Digital Darkroom Design

[steve_sharf1]

<p>I'm building a new home with plenty of room set aside for a Digital Darkroom. I'm moving from my old home that had a beautifully designed wet darkroom that I used for many years and was a duplicate of Ansel Adam's darkroom 2 room configuration. Now I would like to build a dream digital darkroom. I also do my own matting with professional equipment that requires a large island work station. I have set aside two rooms in my new house. The main room is 19' x 13' 6" , with a seperate 12' 6" x 6' 5" room connected to it. Can anyone provide the work flow for this area including all equipment for an ideal set-up, keeping in mind that the center of the room will be an island for Matt cutting. I thought that the printer should be seperate in case of dust, so plan on keeping that in seperate area mentioned above.<br>

I currently use an Imac 24" computer with a large Epson 19' printer. I will add a scanner to this room and any other equipment that is necessary. Please provide ideas or sources.</p>

[robert_brake1]

<p>No real ideas on the layout but I would recommend that since you are building new that you build in a recirculating HEPA filtration system for dust removal especially in the printer area. Since you are working with a clean slate you can work with your HVAC people and go for unobtrusive and quiet as well as ease of filter renewal. I use a relatively noisy and obstructive portable model but I am completely sold on its effectiveness: it's wonderful to have early morning sun beaming through a window and not see dust particles in that beam.</p>

[frans_waterlander]

<p>Make sure to install high quality lighting for your digital darkroom. You may want to read an article I wrote on this subject: <a href="http://www.solux.net/ies_files/Digital%20Darkroom%20Lighting.pdf">http://www.solux.net/ies_files/Digital%20Darkroom%20Lighting.pdf</a><br>

Dust is not nearly as important in the digital darkroom as it was in the traditional one. A hepa filter seems overkill, except for combatting allergies/asthma.</p>

[steve_sharf1]

<p>Frans: Excellent material on lighting specs that I will certainly put to good use. As stated I'm presently using a 24" IMac and an Epson Stylus Pro 3800. My monitor is calibrated using the ColorEyes Display Pro, (about 2 years old).<br>

I also trim , mount, and matt my prints using a Rototrim, Seal Mounting Press and large Fletcher matt cutting equipment. The Flethcher Matt Cutter will be placed on an Island in the center of my new room. <br>

Do you have an ideal set-up for workflow and equipment that you would recommend as being absolutely ideal including everything on a wish list (except for a viewing room) using the room dimensions mentioned in my thread above? I could make my seperate smaller room for printing and viewing room as well.<br>

Any others wish to offer their ideal set-ups?</p>

 

[frans_waterlander]

<p>My mat cutter sits on a 5x5' island made up of Home Depot cabinets and 5x5' piece of plywood finished with polyurethane. To the right is a 2x4' table with the Seal dry mount press. I have a 2x10' table to put my prints on for drying and sorting and putting frames together.<br>

I would put SoLux lighting right above the printer (next to the computer); two 5000K 35W bulbs in closed fixtures about 4' above your desk surface should work just fine.</p>

[bgelfand]

<p>For a digital darkroom, be sure you have enough power and power outlets. Normal room circuit breakers are 15 Amps and one breaker may be shared among two or more rooms. That may be enough for normal room lights and perhaps a TV or small stereo set, but not enough for a few computers, printers, scanners, etc. Multiple 20 Amp circuits would be nice. You might also consider a UPS.</p>

[patricklavoie]

<p>In a last book on CMYK i bougth last week, it have a nice chapter on what the luminance should be, what you should take care of etc...+ how the hell you could and should convert to CMYK in need..excellent book really well printed for once.</p>

<p><strong>CMYK 2.0: A Cooperative Workflow for Photographers, Designers, and Printers</strong> by <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/search-handle-url?%5Fencoding=UTF8&search-type=ss&index=books-ca&field-author=Rick%20McCleary" target="_blank">Rick McCleary</a> (Author)</p>