Dark Room - Stand up or sit down

MattKing · Sep 27, 2010

I like to stand and move while I work.

If you are going to design for sitting down, consider carefully how large you intend to print.

Sirius Glass · Sep 27, 2010

I stand. I have added floor padding in the dry darkroom. No padding in the wet darkroom yet.

Steve

Existing Light · Sep 27, 2010

my darkroom is a 30 year old 9x12 foot shed that I inherited from my grandparents after they died. (By inherited, I mean I took before someone else had time to claim it). It's not big enough, I dont think, to need a chair, but I do have a barstool next to small fridge with snacks and drinks. When I get tired of standing, I just sit down, grab a beer and a granola bar, and wait till my feet feel good enough to get up and move around again (It also has slip-resistant paint on the floor for when I had too many drinks and happen to spill Dektol )

Existing Light · Sep 27, 2010

Existing Light said:
my darkroom is a 30 year old 9x12 foot shed that I inherited from my grandparents after they died. (By inherited, I mean I took before someone else had time to claim it). It's not big enough, I dont think, to need a chair, but I do have a barstool next to small fridge with snacks and drinks. When I get tired of standing, I just sit down, grab a beer and a granola bar, and wait till my feet feel good enough to get up and move around again (It also has slip-resistant paint on the floor for when I had too many drinks and happen to spill Dektol )

Edit: I told the story and then forgot to get to my point: I think sitting might be more of a hassle than it's worth unless you have arthritis or some kind of injury or disability. If you have room for one to rest on, I think you should invest in one or hijack one from somewhere in the house (or yard if you live in a place like Lawrence County, Alabama )

Edit Two: I clicked the reply with quote button instead of the edit button... obviously I need to clean out the drinks in my fridge.... I'll get right on that

R gould · Sep 27, 2010

I stand up for the enlarger but sit at the processing bench,Richard

Vincent Brady · Sep 27, 2010

I like using a drawing office stool for some of the of the time. The idea of standing for the whole of the session fills me with dread.

eclarke · Sep 27, 2010

Richard Wasserman said:
I stand at the enlarger and sit while the paper is in the developer tray. I find that little bit of a rest very beneficial.

Yes, me too. I have a nice rolling stool that just slides right along my trays..EC

Mike Wilde · Sep 27, 2010

I am the opposite. I sit at the enlarger (the roof is too low in my basement to alllow my D5XL to go on a stand up height cabinet). I use a low round stool to sit on.

I turn and stand at the sink, or at the roller processor cart, or step into the adjecent laundry whe I am printing 16x20 or larger.

If I am printing RA-4 and just finding the right colour balance for the night, I set the timer, and sit in a lazy boy chair, usually reading to get caught up on periodicals, waiting for the timer to call me as the print rolls out of the dryer.

Once I find my colour balance, the roller processor machine can really bang out prints, and I can twist and feed it without having to rise off of the enlarger stool. Yes, it is a lazy man's set up.

If it is a long session at the trays ( toning, , fix2 with a batch of FB, etc), I half perch on a taller stool that I keep stored just outside my compact 5'x8' darkroom.

To keep my feet happy when standing on what would otherwise be concrete, I claim every white bath mat that my wife wants to throw out once they start to yellow a bit.

removed account4 · Sep 27, 2010

i stand up ...
if i ever sat down in the darkroom i think i might fall asleep
(i have a concrete floor, and have often thought
of getting food service mats but i haven't bothered.
i have done long darkroom sessions and not really had trouble ..)

Martin Aislabie · Sep 27, 2010

I stand while working under the enlarger but have a stool to perch on while rocking prints in the dishes.

Martin

Jeff Kubach · Sep 27, 2010

I usually sit down and when I stand it is always on my head!

Jeff

Ronald Moravec · Sep 27, 2010

Stand to enlarge. Have a tall stool so you can sit or stand in front of the trays.

Counter top should be elbow high less 3". You do not want to bend over. Same for enlarger table.

Been happy with this set up for 30 years.

eddym · Sep 27, 2010

I stand at the enlarger and sink, but sit at the computer to calculate enlarging times and keep my print database.

Wade D · Sep 28, 2010

I sit when loading film into holders and developing in open tanks. Extended time in the dark throws off my balance. Printing and print developing are done standing.

