blackout window film/light proofing darkroom

hello all,

the extended shut down of society has prompted me to finally build a home darkroom. i ordered everything i need except for light proofing materials.

i have two bathrooms which could be used, but need some advice on light proofing them:

option a) a half bath that, while cramped, could work. it has a sliding door which leaks light. i could hang a blackout curtain inside or outside the door, but it is a tall door and would require a heavier duty curtain rod.

option b) a much, much larger bathroom with two windows and a door with frosted glass panels. although nicer, i will have to limit my time so as not to inconvenience my roommates.

the main issue with either is how i lightproof them. has anyone here used light proof window film? is it easy to apply and remove? could i get away with just using black garbage bags and tape? are there other solutions i am overlooking?

thank you!

Do a search on Photrio on darkroom curtains for threads with great ideas and suggestions. I use velco to hold the blackout cloth to the windows and around doors.

the black plastic bags that photo paper comes in make good blackout material

I use this stuff:

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/prod...s8kyOT1FBOfMjhoCVm8QAvD_BwE&lsft=BI:514&smp=y

I use corflute. It’s black corrugated plastic sheets, cheap and light, available at hardware stores. Cut to size and gaffer tape or even just place over window. It’s rigid and plastic so you can put it up and take it down to reuse it easily.

Have fun, whatever you use. Dark is easy, printing is the best.

My darkroom has two doors and windows the length. For the windows I used garden plastic sheeting which is up all the time. for the doors I used blackout cloth. The cloth is attached to 3/4 inch wood on top and bottom. I placed "L" hooks above the doors to hold the "curtains" . One door I never open and the one I use I can remove the curtain when not needed. I made the two to be reasonably larger than the doors and can place and remove it in seconds. I rolls up like a scroll. This system has worked well for 44 years. Although I planned the house with the darkroom originally , we realized some future owner might not be interested in photography so it will take a matter of minutes to undarken. the plumbing for the builtin sink ties into the adjacent laundry room and is easily capped off.

http://www.jeffreyglasser.com/

http://www.sculptureandphotography.com/

What are you planning on doing in the darkroom? The reason I ask is because if you're going to be tray developing film, then you'll need it to be a lot more light tight than if you're going to be printing paper.

I use a bedroom for printing paper, and my bathroom for tray developing film. In both rooms, around the doors, I seal them with the same insulating strips that I have on the outside doors of the house. These are the foam type that are built into the trim. This doesn't seal all of the light, but it gets most of it, at least around the sides. Then I stuff a rolled up old towel under the door to block that light out. Next, I drape a blackout curtain, which also doesn't actually black out 100% of the light, over the whole door. It's held in place by one of those shower rods that creates tension on the two walls next to the door. Those two layers combined block out enough light for me to develop film in an open tray without fogging.

As for the window in the bedroom, I put up some some sticky-sided Velcro tape around the window frame. I have some fake leather vinyl with a cloth, fuzzy backing cut to size that I push up around the window and secure with the Velcro. It blocks out all of the light coming directly through, but since the Velcro doesn't provide a 100% seal, a lot of light escapes through the Velcro edge. From there, I hand up another blackout curtain over it. The advantage to this is I can easily take down the vinyl and open up the curtains to let light in. And since the Velcro tape is the same color as the window frame (white), you don't notice it unless you're right up on it. The disadvantage is even with the vinyl in place and the blackout curtain, some light still gets through. It's not enough to fog paper in the time it takes to expose and develop it, but it might be enough light to fog high speed film if I tried to tray develop it, especially in the day time.

The reason I have two rooms is the bathroom is quite small, and to get the 4x5 enlarger in there, I have to disassemble it to get it through the door, and after I reassemble and realign it, there's very little working room in there for me to move around. So while it's possible to do, it's a frustrating and slow. With tray developing film, it's a lot easier, since I don't need the giant enlarger or 16x20 trays. Plus, I have running water there, which helps quite a bit. With paper, I can tray develop, stop, and fix all in the bedroom, and then take the paper out, into the bathroom for the wash. I throw down an old shower curtain to protect the carpet from spills. It's not a perfect system, but it allows me to have a darkroom and live a normal life without having a dedicated dark room.

I bought a few yards of blackout cloth, usually used as a lining for curtains, or for projector screens, its white. I made a wood frame to fit into the windowsill, stapled the cloth around the frame. i have 4 small windows in my basement, that cleared up any light. I believe it was called Roclon lining fabric. Not very expensive, actually cheaper than the devutene, and worked better.

thank you for the advice, everyone!

i am just printing so i don't need absolute light tightness. i ended up getting corrugated plastic boards for the windows and will use heavy duty trash bags for covering the cracks and seams

r u t h said:

thank you for the advice, everyone!

...and will use heavy duty trash bags for covering the cracks and seams

Click to expand...

In my previous home of 20 years, I used the main bedroom during the day, with an enlarger on my clothes draws unit. Trays were put on top of a sheet of hardboard, which was put on top of a large plastic sheet / plastic tablecloth to protect the bedding That was until later, when I got my first Nova unit.

Back then before I got my permanent darkroom in this house, I made a wooden frame out of 2" x 1/2" timber and attached RUBBLE black bags, which are a lot thicker than some thinner bags, taping them together with brown parcel tape, over lapping them by a few inches.

I left the bags as is, for double thickness, and then stapled them to the wooden frame. I left an overlap of at least 6" all around, and they could then be pushed into the window area and gave a perfect fit, with pure darkness in 5 minutes to put up and take down. They were sometimes left in situ for a few days at a time when I had time, and I do wonder what the neighbours must have thought what was happening at times.

Happy memories.

Terry S