Thought exercise - home darkroom

With my community darkroom closed indefinitely, I'm very idly considering a home darkroom setup. Given that I already develop my own film at home, I'm pretty sure all I need is:

• dark room
  
• enlarger
  
• enlarging lens(es)
  
• film holder
  
• safelight
  
• trays
  
• paper developer
  
• timer
   
  
• contrast filters (which I already own since the packs in the community darkroom are often incomplete)
  

Of these, #1 is the hardest. My utility room has a sink that I could use and a workbench I could place an enlarger on, but also two windows that I'd need to seal and all of the telecom/computing gear with their many, many blinky LEDs. Taping over each one individually will be a real PITA, and I'm hesitant to paint over them - they're there for a reason, after all! I know the real answer is to test, but does anyone have an idea just much fogging I can expect from blinking green LEDs a few feet away (4-5') from paper?

 

I don't have any way to test until/unless my local darkroom reopens, so anything the collective wisdom here can tell me is welcome.

Blackout blind material is easy to find on the internet, and roller-blind kits will make it easy to black out and unblind the windows.

 

Black paper or card can usually be placed or tape-hinged over LED indicators, but red LEDs don't need it - they'll just add to your safelight.

 

BluTak can be pressed thin enough to hold printing paper in place.

...blinky LEDs. Taping over each one individually will be a real PITA, and I'm hesitant to paint over them - they're there for a reason, after all!

What reason would that be?

As far as the general user is concerned, they're only there to make the gear look more impressive, and as a diagnostic tool they're almost useless. Like, who cares if port A has more traffic than port Z? And if the whole thing goes wrong, none of the LEDs will light up!

Edited March 24, 2020 by rodeo_joe|1

Go to your local fabric store and purchase some black felt. Use it to cover the communications equipment while you print but be sure to leave adequate air circulating so the equipment can cool, or you will burn out / reduce the life of expensive equipment. Of course remove the cover when you finish using the darkroom.

 

An alternative. If you have a spare or guest bathroom consider using it. I blocked the small window in the bathroom (some bathrooms have no windows) using black self stick drawer liner - it took to layers. I build a platform that went over the skin on the vanity for the enlarger and build a frame for a rack holding the developing trays over the tub; any chemicals spill into the tub and may be easily rinsed down the drain at the end of the session. The rack frame - four pieces two at either end of the tub - was build using four pieces of plywood with rafter hangers attached. The rack itself was wire closet basket material on 2x4 that ran between the rafter hangers on the end pieces. The strips of wood at the bottom are 1 x 2 to hold the uprights against the wall

 

A picture is worth a thousand words; attached are some pictures of my setup.

 

Go to your local fabric store and purchase some black felt. Use it to cover the communications equipment while you print but be sure to leave adequate air circulating so the equipment can cool, or you will burn out / reduce the life of expensive equipment. Of course remove the cover when you finish using the darkroom.

 

An alternative. If you have a spare or guest bathroom consider using it. I blocked the small window in the bathroom (some bathrooms have no windows) using black self stick drawer liner - it took to layers. I build a platform that went over the skin on the vanity for the enlarger and build a frame for a rack holding the developing trays over the tub; any chemicals spill into the tub and may be easily rinsed down the drain at the end of the session. The rack frame - four pieces two at either end of the tub - was build using four pieces of plywood with rafter hangers attached. The rack itself was wire closet basket material on 2x4 that ran between the rafter hangers on the end pieces. The strips of wood at the bottom are 1 x 2 to hold the uprights against the wall

 

A picture is worth a thousand words; attached are some pictures of my setup.

 

[ATTACH]1334430[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]1334431[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]1334432[/ATTACH]

 

I appreciate the pics, but no bathroom possibilities in this house! Also a great point about cooling/airflow for gear (I'm an IT guy by trade, but you wouldn't have known that).

At least I don't still have the rack-mount servers and disk arrays any more - those doubled as a nice auxiliary heating system in the winter.

 

[uSER=2403817]@rodeo_joe|1[/uSER]

"What reason would that be?

As far as the general user is concerned, they're only there to make the gear look more impressive, and as a diagnostic tool they're almost useless. Like, who cares if port A has more traffic than port Z? And if the whole thing goes wrong, none of the LEDs will light up"

 

You know what - you're probably right! After 20+ years of 'reading' the blinkenlights, I actually do get a decent status at a glance from them, but it's a home network, so as long at Netflix works, nobody but me cares.

