Darkroom country sayings, platitudes and homemaker's golden rules

[nakiaphotos]

I learned not to open the film canister in order to pour the soak water in it.

 

[jp80874]

I learned not to open the film canister in order to pour the soak water in it.

My father taught me that it is a strong person who can admit to such experiences, give a pained laugh and help others avoid at least that error. Welcome to Apug.

John Powers

 

[Laurent]

I started labelling my film sheets this fall (using a Staedler Pigment Liner), after reading "finely focused". The VERY good surprise is that this label shows perfectly on the contact, which means I no longer need to painfully put numbers on the paper (I printed the digits on transparency film using a laser printer). This considerably enhances my throughput.

 

[cmo]

#21 Labels for films to be pushed

When I work in low light conditions I often expose Tri-X like 800 or 1600. At a stationer's I purchased small adhesive label, they are round, about 5mm diameter only; I use them to put color codes on the film canisters. My color code is simple:
- green 400
- yellow 800
- red 1600

When I return to my darkroom I put the film cartridges for 400, 800, 1600 in different boxes with the same colors.

And this is just the result of a mistake... I underdeveloped a film and I got really annoyed.

 

[Robert Hall]

Ok, here is one I have been struggling with for some time and have only recently solved.

I use big paper and it tends to curl in my dry high desert darkroom. This is the case as I am trying to expose it under the enlarger. It is quite expensive and from time to time get poor prints because it wont sit under the easel blades. I have tried to "un" curl it on the edge of the easel but that has issues all its own.

I recently noticed a roll of wrapping paper and thought I could make something like that, using the roll to reverse the curl a bit. So I cut a 28 inch piece of 1/2 inch electrical conduit and found a length of cloth which had a rubber backing as to better hold the photo paper as I rolled it. The cloth is black out cloth from the local fabric store.

It works like a charm. I just have to put the curled edge in against the curl of the pipe and cloth and roll it up just an inch or so. I do that to both sides and viola! I have paper that sits on the easel as it should.