Darkroom light for checking exposure and contrast

bonk · Dec 17, 2018

Once I have made a test print, I would like to verify/judge the chosen exposure and contrast.

For that I guess I‘d need fairly good daylight conditions.

But I neither want to leave the darkroom with the wet print nor do I want to turn on the bright daylight lamps in the whole darkroom.

I was thinking of installing some sort of focused spotlight (with little light scattering but still bright) just above the rinsing sink.

What is your approach to this “problem”?

What kind of lamp with what kind of light have you installed where in your darkroom?

pentaxuser · Dec 17, 2018

I ensure that all paper is back in its box and used to use the 100W blue light bulb in the darkroom ceiling which closely replicates daylight. Modern "cold" LED household búlbs at over 5000K probably are closer to daylight than my blue incandescent was. It eventually "blew" and I have a normal 100W incandescent bulb but I should probably convert to a daylight LED bulb

No reason why you should not replicate normal daylight in a darkroom once the paper is protected

pentaxuser

RalphLambrecht · Dec 17, 2018

bonk said:
Once I have made a test print, I would like to verify/judge the chosen exposure and contrast.

For that I guess I‘d need fairly good daylight conditions.

But I neither want to leave the darkroom with the wet print nor do I want to turn on the bright daylight lamps in the whole darkroom.

I was thinking of installing some sort of focused spotlight (with little light scattering but still bright) just above the rinsing sink.

What is your approach to this “problem”?

What kind of lamp with what kind of light have you installed where in your darkroom?

I turn on white lights in the whole darkroom but, I'm sure a small dedicated light box or a small spotlight would work.print contrast and exposure verification should be done in light similar to final presentation lighting.

MattKing · Dec 17, 2018

Ironically, Ralph has a very specific piece of advice on this subject in his book, "Beyond Monochrome".
He (or his co-author) specifies the type of light and, in particular, the intensity.
I always have to look for it in my copy of the book when this subject comes up.
Care to share a pdf of that portion of the book Ralph?

Arklatexian · Dec 17, 2018

RalphLambrecht said:
I turn on white lights in the whole darkroom but, I'm sure a small dedicated light box or a small spotlight would work.print contrast and exposure verification should be done in light similar to final presentation lighting.

I only do B&W in the darkroom and use a spotlight with a rheostat to vary the brightness . Using a graycard, I duplicate the brightness of the wall where I hang finished prints. This is what I view proofs, prints, etc. with. Color temperature is less important than brightness for this.....Regards!

Bill Burk · Dec 17, 2018

pentaxuser said:
I ensure that all paper is back in its box and used to use the 100W blue light bulb in the darkroom ceiling

I do this too. My “white” light in the darkroom is a bare blue colored GE halogen bulb. It’s the only place I use that kind of bulb. Other places I am OK with a standard tungsten or led bulb. But this one darkroom bulb is critical and needs to be the best quality light that you can buy.

MattKing · Dec 17, 2018

Quoting from Ralph's aforementioned book (I hope he doesn't mind):
"I study my prints in the darkroom on a plastic
board next to my sink. It is illuminated to read EV 6
with a lightmeter set to ISO 100/21°. This ensures good
shadow detail in the final print."
You can find that on page 297 of the second edition.

mshchem · Dec 18, 2018

5500K (what it really is who knows) LED flood I bought at Lowes, I use it to judge color prints. Supposed to simulate daylight, it's not super bright.
In a former career we had a 5 foot wide light booth for evaluating color of parts. Flick of a switch you could have 6000K, Tungsten , some sort of florescent. They moved all the industrial design guys, scrapped the light booth.

sterioma · Dec 18, 2018

MattKing said:
Quoting from Ralph's aforementioned book (I hope he doesn't mind):
"I study my prints in the darkroom on a plastic
board next to my sink. It is illuminated to read EV 6
with a lightmeter set to ISO 100/21°. This ensures good
shadow detail in the final print."
You can find that on page 297 of the second edition.

