Are you watching TV in the darkroom?

[Aggie]

..

 

[BobF]

"Zen of Pyro, the meditation on the mid-tones" and the torture of TV. Or how I learned to zone out alone in a lightless little room.

Isn't there a rather trite book on photography and Zen?

Bob

 

[DKT]

Well--think of this way--you're not watching TV....it's just there. Just like a radio or silence. You're still printing, using a densitometer plotting control strips or scraping the silver recovery unit....or mixing chemistry or whatever. Like I said, at work all I have is a radio and the ever present roar of the air handling system, water chiller, dryers and processors. I often run film and print at the same time--we have a revolving door between 2 darkrooms. Sometimes I'll be doing a shot out in the studio and will have to make a quick print, run back & crank it out, back to my shot etc. I can make a print back there in about 5 minutes or less. I can often look at a neg and telll how to do it--It just happens, I don't really think about it anymore....There are 3 enlargers, and sometimes I'll use all 3 of them, with different negs--flip flopping across them as the prints run through the machine. Just depends on what's going on. You gotta be able to multitask.

KT

 

[removed account4]

i usually just listen to the white noise of the faucet running.

- john

 

[mikewhi]

I use TV in teh DR

I have a 38" HDTV direct-view TV that weighs 250lbs suspended 3 feet above my easel. I have removed my enlarger and connected the TV to my timer. TV comes off and on via footswitch. Timer is a compensating type and turns off during commercials. Exposure times are automatically calculated via an electrode in the light path. Timer has settings for:
'talk shows', 'soaps', 'news', 'PBS', 'sports', 'poker' and 'misc'.

I have to lay on my back and look up to see the picture, though. I don't print much, but I do watch a lot of TV.

-Mike

 

[rjs003]

I work in the darkroom to excape the TV

 

[mobtown_4x5]

This is not a sermon...

but I highly recommend to you that you get rid of your telivision set. You will find your artistic journey and the quality of your life greatly enriched.
Try it!

 

[Francesco]

Gideyup! Definitely watch tv! And a VCR in case I feel like putting on an old movie. Helps pass the time and I like being entertained while spinning those silly BTZS tubes. And always with a bottle of wine opened. Darkroom work is tedious - it is the resulting negative and print that makes it worthwhile. CD player is in there too if there is nothing good on the telly. How anyone can function with complete silence and nothing else but the sloshing sounds of liquids in the darkroom for hours on end is a mystery to me. To each his own (whatever works).

 

[removed account4]

no tv in the dark, just a radio with bad reception

 

[Deckled Edge]

I have a 38" HDTV direct-view TV that weighs 250lbs suspended 3 feet above my easel. I have removed my enlarger and connected the TV to my timer. TV comes off and on via footswitch. Timer is a compensating type and turns off during commercials. Exposure times are automatically calculated via an electrode in the light path. Timer has settings for:
'talk shows', 'soaps', 'news', 'PBS', 'sports', 'poker' and 'misc'.


-Mike

I tried that too, using Fox, but all I got was heat and no light.

Actually, the few times I have tried to listen to PRI on the radio, I found it so distracting that I turned it off after half a print. Even Beethoven seems to throw my dodging and burning rhythms off, and I don't know whose metronome to follow. Give me quiet, please.