A place in the dark

I live in an apartment that is way to small to have a darkroom in. So I found a college that would let me volunteer in the lab in exchange for darkroom time. Perfect right? Not exaclty, the darkroom is great with one fatal flaw all of the enlargers are hopelessly out of alignment so everything is hopelessly out of focus. Its going to be quite a job to get them into alignment since they are Saunders enlargers that were ripped off the base boards and mounted to crooked counter tops then sealed, union labor. This has me thinking of other options and I am wondering what other photogs do. Surely not every photographer has a home equiped with a darkroom. So What do you do for a darkroom?-J

Josh, I live in a small studio (SF rents are the highest in the

country and the only darkroom rental house in town just got evicted

for the dot.commers), the first thing I got was a Harrison changing

tent (should have got the biggest one) this works very well for

loading and unloading all formats of film and I can also take it on

the road. My Eenlarger is on a very solid heavy desk (used office

furniture) on one side of the room, across the room is my "kitchen"

and I place a plywood top over the entire counter area and this gives

me a level worktop for my trays and access to some running water at

the sink. The 3 level drying rack from calumet sits on the nearby

kitchen table (folds up when not in use) and I darken the whole room

with blackout cloth and usually print after the sun goes down. I use

my film and print washers hooked up in the bathroom tub and store

them there when not in use. Cramped? you bet..but it works. good

luck.

My first darkroom was a portion of the basement with no windows. The

door was light proofed with a large piece of Duvytene and the other

"finished" room had to have the lights of so they wouldn't leek

through the cheap panel job the owner had installed. I set the trays

on a large piece of 3/4 ply on top of the washing machine and dryer.

The enlarger sat on a homemade work bench - cast off top of an old

kitchen table and legs made of 4 X 4's.

 

<p>

 

My most recent darkroom is a 6' X 6' X 6' walk-in cedar closet in

the basement with no running water. Electricity comes from a power

strip, the cord run through a hole drilled in the door. The trays are

on a shelf that used to hold clothes and the Beseler 4 X 5 sits on the

floor. All washing and mixing of chemistry occurs in the two

chambered deep sink that came with the house. I still have to use the

Duvytene to block the light when developing film.

New York has some pretty serious rents too. My current darkroom is a

bathroom. Trays and washer are in the tub, enlarger on a board across

the toilet seat, and I put some velcro over the long narrow window to

hang my darkcloth, which has velcro along one edge. I develop film at

night, but it is dark enough to do prints in the daytime. I've

mounted a retractible clothesline over the tub to dry film and RC

prints.

"You think that's hard, my darkroom is a desk drawer."

"You have a desk? I have to do my printing in a coffe cup."

"Oh yea? Well I just put a bag over my head."

"You have a bag? I have to close my eyes to make it dark."

Why not make an easel stand to use under the enlargers. A small stand

that you can shim to align with the lens and enlarger heads? It would

be a lot less trouble to do so. Even the older enlargers that seem

hopeless can be aligned either this way or with a bit of quiet work

with a file if the upper parts have been knocked way out of

alignment.

Rip the best enlarger off the counter top and remount to a baseboard.

Should take you 2 hours with the right tools. The college will

probably love you forever and you'll never have to worry about owning

a darkroom, which can get expensive with lenses and all. Otherwise

your kitchen becomes your darkroom and the local fast food place your

kitchen. Spend a little time now to save lots of bucks later.

I live in a tiny house with no basement. The

kitchen is a good size for a darkroom, and it

even has a window. So what I did was first,

black out the window, I built a frame from

1x3 pine, stapled "black out plastic" to it,

and even put a Doran exhaust fan on the

frame. I used black Duck tape to seal any

leaks. The "black out" plastic is the same as

the plastic used in landscaping, even extra

heavy dark trash bags will work. Next, I

bought what I thought was light tight

material. Its not, but close to it. I purchased

it at a fabric store. What I did was to put the

material permanently on the wall. I

actually needed to create a wall and a half

with the material, so I stapled the material

across the top of the open wall space with

something, whatever, to "tie" the material

when I roll it up. The ties are permanently

in place at the top of the material. The next

step was to purchase "Velcro". Its damn

expensive in the store, so I found a web site

that specialized and sells it cheap. I spent a

long time sewing the Velcro down the sides

of the material, and of course it was glued

down the wall on either side, too. Since the

material was not light tight I put hooks

across the top of the wall and hang regular

material across to cover length wise and

width wise. I cut out a square in both pieces

of material to put an 8'x8' air vent. So

simple, all I have to do is put the frame in

the window, untie the ties and let the

material drop. I just don't like having to ad

the " second wall of material", but I can

allways put a second layer of material along

with the permanent material.

p.s. The cut out square thats 8"x8" for the

vent has a square of Velcro sewn around it,

and the vent itself is Velcroed, so I just join

the two together.