Darkroom: Best Practices and Efficiencies

Grayjohn900 · 2025-11-15T17:04:11-0500

Hello Photrio Community,

I have finally fully invested in a darkroom and I am now looking to start mass-printing my catalog of negatives in a home darkroom.

I wanted to take a moment to ask the community on what are their best practices and efficiencies when it comes to home darkroom workflow. I’d love to hear your “tips and tricks” and how you have gradually refined your process and technique over the years with equipment just shy of using commercial laboratory equipment.

Some topics I was interested in knowing:

Process for contact printing,
Printing in mass (10+ prints in 1 session)
Tray vs print drums
How many processing tanks do you have
Your workflow for archival prints
Screendryer vs electric dryer vs hang drying

I’d really like to learn some best practices and efficiencies to incorporate into my own workflow and appreciate any insight you can provide!

cliveh · 2025-11-15T17:25:56-0500

Are you printing colour or black & white?

ic-racer · 2025-11-15T17:26:28-0500

Well, I’m sure everybody’s a little bit different as the workflow usually mirrors the intended outcomes. For example on my case, I only make fine prints so I really don’t have time to make contact prints or anything other than just the fine prints.

Grayjohn900 · 2025-11-15T17:28:02-0500

cliveh said:
Are you printing colour or black & white?

Thank you - I do both but was really interested to know what your process is for whichever format you use

Thank you!

Grayjohn900 · 2025-11-15T17:30:50-0500

ic-racer said:
Well, I’m sure everybody’s a little bit different as the workflow usually mirrors the intended outcomes. For example on my case, I only make fine prints so I really don’t have time to make contact prints or anything other than just the fine prints.

Interesting - so what’s your process for selecting the print you’d like to enlarge? I sometimes find it difficult to choose if viewing the negative on a light table. What has helped me is turning on the “invert” feature on my phones accessibility settings so I can click my side button 3 times to invert - which means I can hover my phone over the light table and quickly see what the photo looks like

For me, I think the contact print helps more on the archiving end personally

ic-racer · 2025-11-15T17:43:07-0500

I put all my negatives in clear plastic sleeves and choose the ones to print by viewing them on a light table.

For BW film processing I use Jobo cpp2.

Archival wash per Ilford instructions.

Print drying on screens and print flattening with a dry mount press.

Bill Burk · 2025-11-15T18:04:29-0500

Mass printing is always a disaster.

Most recently I picked up a “three strips of 6” negative carrier that slides side to side giving 18 shots on two pieces of paper, four sheets to print a roll. But at that rate they’re like big contact prints.

The best routine is to stick with a size. 11x14 is a good size. Work on two or three negatives in a session, hope to make four or five good prints.

Always start with a test strip. Invariably disappointing every time you try to just “use the same print time as last print”.

I take notes as I go. Someday it may help me reprint a photo. So far it’s been note taking its own sake.

Negative development notes have helped me hone in on development times. But for prints I just keep moving forward.

loccdor · 2025-11-15T19:09:14-0500

If you scan your work and post it online:

Date the work in your online post, and
date the negatives in your printfile page.
If you can, keep the pages in a binder in date-order or at least close to it.

Makes things so much easier to find.

bdial · 2025-11-15T19:28:54-0500

1. Be anal about dust.
2 Wipe down everything when you wrap up a darkroom session. Fixer (and other chemistry) has a way of splattering to amazing places. The splatters dry to become little white spots, ready to cause all sorts of problems.

Grayjohn900 · 2025-11-15T19:34:27-0500

ic-racer said:
I put all my negatives in clear plastic sleeves and choose the ones to print by viewing them on a light table.

For BW film processing I use Jobo cpp2.

Archival wash per Ilford instructions.

Print drying on screens and print flattening with a dry mount press.

Nice- I have a Jobo with print drums as well, but find myself a little Limited when wanting to process more than 2 prints in a 2830 - unless I wait for the drum to dry

How do you get your drum to dry? It’s a great system overall but I do find it a little limiting when I want to continuously print things all day

Grayjohn900 · 2025-11-15T19:35:34-0500

Bill Burk said:
Mass printing is always a disaster.

Most recently I picked up a “three strips of 6” negative carrier that slides side to side giving 18 shots on two pieces of paper, four sheets to print a roll. But at that rate they’re like big contact prints.

The best routine is to stick with a size. 11x14 is a good size. Work on two or three negatives in a session, hope to make four or five good prints.

Always start with a test strip. Invariably disappointing every time you try to just “use the same print time as last print”.

I take notes as I go. Someday it may help me reprint a photo. So far it’s been note taking its own sake.

Negative development notes have helped me hone in on development times. But for prints I just keep moving forward.

I was looking at purchasing something like this! I believe it’s called a “gang” negative carrier

How do you like it? Do you find it worth it? I was trying to figure out the application for the item and would love to know your thoughts

Grayjohn900 · 2025-11-15T19:38:01-0500

loccdor said:
If you scan your work and post it online:

Date the work in your online post, and
date the negatives in your printfile page.
If you can, keep the pages in a binder in date-order or at least close to it.

Makes things so much easier to find.