24x30 · Sep 29, 2010

Due to sitting the whole day in my job I'm spineless - I've also to sit in the darkroom. I use a small chair with wheels, but the way is very short. My darkroom has just three and a half square meters. But I have to get up for changing the music. Maybe a subject for another thread which music are you listening in the darkroom?

rudi

pcyco · Sep 29, 2010

hallo

when i learned to be a joiner they said to us " only the shoemakers are sitting during their work"

so i´m standing.

Vaughn · Sep 29, 2010

I have always stood -- with a tall stool at the processing sink for the later hours. Back when I was silver gelatin printing, my printing sessions would usually go for 8 to 12 hours straight. I use the university darkroom, so to look at a print, one needs to go through two doors (the light trap) to get to the light. Out in the light, I'd stand or sit for a long while judging the print and determining my next move. So I did a lot of walking by the end of the session.

Carbon printing is a whole different ball of wax. I'll have things happening in two or three different rooms, then have 30 minutes when nothing is happening (waiting for various stages of the process to finish). So a lot of walking, but also sitting at my desk looking at forums until time to get busy again. I typically start a printing session at 9pm and finish up by 7am. I have to put all my stuff away and get myself out of the way of the 8am photo classes -- I start work at 10am, so I'll head into town for some breakfast.

But my legs are usually pretty beat by the end. Back in my younger days I could pull off two or three sessions like this a week. Now it takes a couple days to really recover from an all-nighter. Recent changes in my situation means that I am a single father to three 13 yr old boys for a week, then a bachelor for a week (then repeat). This means that since my darkroom is 10 miles away, I get lots of sleep one week, then try to cram an all-nighter or two in (along with a couple late-nighters:home by 2 or 3am) the next week.

A motorized tall stool sounds great, but I need the exercise!

But what I really need to get some breakfast and jump on my bike and pedal my ass to work!

Vaughn

H. James Wolf · Sep 29, 2010

I stand at the sink/developing counter but sit at the enlarger. That's primarily a factor of the ceiling height and the enlarger column height. I also find it easier to burn and dodge; that doesn't make much sense but it works for me.

stillsilver · Sep 29, 2010

I stand while printing. I have a footrest so I can shift my weight around a bit. I sit while I develop paper/film. The stool has wheels so scooting along the bench is not a problem.

Mike

Gerald C Koch · Sep 29, 2010

Kevin Caulfield said:
... my darkroom is too small to fit a chair into. Having said that though there are very few processes which take longer than a couple of minutes, so in some ways the sit-down option doesn't make much sense.

Ditto for me. The mats do help with foot fatigue.

guitstik · Sep 29, 2010

I used to hang, upside-down from the ceiling... No, really, I did. When I first started, back in High School, I played football and was big into physical fitness and one of the things we used to do in the gym was inverted sit ups. Since I couldn't get a weight bench in the darkroom I put a bar up and hang from ankle hooks whilst I wait. I found that, depending on where I put the bar, I could reach just about every station.
To be honest tho, I haven't done it in years, that was waaaaaay back when... when I had a dark room, when I was younger, when I was in shape...etc, ad nauseum.

bobwysiwyg · Sep 29, 2010

Sounds like some bat genes in your family tree somewhere.

fotch · Sep 29, 2010

I usually sit at the enlarger, makes it easier to use a focus aid, position the easel, manipulate exposure such as dodging, burning. Everything else, stand up.

redrockcoulee · Sep 29, 2010

My darkroom is a former attic bedroom. I have both a chair and a stool. I stand at the enlarger and at the developing trays if I am printing single sheets but when batch developing or developing film I usually use the stool or at least lean on it. The chair is handy for putting things on or when loading film holders. So basically it is a stand up darkroom with several sit down options.

Iwagoshi · Sep 29, 2010

In my first darkroom, that doubled as a clothes closet, the enlarger was on ciderblocks on the floor, I sat on a cushion. The wetside was the bathroom, rolling around Ciba-tubes on the floor, again sitting on a cushion.
Since..., I've tried stools and chairs but inevitably they were always a pain, eg. when loading film onto a reel; film or can-opener slips out of your hand, you push the stool out of the way to grope around for the film/opener, then try to reacquire stool while holding onto film and opener (in total darkness) and not fall on your ass.

Dark Room - Stand up or sit down

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