Darkroom Portraits (Part 2)

[Neal]

Nice! Reminds me of my darkroom form '81 to '95. The Bride didn't complain but she didn't like it.

Neal Wydra

 

[Black Dog]

My darkroom is temporary, for as long as we rent this house.
It's squeezed in the laundry pretty nicely. The enlarger sits in a shower space.
Bottom right is the laundry sink that meets all my wet stuff needs, so I skipped on building an extended sink, and just have a 'wet table' for trays as visible on the right.
I couldn't pull the 'dunny' out since it isn't mine, so I just built the wet table around it.
There are more racks for stuff top right out of shot.
Behind is a hot water tank and washing machine, so no more space to extend into.
Would be nice to have somewhere to layout prints/negatives etc. to look at but this is it.
View attachment 176634

Good effort in a limited space!

 

[c41]

Thanks Neal, Black Dog. I've since squeezed in another bit of shelving as well, I was getting increasingly nervous storing all my negatives directly above the sink!

My penance is to do all the household laundry - I'm forever challenging my 7 year old daughter if she really needs a third change of clothes that day! - but overall it's a very fair price to pay for a space that makes all the difference for me, I'd be lost without it.

 

[CMoore]

My darkroom is temporary, for as long as we rent this house.
It's squeezed in the laundry pretty nicely. The enlarger sits in a shower space.
Bottom right is the laundry sink that meets all my wet stuff needs, so I skipped on building an extended sink, and just have a 'wet table' for trays as visible on the right.
I couldn't pull the 'dunny' out since it isn't mine, so I just built the wet table around it.
There are more racks for stuff top right out of shot.
Behind is a hot water tank and washing machine, so no more space to extend into.
Would be nice to have somewhere to layout prints/negatives etc. to look at but this is it.
View attachment 176634

C41. I have ALWAYS liked you and the Honest Quality that you bring to APUG. You are one of our Best Members Ever.!
Say.......Old Buddy Old Pal... why not come on over and help organize MY Darkroom...you handsome devil you.

 

[c41]

Lol, maybe I can wash your socks while I'm at it

 

[Black Dog]

Thanks Neal, Black Dog. I've since squeezed in another bit of shelving as well, I was getting increasingly nervous storing all my negatives directly above the sink!

My penance is to do all the household laundry - I'm forever challenging my 7 year old daughter if she really needs a third change of clothes that day! - but overall it's a very fair price to pay for a space that makes all the difference for me, I'd be lost without it.

Yes, you definitely want to avoid that if possible...btw kids ALWAYS need another change of clothes!

 

[narsuitus]

This is my third enlarger for my third darkroom. My first could only handle 35mm film. My second could handle 35mm and 6x6cm film. This one can handle 35mm, 6x6cm, 6x7cm, and 6x9cm film.


Photo Enlarger by Narsuitus, on Flickr

 

[ac12]

This is my third enlarger for my third darkroom. My first could only handle 35mm film. My second could handle 35mm and 6x6cm film. This one can handle 35mm, 6x6cm, 6x7cm, and 6x9cm film.

Photo Enlarger by Narsuitus, on Flickr

N
My first was/is a 6x6. Used 99+% of the time for 35mm.
My second, that I never even used was 6x7. It was replaced by the 4x5 enlarger.
My third which is waiting for the darkroom to setup is 4x5.

 

[David Brown]

Looks like a darkroom! Build-out in our new (old) house. Converted bedroom, but there's hot and cold running water, proper drains, and central AC and heat.

Still got a lot to do: safelights and some other electrical, light-proof the door, build print drying racks, work out some storage issues, and down the line: build a small island to replace that temporary folding table.

 

[JPJackson]

Looks like a darkroom! Build-out in our new (old) house. Converted bedroom, but there's hot and cold running water, proper drains, and central AC and heat.

Still got a lot to do: safelights and some other electrical, light-proof the door, build print drying racks, work out some storage issues, and down the line: build a small island to replace that temporary folding table.
View attachment 186371

Looking nice!

 

[CMoore]

Looks like a darkroom! Build-out in our new (old) house. Converted bedroom, but there's hot and cold running water, proper drains, and central AC and heat.

Still got a lot to do: safelights and some other electrical, light-proof the door, build print drying racks, work out some storage issues, and down the line: build a small island to replace that temporary folding table.
View attachment 186371

Holy Cow.!
VERY nice indeed.

