A while back, I did an intro to B&W darkroom workshop at my home. Nothing elaborate, it was essentially a demo of film developing and printing. No hands-on for the participants, as my darkroom was not really set up for that. I showed how to do film developing and printing at a basic level, and provided hand-outs and a CD-ROM with extensive reference material so that they could obtain the necessary tools and do it themselves.
I designed the day targeted toward individuals who had never worked in the darkroom. When I did the actual workshop, it was seemingly well received and we had a good day, but all but one of the participants (there were 5 or 6) had prior darkroom experience! The experienced people seemed to learn something, but as they were not my target audience, I didn’t really feel that I had accomplished my purpose. Since then, I’ve only done individual “coaching” in my own darkroom, targeting the instruction to the person’s skill level.
I developed the workshop in response to a perceived need. From the online community of new film shooters, there appeared to be a market of people coming to film for the first time, and needing a starting point. Several local film shooters had participated, for instance, in an informal get-together where we set up and showed off all different kinds of film cameras, from 35mm through roll film and into ultra-large format. At this gathering and from online comments, people were asking for basic darkroom instruction.
I still have my outline and materials, of course. And now I have been approached about doing a similar workshop, but in a more formal setting in a large, teaching darkroom (not my home). Since this facility will be set up with multiple enlargers and plenty of room for many to work at once, there will be hands-on work by the participants, although still at a basic, introductory level. Also, because of the marketing skill of the institution, I am sure we will have inexperienced beginners.
I have been asked to expand my background material to include more discussion of the technology, including the structure of film and paper, and what the chemistry does at each step. This is not a problem, per se, other than I am slightly worried about doing too much and overwhelming the novices with perhaps unnecessary minutia.
So, my question to you, the community:
Assuming you are an absolute beginner just coming to film and the darkroom for the first time, (and probably coming from a digital background) how much chemistry and physics would you want to know? Do you just need to know how to mix developers, etc., and process the film and paper, or would you want to know what is going on “behind the scenes”? Or, somewhere in between?
I know it’s a broad question, but help me out! I know there are a lot of teachers here. Thanks!
I designed the day targeted toward individuals who had never worked in the darkroom. When I did the actual workshop, it was seemingly well received and we had a good day, but all but one of the participants (there were 5 or 6) had prior darkroom experience! The experienced people seemed to learn something, but as they were not my target audience, I didn’t really feel that I had accomplished my purpose. Since then, I’ve only done individual “coaching” in my own darkroom, targeting the instruction to the person’s skill level.
I developed the workshop in response to a perceived need. From the online community of new film shooters, there appeared to be a market of people coming to film for the first time, and needing a starting point. Several local film shooters had participated, for instance, in an informal get-together where we set up and showed off all different kinds of film cameras, from 35mm through roll film and into ultra-large format. At this gathering and from online comments, people were asking for basic darkroom instruction.
I still have my outline and materials, of course. And now I have been approached about doing a similar workshop, but in a more formal setting in a large, teaching darkroom (not my home). Since this facility will be set up with multiple enlargers and plenty of room for many to work at once, there will be hands-on work by the participants, although still at a basic, introductory level. Also, because of the marketing skill of the institution, I am sure we will have inexperienced beginners.
I have been asked to expand my background material to include more discussion of the technology, including the structure of film and paper, and what the chemistry does at each step. This is not a problem, per se, other than I am slightly worried about doing too much and overwhelming the novices with perhaps unnecessary minutia.
So, my question to you, the community:
Assuming you are an absolute beginner just coming to film and the darkroom for the first time, (and probably coming from a digital background) how much chemistry and physics would you want to know? Do you just need to know how to mix developers, etc., and process the film and paper, or would you want to know what is going on “behind the scenes”? Or, somewhere in between?
I know it’s a broad question, but help me out! I know there are a lot of teachers here. Thanks!
requested that I include all of the tech background. (It's the way he learned it at university.) As most of you have indicated, I think "just enough" is enough. I solicited feedback from you guys to give me a reason to temper his requests. I'm going to throw some of it out there to the class as time permits, but emphasize that it "won't be on the test", so if someone's eyes glaze over, no harm done.
