PURPOSE: To facilitate the setting of conditions because condition set values are very close among respective film kinds by determining the quantity of exposure according to the value calculated by using the light measured value of a film and printer control characteristics.

CONSTITUTION: The density 2 of a reference negative is found from respective density steps of light measurement 1 obtained by an image sensor, a photodiode, etc., and film characteristics 3 are calculated on the basis of the reference negative density 2 and stored 10 in a memory by negative kinds. In addition, the print condition value 4 of a reference film kind is found by the method of trial and error or a determined procedure and stored 10 in the memory. A correction quantity Δ for correcting the quantity of exposure is calculated 11 by using the film characteristics 3 stored in the memory. An exposure control quantity 23 is found after the photo-graphic printing condition is set, and printer control characteristics Δ are read out to determine the exposure quantity, thereby performing photographic printing operation 25.