I own a copy of the first edition where I read about this; so I have brought the meter to my shared darkroom once, to find a place that would ready EV 6. That is the place that I now use to evaluate my prints, and it's made a world of difference. I used to have prints that looked good in the darkroom, but way too dark once I brought them home.

If I know that my print is probably be exposed in a darker place in my house I just move about one meter away from the light. Works for me.

Ian Grant · Dec 18, 2018

I currently have a long fluorescent strip light as my main light in my darkroom operated by a light switch by the door. However this is supplemented by 2 three-light ceiling spotlights and one spot is angled for the first fixer bath and the other two of the set the 2nd fixer tray and the first wash tray, these are the lights mostly used while printing and operate on a pull cord across the darkroom giving easy access to the switch. The second set of spotlights illuminate the bench with negatives etc, and where I place the negatives in the holder.

Over the years I've found spotlights like this the best way to evaluate prints, I prefer warm white, I'm about to switch to an LED strip light and the spotlights will be replaced by LEDs as well, the Tungsten Halide bulbs have too short a life.

Ian

revdoc · Dec 18, 2018

My prints improved when I switched from a 100W light to a 60W in my darkroom. The lower light level compensated for print dry-down.

koraks · Dec 18, 2018

I use warm-white LED lighting in my darkroom and simply switch it on to judge test strips and prints. While the intensity is variable across the room and the color temperature is far from ideal to accurately judge color (in toned B&W and in color prints), I have learned to work with it and to judge the differences between my darkroom white light and daylight.

RauschenOderKorn · Dec 18, 2018

I am using a warm-white LED-spot which is installed about 75 cm above the sink.
I have tried with a 5000 K LED spot before, but given the intensity of he spot, it emphasised imperfections in the print which disappeared with drying (like scratches in the emulsion, which were not really there).

darkroommike · Dec 18, 2018

I use a small white light, where I used to work we had one hanging over the fixer tray in a long metal tube, very directional, we could check papers in the fixer tray when others were at the other enlargers in the darkroom, virtually no spill. My current light is adjusted to emulate how the print will look after dry down.

Andrew O'Neill · Dec 18, 2018

I go from safelight to 60W then to 100W. I flip on the 60W lamp while the print is in the fix, then the 100W. By the time the print is up on the wall and squeegeed, my eyes are well adjusted. Works for me.

Doremus Scudder · Dec 18, 2018

The question of light intensity and color temperature for evaluating prints should be related to ideal display conditions. I process only black-and-white and have a mix of daylight (5000+K) and regular tungsten (~3400K) 60W floodlights for my viewing area. This, for me, is the best compromise for displaying prints, i.e., gallery halogen lighting with a mix of daylight coming in through the windows.

For determining correct print exposure, it is important that the light intensity not be too high or low in relation to the end display lighting. Too high and you'll be printing too dark and all that shadow detail you saw under the bright light will just disappear under weaker display lighting. Too weak lighting for evaluation and just the opposite happens; prints look too light and washed out on display.

For color, the standard has always been to evaluate prints under (the appropriate intensity) of daylight. This ensures good color balance even under not-too-dim tungsten lighting since the human eye will automatically compensate (kind of like a built-in white balance). For black-and-white, I find the mix of tungsten/halogen and blue daylight floods to be better for evaluating the subtle effects of toning.

Bottom line: you need to take all this into consideration and make an informed decision for what lighting you desire to evaluate your test strips and prints in order to get an end result that pleases you under the display lighting you prefer/have available.

Best,

Doremus

carioca · Dec 18, 2018

Only a dried down print or test strip will give you the ability to properly judge the correct exposure and rendition. Unless you are very experienced, judging from a still wet test strip can be very misleading.
Once I have found the correct exposure, I dry my test strips with a blow dryer and judge in daylight before printing the final prints.

