Blackout material?

We've just expanded our studio, and I know have an office space of my own, which I am trying to turn into a hybrid darkroom space/digital editing room. At the current time I have a small 2.5 foot by 5 foot closet that has plumbing. I was thinking of putting my enlarger on one side, and my wet area on the other. It would basically be a stand and turn type of set up, because I would have to stand up all the time, and turn around from my enlarger to my wet area and back again.

However, my office borders our bathroom and it would be rather easy to run simple plumbing from the bathroom sink, and tie into the drain on the other side of the wall. So I was thinking of building a large countertop with a sink on one end for washing. This would make things so much easier and I'd have more room for storage etc, not to mention the working area.

My problem is that my office has two large windows, one on the east and one on the south, and it is B-R-I-G-H-T in there during the day. So my question is how good is the black out material that Freestyle and other places sell? Does it really completely black things out? Is there a cheaper alternative?

My initial thought is to cut pieces of 3/4 inch corrugated cardboard that would fit into the windows to block the majority of the light, and then use velcro tabs on the window frames to stick the black out material on which would hopefully block the remaining light. I would also use some black vinyl as a curtain over the office door to block any light coming in from the cracks in the door frame.

My darkroom is in the garage. My wife made curtains out of blackout cloth available at most fabric stores. She sewed velcro along the edges. The only problem I have with it is the sewing holes do allow in light, so extend it far enough back that direct sunlight won't be shining into the sewn area. Also a 2nd curtain over the door would make the closet very dark (ie, good enough for film loading).

Maybe the blackout cloth then a second one to catch light coming from the sewing holes. Or cardboard for the first, as you said, then backup cloth for the second.

Black foam core works really well. Combine with some cloth and you'll be in business.

Masonite from Home Depot is another great choice for something semi-permanent.

You can also get huge rolls of black plastic tarp/vapor barrier that works well but is a bit unwieldy.

Take a look at this.
http://www.filmtools.com/duvetyne.html

I use black vinyl sheeting that you should be able to find at your favorite hardware store. It comes in a few different thickness -- I think 5 mil is what I use.

It's probably in the garden area as it is used as a weed barrier in gardens.

Ed

200 micron builders paper and builders adhesive. It's so cheap you can just add layers if in doubt.

It's not real pretty, but once the lights are off you won't notice...

MattPC.

Commando Cloth is awesome but spendy, I use it now and then on location shoots to completely knock out the sun in a place like AZ.

Mainecoonmaniac said:

Take a look at this.
http://www.filmtools.com/duvetyne.html

Click to expand...

http://www.amazon.com/Roc-Lon-Blackout-Drapery-Lining-Fabric/dp/B000WFP8V4

I bought two yards of it, cost me $15 shipped, and they gave me something like six yards (apparently they just don't care). Did the velcro trick that someone else mentioned, except that I used an adhesive (whichever Liquid Nails product is targeted at plastics and fabric) instead of sewing. Good seal. There are some pinholes in the fabric from the cats walking on it while I was cutting to size but not enough to matter for printing, which was my need (I always use daylight tanks for film).

ParkerSmithPhoto said:

Black foam core works really well. Combine with some cloth and you'll be in business.

Click to expand...

That's what I did. I cut the foamcore to fit just inside the window frame, then used strips of blackout cloth around the edges to make the seal. Since my darkroom is my office, when I want light I can just pull the boards out of the window, then stick them back in when I want dark. No tape.

A semi-permanent way is to build a wall similar to sets. You can use 1x2 studs and use door skins or luan. You can prop it up with some stands or nail the wall in place.

Black duct tape!

I use "Contractor's Cleaning Bags" available from home improvement centers. These are just extra thick and large black trash bags. When layered two bags per area (thus 4 layers of this material) it's light tight. It has lasted me 2 years and still going strong exposed to Florida sun. (inside the window though) I used painters' tape to join them together and to the window frame. Where there was a light leak, I put duct tape on top of the painters' tape. That way, it's easily removable if needed.

Another thing you can do is to use two pieces of cardboard and sandwich an aluminum foil. Card board is not light tight but aluminum foil is. Non reflective cardboard will eliminate reflections.

Commando cloth isn't all that expensive in the grand scheme of things. It's also reusable for the most part.

Glad I asked, lots of great ideas and I'm leaning more towards using my entire office instead of just the closet.