resource just waiting to be tapped.)

Of course, in this case, it turns out that your usage was spot on. My point here is only about methodology.