Darkroom aprons & safety glasses

Curt · Oct 18, 2013

Tell me what you have, if any, and why it works for you. T-Shirt & Jeans to the big heavy rubber coated ones, what's your choice and what's your price point?

Safety glasses, shields, slip over's, for those who wear glasses what your choice there. A splash of acetone on plastic lenses could ruin a nice day, not to mention the eye? For those who don't wear glasses do you wear goggles etc.?

BMbikerider · Oct 18, 2013

Old(ish) clothes so if they get splashed it doesn't really matter, and although I wear glasses I don't in the darkroom - they get in the way and I am short sighted anyway. Plus with 50 years working in a darkroom I have never splashed my eyes with any chemical. I have never used acetone in the darkroom at all so that presents no risk.

My workshop is a different matter, Goggles when I am grinding metal or turning wood, Earplugs when I'm doing something noisy and gloves when I am working in the garden or dealing with bricks or cement. Just common sense and what risks I think may be present.

Rick A · Oct 18, 2013

No safety gear other than careful use of my chems and such. I mix powdered chems outside on my back porch, and the chems I use are low/no odor except toners. I do most of my toning outdoors as well. I do however use nitrile gloves when using pyro developers and selenium toning.

hoffy · Oct 18, 2013

Shorts, Singlet and barefeet (or flip flops)

mrred · Oct 18, 2013

mostly nothing special until I need to mix. Because I do a fair amount of reversals I handle bisulphate,dichromate and sulfuric acid. That brings out the gloves, glasses (to be able to read as well), mask and sometimes the apron.

lightwisps · Oct 18, 2013

I have found that not diving into the trays and splashing around is all the safety measures I have to take. Just wear old jeans and a sweatshirt and use tongs to keep finger prints off everything and keep cross contamination out of the picture works well for me.

pdeeh · Oct 18, 2013

Latex rubber all-in-one catsuit and a gasmask.

Not because of the chemicals, mind you, I'm just a perve ...

AgX · Oct 18, 2013

"a splash of acetone"

Where in darkroom work acetone is used?

(I have handled 1L metal containers of acetone (for surface cleaning) in my DIY workshop in the past without any face protection. Though by becoming presbyoptic at least a most basic eye-protection is know inherent to me... my glasses)

To highten protection I use a pair of safety glasses with a slight rim to go over my standard glasses. I do not use googles with skin cintact, nor do I (yet) use safety glasses with correcting lenses.

gone · Oct 18, 2013

Latex gloves and my eyeglasses (to see with and to protect my eyes). If mixing D76, I'll don a bandanna too, although after reading Rick's post I'll start going out on the back porch. Sounds safer. Might even attempt measure it out for one-shot that way. Always wanted to try that. Maybe a dedicated food processor to mix it up well first hand before divving it up into one-shot portions? That would be great having one-shot D76.

Dinesh · Oct 18, 2013

pdeeh said:
Latex rubber all-in-one catsuit and a gasmask.

Not because of the chemicals, mind you, I'm just a perve ...

Very sensible but you are neglecting the balaclava with the eyes sewn shut and zippered mouth.

Clay2 · Oct 18, 2013

White lab coat from my university days, (kinda neutral grey now).

/Clay

jstraw · Oct 18, 2013

Nitrile gloves for developing film and mixing chemistry. Tongs for printing. No other safety gear.

winger · Oct 18, 2013

I'm mostly a jeans and T-shirt/sweatshirt girl anyway, so I have a few pairs of jeans that are less publicly presentable than others (mainly holes in the knees, not revealing ones). Those are the ones I wear for darkroom use and hiking. I tend to wear dark shirts that I don't care as much about as well. I've discovered that anything light colored is more likely to attract stains (and there's the chance of reflecting more light from the enlarger back onto the print during exposure). I've occasionally worn an apron or lab coat, but that's mostly when I do Mordançage. No glasses, no goggles - they obscure my vision and I'm very careful about not having airborne chemicals. As I age, my vision is getting slightly worse, so this will likely change in the next few years. I do have a tendency to wipe my hands on my pants, so I prefer denim as it's pretty hardy and more protective than many fabrics (what I wore at the lab, too).

