Darkroom Portraits (Part 2)

Sean · Apr 24, 2012

Splitting the large portraits thread (also, keep in mind we have a gallery category for this as well: (there was a url link here which no longer exists) ).

The original thread post below from Argentic:

Darkroom portraits

The first darkroom you build for an enemy.
The second one you build for a friend.
And the third one you build for yourself.

Until now I have built five darkrooms. But there are still things to improve. And everytime I study other peoples darkrooms, I learn one or two nice tricks.

Would you mind posting some images of your darkroom? I'll start with mine. I use it one day every week. And even after about twenty years of darkroom work, I still want to change things. (That's why I got the idea of this thread.) My desktop is very cluttered because I'm in the middle of a rearranging my darkroom.

MattKing · Apr 24, 2012

Thanks Sean

For those who would like to look through the closed, first part of this thread, here is the link: (there was a url link here which no longer exists)

This may not be as important for two parts of a "Sticky" thread as in other cases

SMBooth · Apr 25, 2012

Timely reminder that this resource is here. I'm in the stage of wiring up my darkroom/bathroom and wondering where to put the safe light. I was think of hanging it over the sink (700mm x 2700mm) but at the left end which is were the developer tray is. That way it also will light up the bench to the left. Thoughts, attach is PDF is layout.

MattKing · Apr 26, 2012

Shane:

Whatever you decide, try to make sure that you won't find yourself having to work in your own shadow either at the sink or elsewhere (paper storage/cutter, easel).

Somewhere in a corner that results in light being reflected off of large surfaces tends to work well.

Katie · Apr 26, 2012

Not sure that I ever posted shots of mine ... here are a few. Excuse the explanation captions, I had those on for some people that didn't have a darkroom and probably didn't know what half the stuff in there was.

*just saw a typo on my explanation - said Ilford 300, when should have said Ilford 500H! Doh!

zsas · Apr 26, 2012

Beautiful DR Katie! You could have at least taken the vestments off the enlarger for a picture

Katie · Apr 26, 2012

Yeah - I was rushed and forgot. I'll do it next time!

ParkerSmithPhoto · May 3, 2012

Yeah! Don't hide that Omega from us. You need more sink. You can never have too much sinkage.

EDIT: this was my 300th post; I am embarrassed that I didn't make better use of it!

Katie · May 3, 2012

ParkerSmithPhoto said:
Yeah! Don't hide that Omega from us. You need more sink. You can never have too much sinkage.

EDIT: this was my 300th post; I am embarrassed that I didn't make better use of it!

I got that sink for $40!

Happy 400th Parker! Tell the doggies hi!

mr rusty · May 14, 2012

Here's some pix of my little darkroom - only 4' x 6'6", but it works for me. I made my sink - ply and epoxy coated. Wish I had more space, but hey! I do have an office adjacent that I can use for any non-darkroom work.

O HanraHanrahan · May 14, 2012

Here is our Kitchen Darkroom

Davec101 · May 22, 2012

Darkroom Pictures update

I posted some pictures a couple of years ago of my dark/lightroom for alternative processes when it was brand new (see profile gallery). Have had a few updates to the equipment and have finally got it to a stage where I am happy with it, some pics below.

Coating Area

Exposure Unit (42x32 inch vacuum frame)

ParkerSmithPhoto · May 26, 2012

Davec101 said:
I posted some pictures a couple of years ago of my dark/lightroom for alternative processes when it was brand new (see profile gallery). Have had a few updates to the equipment and have finally got it to a stage where I am happy with it, some pics below.

Wow. That's a beautiful space, very zen.

You have the Irving Penn portrait of Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn on the wall there for inspiration. I flew up to DC in 2005 to see the exhibit of Irving Penn's Platinum prints and it was one of the greatest art experiences of my life. There will never be another like Irving, but we can try. His book "Passage" is the most beloved in my photo library.

Davec101 · May 29, 2012

ParkerSmithPhoto said:
Wow. That's a beautiful space, very zen.

You have the Irving Penn portrait of Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn on the wall there for inspiration. I flew up to DC in 2005 to see the exhibit of Irving Penn's Platinum prints and it was one of the greatest art experiences of my life. There will never be another like Irving, but we can try. His book "Passage" is the most beloved in my photo library.

Hi Parker

I try and keep it as tidy as possible as it helps me concentrate when doing large prints. Yes i have that picture of Lisa there for inspiration; it is one of my favourite images by Penn. I have tried to view as many original Platinum/Palladium Penn prints as possible, i would have loved to have seen the Exhibition at the National Gallery, it must have been really quite special. I believe they have the largest collection of Penn prints, i must try and visit them at some stage. I have 'Passage' its definitely one of best collections of his work, reproduction is good too.

Am sure you must have bought the book Platinum Prints that accompanied the exhibition, its one of my most read books, the essay by Sarah Greenough is very insightful. The books pretty expensive now if you can find it. The reproduction is good however its obviously never going to be as good as the viewing the originals, I compared the reproductions in the book to the original on my blog here :

Terry Christian · Jun 5, 2012

Well, this is my basically my first attempt at a darkroom. I've only been printing for about a year so far, so everything's rather embryonic at this point. A few years ago, the crazy cat lady who lived in the house across the street died (of emphysema, go figure!), and her son sold us that house for relatively cheap. It needs a horrendous amount of work done on it -- painting the walls, replacing the corroded vents, refinishing the ruined hardwood floors, replacing the toilets and fixtures, completely redoing the kitchen, etc. -- but in the meantime I decided to use it as a darkroom. I started out using a small interior room, but since the house only has air conditioning in the master bedroom, a window unit, I moved everything to it recently.