I did something similar, but our bedrooms are nowhere near that big.
Plus, the bedroom that WAS available has windows at The Corner. So i lost A LOT of (the already limited) wall space to glass that i had to cover with 1/2" plywood.

 

[Renato Tonelli]

Looks like a darkroom! Build-out in our new (old) house. Converted bedroom, but there's hot and cold running water, proper drains, and central AC and heat.

Still got a lot to do: safelights and some other electrical, light-proof the door, build print drying racks, work out some storage issues, and down the line: build a small island to replace that temporary folding table.
View attachment 186371

Nice layout - looks like a very comfortable place to work in.

 

[Michael Firstlight]

Darkroom build in progress - far from finished....

The new 'dry-to-dry' wet darkroom is beginning to take shape - but still far from done. After packing up my 25-year old darkroom in the early 2000's, I'm refitting my garage to be a combo darkroom/shooting studio. I had been using the room only a as convertible shooting studio until now - it is about 20x24 feet total. Next, I'm going to insulate the garage door, and/or maybe build a false insulated wall in front of it, finish and paint the walls/ceiling, put down TrafficMaster Allure vinyl plank flooring (light oak), and install a ductless mini-split heat pump to replace the 12,000 BTU portable AC/Heater I've been using for the past few years. Soon entering retirement from my hi-tech career that displaced my job as a full-time staff photographer for a large multi-national long ago, this will become a very active, long term working space for me when I am not out shooting.

My goal is to have a virtually 'dry' wet darkroom. For film processing I picked up a used Phototherm Sidelkick 8 that requires no water or drain hookup. I had Phototherm in Trenton NJ do a 100% overall - which is really a complete rebuild that turns any older Sidekick into an up-to-date Super Sidekick. They pretty much gutted it and replaced virtually everything inside (pump, motherboard, heater etc), so it is effectively a brand new Super Sidekick 8 (save for the outer shell) for less than half the cost of a new Super Sidekick 4 (you can't even buy a new Sidekick 8 anymore). and SSK8 would probably run $8-10K new if they were being manufactured new as the SSK4's are running about $7K new. So, if you want an amazing new Super Sidekick for a relative song, buy a used Sidekick off eBay and have PhotoThrem rebuild it at a fraction of the cost of a new unit. The lead tech at Phototherm, Jerry, is AMAZING and super helpful. Phototherm pretty much stocks all of the parts except for the 8-roll drums. I've got four drums - two 4's and two 8's as well as the 4x5 film insert and put the entire rig on a portable cart with the bottles from US plastics for the chemistry, water, and drainage. I could tap the water line right next to it to provide a continuous cold-water feed later since it sits next to the water heater and easily send the drain tube to simple drain I could set up later, but it’s not necessary with the 5Gal bottles.

For dry-to-dry print processing, I went with something similar - an incredible Fujimoto CP-32 with a W/D unit and replenish unit on a mobile cart. To use the W/D unit I might have to rig up a water feed and drain, but I really don't need any sink, faucet, or temp control units as the Sidekick and Fujimoto both manage precise digital temps. The CP-32 can do up to 11x14, and for anything larger or one offs I can break out the Jobo CPP2 and have some manual tanks and trays for occasional low volume use.

Eventually I'll move the digital side of my workflow into the same room - a Nikon Coolscan 9000 and an Epson 7880 24” printer along and a beast of an i7 workstation that drives them.

It's all a bit ugly right now. I plan to replace the folding 6' foot table with a permanent 30" deep counter top at 42" standing height, and I am currently planning to convert a small portable clothing closet into a transparent sealed/filtered drying cabinet (https://www.homedepot.com/p/Whitmor...w-Protective-Cover-in-Gray-69055955/301827331) and use my single-reel Kinderman film dryer to supply the filtered warm air instead of a Mistral head which are just too expensive; the Kinderman should do the same for a lot less.

I ran the cable for the satellite TV tuner from the adjacent living room into the garage and made a space for a large flat panel HD TV that I use for not only watching TV, but when shooting digitally with my D800 in the room I tether my camera wirelessly to the computer hooked to the flat panel for image preview. My wireless camera transmitter is a really fast one (480Mbps) I built myself for under $75 using a wireless USB2 transmitter/receiver (Nikon's $800 WT still can't beat mine years later). For music, I have a vintage Harmon/Kardon 730 receiver hooked up to a pair of Polk RTi A3 bookshelf speakers that sound great; I'll soon add a little bluetooth adapter to stream music to it from my smartphone.