RalphLambrecht · Dec 18, 2018

MattKing said:
Ironically, Ralph has a very specific piece of advice on this subject in his book, "Beyond Monochrome".
He (or his co-author) specifies the type of light and, in particular, the intensity.
I always have to look for it in my copy of the book when this subject comes up.
Care to share a pdf of that portion of the book Ralph?

whoever sends me an email to rwlambrec@gmail.com will get the chapter for free as a pdf.

Doremus Scudder · Dec 19, 2018

carioca said:
Only a dried down print or test strip will give you the ability to properly judge the correct exposure and rendition. Unless you are very experienced, judging from a still wet test strip can be very misleading.
Once I have found the correct exposure, I dry my test strips with a blow dryer and judge in daylight before printing the final prints.

I concur. I didn't mention it in my post above, but I always dry my last few prints on the way to the final version completely so I can evaluate them as they will appear on display. Drydown is not as predictable and easy to compensate for as some would have you believe (sorry Fred Picker...). I find that the subtle changes in high values between a dry and a wet print justify drying prints completely for evaluation. I judge initial test strips and the first print or so wet, then begin drying all subsequent ones completely. I'll often make several prints with slightly different exposure/development/manipulations, dry them all and hang them on my big illuminated magnetic board and take my time deciding which one(s) I like best. Then I'll go back and make more prints. Believe it or not, I think this method saves time and paper.

Best,

Doremus

Ian Grant · Dec 20, 2018

If you print with warm tone papers and Selenium tone as well there's the additional density change from the toner. I remember a video I had of Ansel Adams, he used a microwave oven to dry test strips to check dry down, a hair-dryer works just as well and is probably a better option.

Ian

Bob Carnie · Dec 20, 2018

I turn on the overhead room lights.

Doremus Scudder · Dec 21, 2018

Ian makes a good point. I find that selenium toning is more apparent under warmer light sources. Sometimes when toning under regular tungsten lighting I'll think I've gone too far, but when the print is viewed under a mix of daylight and tungsten light, it will look just fine, often even without any obvious selenium cast. I try to tone with my mix of regular and daylight bulbs just because of this.

Best,

Doremus

Kawaiithulhu · Dec 22, 2018

From the digital color correcting world, the surrounding area to the monitors is a calibrated neutral gray and the same at every seat, this concept might also apply to a print viewing area where the surrounding backdrop should either be neutral or mimic your final mounting to give the print a context.

Ian Grant · Dec 22, 2018

Bob Carnie said:
I turn on the overhead room lights.

My current problem is using old fashioned Fluorescents as the main lighting, not ideal when printing because of the time to fire up and also lingering glow after turning off, it's also less economic as more power is used switching on than in continuous use.

When I change to an LED strip light I could wire all the lighting together and use the pull cord stretched across the room. This is easily accessed near the enlargers and process trays.

Ian

DREW WILEY · Dec 22, 2018

Ideally, you'd have more than one lighting option around since what counts is matching the lighting the print is finally going to be displayed under. But for critical work like spotting (or evaluating color photographs), I use a set of very high quality 5000K CRI 98 set of tubes made in Germany. I think something analogous is made by Normlicht today. You won't find something like this in a home center or big box store. But the background should not have any noticeable distracting hue, because your vision will automatically render the color bias across the color wheel onto what you are viewing, a physiological effect known as simultaneous complementary contrast. This is important in black and white printing too, because of the effect of toners. And it's not something you can do in the dark or under a safelight. To get a precise idea, you need to see a dry print or test strip anyway. I briefly use a little toaster over for that, at least prior to toning. But actual air drying is really the only recourse for toned potential "keeper" prints, to see if you've got exactly what you intended or not.

Darkroom light for checking exposure and contrast

bonk

pentaxuser

RalphLambrecht

MattKing

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Arklatexian

Bill Burk

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mshchem

sterioma

Ian Grant

revdoc

koraks

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RauschenOderKorn

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Andrew O'Neill

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Doremus Scudder

carioca

RalphLambrecht

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Ian Grant

Bob Carnie

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Ian Grant

DREW WILEY

Darkroom light for checking exposure and contrast

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