On the table are my Omega D2 and Beseler MCRX enlargers. I use the Omega and don't have lensboards and carriers for the Beseler yet, so the Beseler currently gets used as a support for some clamp-mounted safelights. On the far right are stored drying screens, trays, and a table where I lay out the trays of chemistry. I use the hall bathroom's sink and bathtub for washing prints. I develop film in the bathroom of my own house.

Hopefully, as we get the crazy cat lady house refurbished, I can make a more professional and suitable darkroom.

Mark_S · Jul 1, 2012

Sean said:
Splitting the large portraits thread (also, keep in mind we have a gallery category for this as well: (there was a url link here which no longer exists) ).

The original thread post below from Argentic:

Darkroom portraits

The first darkroom you build for an enemy.
The second one you build for a friend.
And the third one you build for yourself.

.

I too have built several darkrooms. I built one which I loved in the basement of my home in Maine, but left that behind 3 years ago when I moved to California. I used rental darkrooms for a while, but for a variety of reasons, those were not working out, so I built a new, temporary darkroom. Since we are renting in CA, this made it impossible to do some things that I would have liked to, and here in CA, we have much less space, so the darkroom is in about half the area that my last one was in - the new darkroom is 8'x10'. It is built as a free standing structure within the garage of our rented home, so when we move next, we will be able to disassemble it and bring it with us. For power, I have two power feeds - I get a little bit of power from the existing electric in the garage, but that was not going to be enough for everything, so I also put in a sub panel, which powers the enlarger, the print dryers and some misc other stuff - that is powered by an extension cord which plugs into the dryer outlet- so I can't print and do laundry at the same time. Water comes from a connection to a faucet in the garden....

One improvement over my last darkroom is that I built a cabinet to hold my Jobo processor - I had been storing it under my sink and putting it in the sink when processing, but it is getting elderly, and they were not really built to be moved around a lot, so I think that it is happier in it's own cabinet. There is storage below the processor for the drums, bottles etc.

mryoda · Jul 2, 2012

Everyones elses puts my Darkroom to shame lol
This is my first and took a week to make light safe!
Its my 8` x 6` Shed

ParkerSmithPhoto · Jul 2, 2012

mryoda said:
Its my 8` x 6` Shed

Man, that's a tight fit! Next time, maybe you could squeeze into a phone booth.

mryoda · Jul 2, 2012

Its ok when you are in there on your own, more than me and its a proper jam,
When i get some more time and energy i will change it into a brick shed/ darkroom

Kav · Jul 4, 2012

Here's my humble dark room in my bathroom/laundry room.

Currently set up with the following:
Besler Dichro 672S enlarger that is only set up for 35mm. (I would love to get/find the mixing chamber/negative carriers for 6x6)
Metal suitcase enlarger
Unicolor timer with foot control
Old Contact Printer
8x10 & 16x20 inch easels
8x10 & 16x20 inch trays
Dry chemicals in the cabinet
Daylight developing tanks for 35mm, medium format and 4x5 in the cabinet as well.
I use my shower as a print washer (it's behind the door)

I can print up to 16x20 in here with out a lot of drama. I would love to get a 4x5 enlarger in here and/or a Graflarger back for my Speed Graphic. I tend to develop stuff for work while on the road. I was just given the old steel suitcase enlarger and the contact printer. A Graflarger would round out my portable darkroom. I can only contact print my 4x5 unless I want to get crafty with the other enlarger, even then I only enlarge so much of the big negatives at a time.

SMBooth · Jul 20, 2012

Dry Benches going in.

Finished the office, now I can work on the darkroom. Room is 2m x 4m approx, Sink will extend from right hand bench for 2.4m.

JoJo · Jul 20, 2012

Hi,

I set up my darkroom 3 years ago and started with a Durst M70 color. Meanwhile I added an M805 for lager format.
I use both enlargers, because working is much easier, for example pre-exposuring paper for contrast control.
Developing of smaller formats is in trays, for larger formats I use a Fujimoto CP-31, which is placed on a rollable table.
I do mostly RA-4 colour printing. Negatives C-41 and Slides E-6 are developed in a Jobo CPE2 with lift.
A sink with running water is located in the garage nearby.
I was lucky and could use a big room of about 15m2.
Rolls of papers are stored in an extra room in the cellar, where temperature is low.

Joachim

Trond · Jul 20, 2012

Nice darkroom Joachim! Interesting that you mostly print colour.

Trond

jbrianfoto · Jul 21, 2012

Here's my B/W lab - been at it for over a year - now I'm processing film again. In there you'll see the 10X10 Durst L184 with 1414 cold light, an auto focus DeVere 504 (with ZBE controller and Ilford 600H V/C head) - film processing line with nitrogen burst agitation, paper processing sink, film dryer and big custom table that folds open on one side to allow use of Seal 500TX press. I still have things to finish up on, like building a print drying rack and some duck boards for the sinks. I have a power amp for my stereo, but still need a preamp and a tuner, gotta have music in the lab.

Bob Carnie · Jul 21, 2012

Looks great... can't agree more about the music .

jbrianfoto said:
Here's my B/W lab - been at it for over a year - now I'm processing film again. In there you'll see the 10X10 Durst L184 with 1414 cold light, an auto focus DeVere 504 (with ZBE controller and Ilford 600H V/C head) - film processing line with nitrogen burst agitation, paper processing sink, film dryer and big custom table that folds open on one side to allow use of Seal 500TX press. I still have things to finish up on, like building a print drying rack and some duck boards for the sinks. I have a power amp for my stereo, but still need a preamp and a tuner, gotta have music in the lab.

Darkroom Portraits (Part 2)

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