The goal is a basically a sort of a man-cave for the photographer that I convert for shoots (I've been doing occasional portraits and still life's there for the past several years), darkroom work, post-processing and just plain old hanging out. As a shooting room I use five wireless Paul C. Buff Einstein monolights that have full wireless remote control. I used Bogen telescopic wall booms to mount a sturdy background stand bar and also use them for mounting fixed-position monlights (hair and kickers etc) along with two mobile cushioned stands on rollers - I wanted no no wires anywhere on the floor.

For analog shooting I've returned to shooting a Pentax 67II system. I've got two complete RB67 systems. Great cams, but hardly use the beasts very much. Eventually I'll go back to shooting 4x5 in the field which previously I had only used at work in a previous life. At the moment I'm just shooting and amassing a good deal of exposed film that now needs to be developed

Regards,
MFL

View attachment 192195

View attachment 192202 View attachment 192202

 

[Ai Print]

Slowly but surely getting there.

Here is one of two sinks placed in the wet side area. The sink is 6’ feet and was originally 4” deep but I took about a week to put an 8” extension on it to make it a deep utility sink. The tubing going up the center of the wall is for dedicated chemistry disposal lines, each with their own pump to send spent chemistry to holding tanks in the garage above. Developers and stop bath will be one line and fixer the other.

I wish I could go faster but patience is really paying off on the design and touches. Once the wet side is done I will have 23’ feet of wet only sinks, counter space and basins.

Then it is off to do the dry side with the installation of 3 LPL 4550 XLG enlargers with VCCE heads, the center one wall mounted high to enable printing of 40”x50”.

It’s all very exciting and daunting at the same time....

 

[CMoore]

Holy Christ.!
Some of you guys have Real Big darkrooms. Mine is just a bedroom conversion. Maybe 10x12, with the sink (all 4 feet of it) crammed into what was the closet.
I have seen Pro Labs that did not have darkrooms as nice as what you guys are showing here.

 

[Frank53]

My semi-permanent darkroom in the garage. I have the intention to move it to another room in the house, but for the moment it’s fine. The garage was the most logical place, because the sink was there.
Regards,
Frank

 

[ac12]

Holy Christ.!
Some of you guys have Real Big darkrooms. Mine is just a bedroom conversion. Maybe 10x12, with the sink (all 4 feet of it) crammed into what was the closet.
I have seen Pro Labs that did not have darkrooms as nice as what you guys are showing here.

CM
I'll trade you my 3x7 half bath darkroom for you bedroom conversion.

 

[CMoore]

CM
I'll trade you my 3x7 half bath darkroom for you bedroom conversion.

Touche.....

 

[Phillip Nondorf]

Well after a whole lot of research into so many disparate things such as woodworking, boat building, plumbing, epoxying, and of course darkroom design, I have managed to complete the wet side of my laundry/bathroom darkroom. What started as a closet transformed rapidly from a spot to store my Jobo to a fully plumbed, custom built sink. It was a learning expierence, but here it all is. Now I just need to find an enlarger and figure out where to put it.

First version, worked ok, and let me get straight to processing, but not ideal:

So I removed all of that, built in a bench to hold everything, then build the sink with wood, glue, screws, epoxy filets, and 3 coats of epoxy resin. Pretty sure this thing will outlast me:

So for now the Jobo lives in the sink until I get around to building out the rest of the darkroom.

 

[c41]

Awesome job Phillip, reminds me of my homebrewing days with all that plumbing.
Is that a thermostat of some kind, the box on the left?

 

[Phillip Nondorf]

Awesome job Phillip, reminds me of my homebrewing days with all that plumbing.
Is that a thermostat of some kind, the box on the left?

haha, yeah researching the plumbing definitely got me to some home brewing forums, glad I did too because that's where I learned enough about the sharkbite connections to decide to go with those. Yeah the box is an Intellifaucet K250, it is, simply put, amazing.

 

[Bob Carnie]

So this is my new set up , the exposing side, two Omega Condenser enlarger , one Devere, plus two plate burners, one quite a bit larger to handle bigger sheets.
What is new here is that I am going to replace all the fluorescents with tungsten light so not to harden gum, and now I am able to use all my exposing units in one room and process in the big sinks behind my back.
I am hoping to move my location in Sept 2019 to house a single floor facility where I can do all my work from beginning to end. The Darkroom/Dim room will be designed in a way that I can easily switch from process to process, including film processing and Lambda output easily, I hope to have beside this huge central Process room, my Scanning, Inkjet, Rooms and of course Mounting, Matt Cutting, and Frame Assembly area, which will have a small corner dedicated to a Still Life shooting space.
This will allow me as I age the ability to work on one floor, as well the sinks and workstations will be a low height (Dinesh pipe in here) so as to allow any future wheelchair access, by using floor drains and large water supply from hoses above I will be able to encircle the sinks which will be central for complete access.. I have been designing this work space in my mind for 30 years now and I have pretty much tried every configuration and I think I have a good handle .
You will notice the metal shelving.. this stuff is amazing in application and I plan to use it extensively to hold sinks, Scan Station, Computer Stations , and storage combined.

