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Building a darkroom

Plastic coated home electric blankets are so cheap and work. Available anywhere.
 


Jose,

Thank you for taking your time and sharing your wealth of experience!

BR,

Jonas
 
So, now the question is. Should I use my color heat to adjust contrast or get the Ilford filter set.

As I understand, I need to make curves to be able to adjust the contrast in a reproducible manner without changing the exposure. This means I need to get a step wedge and use expensive materials and that I need to do this for every single type of paper I decide to use.

With the filters, I immediately know which contrast grade I get and how to adjust exposure (no change for 00 - 3 1/2, double exposure for 4 - 5). Is it worth the 99 EUR?

BR,

Jonas
 

The colour head will be just fine for variable contrast papers. No need to go out buying the Ilford filters.

You will find most (all ?) VC papers come with an information sheet detailing the CMY settings to use in order to print at each grade. The tables will usually give an indication of any exposure compensation.

If you find you can not hit G5 with the colour head and built in filtration, using the Ilford filters will not help - Not being able to get G5 is usually an indication that the halogen lamp is in need of replacement (always worth having a couple of spares on the shelf).
 
WHITE PAINT

I recommend you paint your darkroom WHITE, except for the area adjacent to the enlarger which should be flat black.
A white darkroom is much easier to work in than a black one. And your safe light being reflected off the white walls, means you do not need to use as many/much safe lights as in a black darkroom. I used only two 7-1/2 watt bulb safe lights for my darkroom (white walls, floor tiles and counter top). The white surfaces bounced the safe light around so there were no dark spots. It was quite pleasant to use, compared to the cavern of a black darkroom.


re: powdered chemicals.
Mix them OUTSIDE the darkroom, so any chemical dust is not added to the darkroom environment to deal with.
 

The "no change for 00 - 3 1/2, double exposure for 4 - 5" only works with respect to a single, mid-gray tone.

It will give you a good place to start, but it rarely allows you to change contrast and end up with a final print on the first try.

The tables that paul_c5x4 refers to will give you something close to the same thing, but relying on them negates one of the advantages of an infinitely adjustable colour head - it is helpful to not have fixed grades, and to have instead the ability to make slight increases or decreases in the dialed in contrast.
 
You don`t need to keep exposure time constant. And don`t mind if the higher contrast grade exposures are not double (they actually never are!).
You`ll need a proof or test print *almost* every time you made a change in exposure or contrast... unless you were looking for speed.

Maybe not right now, but it is very interesting to use different contrast values on the same print. It means to change the filters or to set the controls to another value without removing the paper. Usually, it`s easier to move the yellow and magenta dials than to open a filter drawer (remove the filter, put another one, and close the drawer)... well, the below-the-lens filters` are easier to handle.

Just print a filtering chart big enough to be readable in the darkroom (as mentioned, you have them into the paper instructions), and hang it near your enlarger. It`s very likely that you`ll use exactly the same filtering steps than the ones on Multigrade filter sets (1/2 steps).

I`d start working (printing); as a starter, you don`t need to make any curve.
 
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Time is constant if you want greys to be the same. Nobody prints to keep grey constant. They print to keep blacks the same or whites the same. Work out a chart . If I remember correctly, when raising contrast, you need more time to keep whites the same, less time when lowering, & the blacks fall where you want.

3.5x, 5x7, 8x10, 11x14, 16x20 in inches all require one stop more exposure than the next lower size. 6x6 negs are different ratio. Doubling time is not the same as opening one stop due to reciprocity failure of the paper.

You will never get a flat print from FB paper by hanging it. Search the archives and you will find methods that do.

RC paper dries flat no matter what.
 
No one has mentioned hypo eliminator to speed washing. Generally, for final prints, using a two bath fix and hypo eliminator is more efficient. First bath fix is older and the second fresh bath removes the residual silver more completely. The prints can be held after the first bath and then they all can be agitated in the second fix bath before the hypo elimination and wash.

Adams used two fix baths and then a combined selenium toner/hypo eliminator bath before the final wash.

Then you need a print drying rack or some other way to dry the prints.

I have a weston quick reading thermometer and then a Kodak color thermometer to backup/check/calibrate the weston.
 
Paterson makes a nice small grain focuser with a sliding cover to keep the mirror clean. Called the Paterson Micro Focus Finder .
 
The combined bath is Rapid Selenium Toner KRST and Hypo Clearing Agent KHCA (not the same as HE-1). KRST has fixer in it so after treatment you need to rinse again and treat in straight KHCA and wash.
 
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