Do you have a loft/attic? That’s where my darkroom is, and whilst I have no water supply, I can get by with a big tray of water for fixed prints, and I can have everything in situ. OK, it’s boiling in Summer and freezing in winter, but nothing that a woolly hat or pair of budgie-smugglers won’t fix. And it’s dark all the time, except for the pin-pricks in the roofing felt that let the dark out. You get used to the cobwebs after a while, and I’ve only put my foot through to the bedroom below the twice. The cuts on your head from the rafters heal surprisingly quickly, and modern microfibre clothing dries pretty fast when you spill it all over yourself negotiating the ladder with a tray full of wet prints. Yeh, I can really recommend a loft darkroom.

If you are REALLY SURE you want to lay out a good bit of money, go for the kit. Prices on high end enlargers & lens are fairly decent, but the output of $$$ will mount up and once this crazzzy world settles down, you will still have some equipment hanging about. I would sink a few big ones into a new Epson scanner (V600 works great for me) and join us hybrid folk. My house burned in 2015 and I never though of getting another wet lab up, even with +40 years of hypo fumes in my lungs. Aloha, Bill

I guess I've been more casual in the past. Light leaks or LEDs- throw a towel over or in front of them. Windows- cut some cardboard and stick it in, plus work at night. I've worked in basements where the "darkroom" was just some blankets hung from the ceiling. I've developed and printed in college dorm rooms and communal bathrooms. Had a very nice darkroom in a closet when I was a teen. Where there's a will, there's a way.

Beside blackout blinds, depending on the window construction, you could build a slide in blackout panel. Aluminum foil on the outside is pretty good at reflecting sunlight. The more sunlight you can stop, the easier it will be for the blackout curtains.

 

Maybe blackout curtain to pull across the telco gear, while you are using the room as a darkroom.

 

Think about ventilation. While there are low odor chemicals, I would still like to get the stale/smelly air out, and fresh air in.

 

Depending on where you live, you can find used enlargers for cheap or even free, if you patiently look for it.

Mine was pretty cheap. But after I got mine, I saw a listing of one for FREE. Just "come and take it away." ARGH

 

Obviously the easiest is if you can just leave the enlarger in place. But that is not always an option. So, depending your situation, an easy pack-away enlarger (like a Durst 600 or 605) is nice if you have to clear the space, or one on a rolling cart, so you don't have to disassemble, just push it out of the way.

Here's a darkroom plan from that most fantastic of photo series - the Life Library of Photography. Individual volumes can be had on the internet for just a few bucks.

 

"Slightly edited to show on your screen"

 

Of course, you may not have even an 9x8 room with water.

I just do my tank development in a small half-bath and then scan-digitize and work digitally from that point on.

 

As I've repeatedly said, "I love the smell of fixer in the evening. It reminds me of, of, .. photography"

Edited March 25, 2020 by JDMvW

If you are REALLY SURE you want to lay out a good bit of money, go for the kit. Prices on high end enlargers & lens are fairly decent, but the output of $$$ will mount up and once this crazzzy world settles down, you will still have some equipment hanging about. I would sink a few big ones into a new Epson scanner (V600 works great for me) and join us hybrid folk. My house burned in 2015 and I never though of getting another wet lab up, even with +40 years of hypo fumes in my lungs. Aloha, Bill

 

Not "really sure" yet, but I do have a hybrid environment - Polaroid Sprintscan 120 film scanner. I just enjoy the traditional process - I spend all day at work in front of a computer, so when I'm on my own time I enjoy getting away from that and going hands-on.

The dry side of my first apartment darkroom before I squeezed an Omega D2 in there .

The bathroom across from this closet was the wet side.

I appreciate the pics, but no bathroom possibilities in this house!

 

I forgot to mention one thing in my original post. The entire darkroom could be broken down and moved to the storage garage in about 20 minutes to restore the bathroom to full use. It took about 30 minutes to set it up for the next printing session. As you can see from the pictures, the bathroom became a half bath - sink and toilet could be used - while the photographic equipment was still in place (but not in use :-) ).

We used to be able to post pdf files here, but not now.

 

All the same, from now to April 10, 2020, if you want a couple of pdfs of "suitcase darkroom" files from old photo magazines, send me your actual email (attachments can't be done through the message system in Photo.net) and I will email them to you as attachments.

 

I warn you, they are nothing special, however; but might give you some ideas about more modern ways of making a portable or convertibledarkroom.

 

Either take this offer before April 10, 2020,

to paraphase the great Janis in Move Over

 

"Or just let me be"