I plan to continue working for at least another 25 years and beyond, I have enough image content to keep working and I have a few dedicated clients who want this to happen. The Darkroom has been my constant companion, much a part of my life as my family. Luckily my wife is a darkroom worker so she supports this crazy Idea.. we all have heard of freedom 55 from the Banks propaganda.. Screw that freedom 95 is where its at.

 

[Ai Print]

View attachment 193314 So this is my new set up , the exposing side, two Omega Condenser enlarger , one Devere, plus two plate burners, one quite a bit larger to handle bigger sheets.
What is new here is that I am going to replace all the fluorescents with tungsten light so not to harden gum, and now I am able to use all my exposing units in one room and process in the big sinks behind my back.
I am hoping to move my location in Sept 2019 to house a single floor facility where I can do all my work from beginning to end. The Darkroom/Dim room will be designed in a way that I can easily switch from process to process, including film processing and Lambda output easily, I hope to have beside this huge central Process room, my Scanning, Inkjet, Rooms and of course Mounting, Matt Cutting, and Frame Assembly area, which will have a small corner dedicated to a Still Life shooting space.
This will allow me as I age the ability to work on one floor, as well the sinks and workstations will be a low height (Dinesh pipe in here) so as to allow any future wheelchair access, by using floor drains and large water supply from hoses above I will be able to encircle the sinks which will be central for complete access.. I have been designing this work space in my mind for 30 years now and I have pretty much tried every configuration and I think I have a good handle .
You will notice the metal shelving.. this stuff is amazing in application and I plan to use it extensively to hold sinks, Scan Station, Computer Stations , and storage combined.

I plan to continue working for at least another 25 years and beyond, I have enough image content to keep working and I have a few dedicated clients who want this to happen. The Darkroom has been my constant companion, much a part of my life as my family. Luckily my wife is a darkroom worker so she supports this crazy Idea.. we all have heard of freedom 55 from the Banks propaganda.. Screw that freedom 95 is where its at.

This is really great insight Bob, I wish you many very creative and healthy years of producing fine work in this space.

These are the Good Old Days!

 

[mooseontheloose]

View attachment 193314 So this is my new set up , the exposing side, two Omega Condenser enlarger , one Devere, plus two plate burners, one quite a bit larger to handle bigger sheets.
What is new here is that I am going to replace all the fluorescents with tungsten light so not to harden gum, and now I am able to use all my exposing units in one room and process in the big sinks behind my back.
I am hoping to move my location in Sept 2019 to house a single floor facility where I can do all my work from beginning to end. The Darkroom/Dim room will be designed in a way that I can easily switch from process to process, including film processing and Lambda output easily, I hope to have beside this huge central Process room, my Scanning, Inkjet, Rooms and of course Mounting, Matt Cutting, and Frame Assembly area, which will have a small corner dedicated to a Still Life shooting space.
This will allow me as I age the ability to work on one floor, as well the sinks and workstations will be a low height (Dinesh pipe in here) so as to allow any future wheelchair access, by using floor drains and large water supply from hoses above I will be able to encircle the sinks which will be central for complete access.. I have been designing this work space in my mind for 30 years now and I have pretty much tried every configuration and I think I have a good handle .
You will notice the metal shelving.. this stuff is amazing in application and I plan to use it extensively to hold sinks, Scan Station, Computer Stations , and storage combined.

I plan to continue working for at least another 25 years and beyond, I have enough image content to keep working and I have a few dedicated clients who want this to happen. The Darkroom has been my constant companion, much a part of my life as my family. Luckily my wife is a darkroom worker so she supports this crazy Idea.. we all have heard of freedom 55 from the Banks propaganda.. Screw that freedom 95 is where its at.

Looks amazing Bob - you are living my (professional) dream life - I would love to have access to a darkroom like that! As it is I feel there are some processes that I probably will never be able to do with my current set-up.

 

[mpirie]

Wow....now that's man's enlarger !!