Great advice! I try to put more in the metadata now when scanning. I started with a cinestill/Valoi set which I liked. I heard great things about negative supply so I bought one too but wasn’t too fond of the copy stand and splurged on a Kaiser rs1(which I love)

Generally I try to develop the film, scan it, then print in the darkroom. It’s a lengthy process which got me wondering about workflows

Grayjohn900 · 2025-11-15T19:39:55-0500

bdial said:
1. Be anal about dust.
2 Wipe down everything when you wrap up a darkroom session. Fixer (and other chemistry) has a way of splattering to amazing places. The splatters dry to become little white spots, ready to cause all sorts of problems.

I just got a glass carrier and this is what I’m reading

Any suggestions on items to use? I heard great things about the Ilford multi static cloth so I got one coming in the mail. Some kinetronics gloves too

I was wondering about the kinetronics anti static brush

For me this is doubly useful because I scan and print the negatives

Craig · 2025-11-15T20:09:28-0500

I have the RH Designs Zonemaster and Stopclock. The first is a lightmeter (and more) and the second is an F stop timer. Expensive, but worth it. The plug into each other, so when I take light readings it shows me where the tones will fall on a greyscale and and the paper grade needed to fit those greys on the paper. I can adjust the contrast or exposure and shows how the tones will move from white to black. It transfers the time as it changes to the timer, so everything is automatic. You can calibrate it to the paper you are using.

Instead of adjusting the time in seconds, it adjusts in stops. Once you're used to it, it makes for a better way to print I think. It can be adjusted in increments from 1/24 to 1/4 stops.

Since getting these, I found I can usually get the print I want in 1-2 test strips now. The meter gets me very close to the final exposure and contrast quite quickly.

I think the Analyiser Pro now combines both the timer and zonemaster into one box.

Home Page - RH Designs

Analyser Pro/500 Stopclock Timers ZoneMaster IIm Timer 3 ProcessMaster II PaperFlasher II SafeTorch Range Accessories

rhdesigns.co.uk

Grayjohn900 · 2025-11-15T20:18:22-0500

Craig said:
I have the RH Designs Zonemaster and Stopclock. The first is a lightmeter (and more) and the second is an F stop timer. Expensive, but worth it. The plug into each other, so when I take light readings it shows me where the tones will fall on a greyscale and and the paper grade needed to fit those greys on the paper. I can adjust the contrast or exposure and shows how the tones will move from white to black. It transfers the time as it changes to the timer, so everything is automatic. You can calibrate it to the paper you are using.

Instead of adjusting the time in seconds, it adjusts in stops. Once you're used to it, it makes for a better way to print I think. It can be adjusted in increments from 1/24 to 1/4 stops.

Since getting these, I found I can usually get the print I want in 1-2 test strips now. The meter gets me very close to the final exposure and contrast quite quickly.

I think the Analyiser Pro now combines both the timer and zonemaster into one box.

Home Page - RH Designs

Analyser Pro/500 Stopclock Timers ZoneMaster IIm Timer 3 ProcessMaster II PaperFlasher II SafeTorch Range Accessories

rhdesigns.co.uk

Just who I need to speak to!

I have a stop clock pro too - and wanted to buy the zone master attachment - does it power directly from the stop clock pro? I emailed rh designs but never got a response back. I’m in the US where it’s 110v so I wanted to know if I needed a us version for the grid here

Any recommendations on tutorials you’ve seen? I haven’t found much on YouTube sadly

Craig · 2025-11-15T20:42:57-0500

The Zonemaster runs on a 9V battery, so it's independent of the mains voltage.

I haven't looked for any tutorials, I found the instruction book to be quite comprehensive.

Grayjohn900 · 2025-11-15T20:57:22-0500

Craig said:
The Zonemaster runs on a 9V battery, so it's independent of the mains voltage.

I haven't looked for any tutorials, I found the instruction book to be quite comprehensive.

Thank you Craig! Ordering the zone master now!

brian steinberger · 2025-11-15T22:34:41-0500

I scan every frame of film I shoot. I can see quickly in Photoshop if I need to crop, and then I can do simple dodging and burning. I then live with my favorite scans for a while before deciding whether it’s worth printing or not. I just look at them on my phone in my spare time. This works really well for me. Also when I go into the darkroom I shoot for something close to the file I’ve been looking at for a while on my phone/computer. If done right in the darkroom the print will far exceed my scan. Always a good feeling.

bernard_L · 2025-11-16T06:32:32-0500

Grayjohn900 said:
Thank you Craig! Ordering the zone master now!

Disclaimer: I don't own one. I do have an old Philips device with a CdS meter (!) and analog rotating disk "calculator"(!!) that has the same purpose --propose suitable grade and exposure.
But... I have doubts about the claims:

Banish the Test Strip!
... so you can place important tones and preview the look of the print

The final print is evaluated according to the relation between the tones of the various parts, seen simultaneously in their mutual relation. No machine can replace your eye+brain in that respect.

A well designed meter (like the ZoneMaster presumably is) will save you the time wasted in the preliminary test strips, and zero in on a decent choice of grade and exposure for your first evaluation print; at that stage I like to use "large test strips", typically 1/3 of the full area, sampling properly chosen regions.

A physical contact sheet is also helpful for the same purpose, showing how the various frames differ in required grade and exposure. Be mindful, however, of the Callier effect when transposing contact sheet grade to enlarging grade.

Klaus Mähring · 2025-11-16T06:53:03-0500

For printing in masse: If I do colour, I like to work parallel on two enlargers. While the one print is going through the processor (~7 min.), I can work on the other....

A good antistatic brush/system is a blessing!

Darkroom: Best Practices and Efficiencies

Banish the Test Strip!​

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