fotch · Oct 18, 2013

I use a light weight apron (plastic?) when mixing chemicals to avoid stains. They use to sell these for darkroom use, check around. If I needed eye protection, I would done safety goggles if needed but don't think it is needed for most prepackaged chemicals.

removed account4 · Oct 18, 2013

rubber apron
vapor mask ( the one with the canisters on the sides )
latex gloves
and sometimes goggles ..

the mask because in college i didn't want to get too fumed-out in a small darkroom
huffing etherfumes and rubber cement isn't much fun ...
latex gloves mainly because i stick my hands in the soup often, and don't want my soft skin to be abused ...

pgomena · Oct 18, 2013

Nitrile gloves when developing film in Pyro developers (whether tray processing sheet film or roll film in stainless tanks), tongs for prints in trays. I usually wear a plastic apron and old clothes. I now buy all my developers as pre-mixed concentrates, but when I mixed PMK from dry chemicals I wore a dusk mask and worked in an open garage. Long gone are the days when I stuck my hands into the film or print developer. I've known a few people who have suffered from photographic chemical allergies, and I want to be able to work in the darkroom for as long as I possibly can.

paul_c5x4 · Oct 18, 2013

pdeeh said:
Latex rubber all-in-one catsuit and a gasmask.

Not because of the chemicals, mind you, I'm just a perve...

Reminds me of an old girlfriend :w00t:

ROL · Oct 18, 2013

My main concern is working with pyro or mixing chemicals. I wear nitrile gloves, long sleeve shirt, Freestyle apron, and eyeglasses (in the dark) to prevent errant splashes when developing film. In general, I wear the apron, which is not strictly necessary except when processing very large prints (but makes me feel like a real photographer), and running shoes for support for normal enlarging and developing activities. OTOH, I load LF film holders while completely naked* – to protect the film!

All seriousness aside, keeping a clean and organized workspace may be the best policy in promoting safety.

* Just kidding, I wear shoes...

heterolysis · Oct 18, 2013

I use latex gloves constantly in the darkroom. Keeps fingerprints off of things and saves my skin when I wash my hands 10000 times.

I keep safety glasses and a lab coat on hand for mixing/pouring large batches of chemistry (5L C-41 kits and the like).

Truzi · Oct 18, 2013

I wear old cloths - jeans and t-shirt, when developing. I have some Pyrocat HD I've not cracked open yet, and I will use rubber gloves when I finally decide to experiment with that.

Paul Glover · Oct 18, 2013

Cotton shorts or sweatpants and a ratty old black t-shirt (chosen mostly so I don't act as a fill-in reflector during printing!). A nitrile or vinyl glove on one hand for handling prints during processing, which I can deal with one-handed at the sizes I print now.

No goggles, just my glasses. As a related aside: I remember in school us 4-eyed folks always being exempt from wearing the big safety goggles in high school chemistry and wood/metal working classes because "our eyes were already covered". I'm sure OSHA/HSE would get all grumpy cat about that these days, so that might not be normal any more. But, the practice stuck with me.

John Koehrer · Oct 18, 2013

Full body condom ala Woody Allen.

pentaxuser · Oct 18, 2013

pdeeh said:
Latex rubber all-in-one catsuit and a gasmask.

Sounds like Emma Peel meets Quatermass

pentaxuser

cliveh · Oct 18, 2013

Health and safety gone mad. The thought of wearing safety glasses in a darkroom and destroying your peripheral vision, you will probably trip over and break your leg.

pdeeh · Oct 18, 2013

no chance of that in mine, it's 3 feet square

Darkroom aprons & safety glasses

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